Nightmare Fuel: What is Skibidi Toilet, How it demos a non-narrative future

Summary

Introduction Skibidi Toilet began as an animated YouTube Web series early in 2023 that quickly spiralled into a wildly popular cultural phenomenon sprouting fandoms, wikis, threads, merchandise, and its very own moral panic (McKinnon and Harmon). It has recently grabbed the attention of Hollywood, and there are rumours that it is on its way to TV and a possible film treatment by Michael Bay (Wallenstein and Steiner). The episodes are short, surreal videos featuring bizarre, monstrous characters embroiled in violent clashes—to the non-stop repetition of “skibidi dom dom dom yes yes.” Kids love it, and some parents want it banned (10Play). This article will think about how we might read Skibidi’s playfulness with ‘humanoid surveillance robots’ and other tropes and strange creatures, as the Skibidi fandom is flirting with fairly dense social and political issues, such as the global surveillance apparatus and the potential corporate annihilation of the ‘natural’ world. The series follows an increasingly epic war between two factions: the antagonists who take the form of human-headed singing toilets, led by G-man—or G-Toilet—and a group of mechanical humanoids with cameras, TVs, and speakers for heads, called The Alliance (or informally, Cameraheads). The bulk of the early action takes place in a generic cityscape littered with grey office buildings, called Metropolis (Skibidi Toilet Wiki), which conjures dystopian visions of a world stripped of vibrancy and plant life (except for what looks like an artificial lawn). An unlicensed mashup of the songs ‘Give It to Me’ by Timbaland and ‘Dom Dom Yes Yes’ by Bulgarian artist Biser King created by TikTok user @doombreaker03 appears in each episode as the theme of the Skibidi Toilets, further remixed with other familiar themes in various episodes, like "The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)" from Star Wars. The actual word ‘Skibidi’ seems to be taken from the viral hit of the same name from the band Little Big, ostensibly, m...