But apparently they sell this bullshit in Walgreens. I heard about this thing. But wasn’t it some YouTube craze or something? I mean what the hell is this? My kids laughed and would say this phase couple years ago, but didn’t think it was mainstream enough to warrant this.

  • Snowclone@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    71
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    8 days ago

    My kid has all of them.

    We watched all the YT videos. It’s a couple of familiar tropes you could say, on one hand it’s kind of random YT poop kind of humor. And you know. Toilet humor. Then it becomes a ‘‘I can’t believe they took this dumb lol so funny joke and took it THIS far, this is really dumb’’ Then it’s '‘oh wow it just keeps going… wth… ‘’ Then it’s like ‘‘OK, actually when you take it that far it kinda starts being funny again… heh…’’ Then your like ‘‘oh it’s an arms race between the robot people and the toilet people… historically fascinating…’’ ‘Then it’s ‘’ do you think TV lady will every find love?’’ Then your buying your kid ten random toilet toys because you’ve lost control of your life.

    • aubertlone@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      8 days ago

      Apparently it’s some kind of avant-garde art or something?

      Maybe 4 years ago I read an excellent explainer comment on ask Reddit.

      I’ve tried to find that comment since. Honestly with the lore answer I needed about skibidi toilet.

      Wish I could read that comment again and make sense of this stuff. Always da g man to me

      • JackbyDev@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 days ago

        It’s a good example of “show don’t tell” storytelling. There’s no dialogue (other than the toilet people singing the Skibidi song). But you see an escalation of conflict play out with multiple factions and returning characters. It’s really well done. Some of the earliest ones are a little slower but they still help set the stage for what’s going to come. I’d suggest checking it out, watching the first few isn’t a big time sink.

        Spoiler, for if you're on the fence or no chance of watching

        One of my favorite moments was one side attacking the other at a funeral service for the first victim of the war. It feels messy. It’s not just like “har har silly toilet man pew pew.”

      • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        8 days ago

        Been a while since I saw it, so this may not cover new stuff if there is:

        In response to an invasion and occupation by the toilets, camera headed robots were developed to strike back. The toilets and the camera-heads are the primary characters, regular humans are glaringly absent from much of the show. Over the course of several episodes, the toilets and the camera-heads engage in a back-and-fourth struggle. They develop new armaments, counter-measure, and counter-counter-measures. It escalates to crazy sci-fi lasers, gundam sized robots (and toilets), and mind-control. At some point, its reveled the toilets reproduce by brainwashing normal people (then, presumably, sticking their heads in toilets. I guess.)

        The toilets… are just what happens when you suddenly decide to commit to a meme that took off. But the inclusion of the camera-head robots (and, eventually, TV and other such devices) invites an interesting read. It suggests that armed struggle cannot be disconnected from surveillance, that to increase security is to increase scrutiny. We also witness increasingly disturbing technologies, developed and unleashed to devastating effect and often with massive collateral. Shots often linger on the devastation, and our point-of-view camera-robot is with some frequency included in the casualties.

        at the same time its also just a kinda silly battle animation

      • sepi@piefed.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 days ago

        Most people don’t understand dadaism after a certain age. Can you tell which side of the divide I am on from this comment?

    • HenriVolney@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      8 days ago

      I had never heard of it. I guess I am not on TikTok enough. I just watched the first few episodes and skipped ahead to see how the series develops. I do not find it funny one bit. I find it scary and soul crushing. But relevant in its own way.

    • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      8 days ago

      IMO it’s genuinely good. The plot is simplistic but the ways it gets conveyed through 3d animation without dialogue are really clever and well done, supposedly the creator has been making this style of animation for years and it shows.

  • Zahille7@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    26
    ·
    8 days ago

    I’m just surprised that they actually used the male_07 face model on the official merch advertising.

    that takes some balls imo.

        • brsrklf@jlai.lu
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          18
          ·
          edit-2
          8 days ago

          Lots of the assets (most notably face models) are from Half-Life 2. The reason they’ve been used in this skibidi shit is because the original videos were made with either gmod or Source Film Maker, not sure, but in any case, in the Source engine.

          And of course the easiest way to find models for this is to take them from Source games. If you just started playing with gmod, that’s probably what you’d be doing, building silly stuff with assets from your source games.

          • Fredselfish@lemmy.worldOP
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            9
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 days ago

            Damn that’s why I recognized that face. I have Gmod, had for years. The base game would work on my old laptop and the kids love to play it. Of course they crashed my laptop when they downloaded 200 mods, or tried to is more apt the word onto said computer. And I love Half Life though I only ever seen it through that YouTube show Gary’s Mind.

            • Zahille7@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              11
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              7 days ago

              GMod spawned an entire YouTube subculture in the early 2000s. DasBoSchitt made those Idiot Box videos (which I fucking loved when I was a kid), and there were tons of others. In fact, I remember Machinima made a feature-length movie entirely within GMod, about the “Mingebags” taking over the entire game. I think the guy who helped create that Harvie Krumpet short film worked on it, too.

  • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    8 days ago

    Sadly they are real, my GF bought a plushie as a prank, it’s cursed.
    We hide it from each other in places it would surprise us, I’m probably going to hide it in a friends closet next time I visit him.

  • Fondots@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    edit-2
    8 days ago

    I now count myself pretty solidly among the old and uncool. I’ll be honest, the first few times I encountered the words “skibidi toilet” I had assumed it was a nonsense phrase made to make fun of how zoomers talk and not an actual thing they were watching and talking about.

    On finding that out, I went to seek it out to hold onto at least a little bit of cultural relevancy with the young folks.

    Of course, the original skibidi toilet video left me with the same general “what the fuck did I just watch” reaction that I think literally everyone has.

    But I stuck it out for a bit, watched the first few dozen videos (they’re short, it goes quick) and a story started to emerge.

    I won’t claim that it was high art or anything, but there was some art to it, I’ve definitely willingly watched and enjoyed much less complex stories.

    And don’t get me wrong, it’s dumb, it’s about toilet people. But I watched plenty of dumb shit on new grounds and YouTube and such back in the day. Hell, some of the stuff that made it onto actual TV was pretty damn out-there, my generation had shit like Ren & stimpy, Beavis & Butthead… You know, it might be easier to list shows from the 90s and early 2000s that weren’t fucking weird.

    It’s not for me, I’m too old for that shit, but if we had skibidi toilet about 20-25 years ago I’m pretty confident that my weird little ass would have loved the shit out of it.

    • Ŝan@piefed.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 days ago

      Oh, see, I chose option B, which required only þe purchase of a deck chair and to warn society of inclement weather þrough use of my elbow which I injured in childhood, and to defend my lawn.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      8 days ago

      Comparing this to Ren and Stimpy seems wrong. That show was great. And though not a big fan Beavis and Butthead was an MTV show. And only thing I watched of it waa the movie. But guess you’re were just old.

  • Flax@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 days ago

    My friend used to leave his computer logged in with his google account and go on fag breaks. I would go onto the play store and set it to remotely install several skibidi toilet shovelware apps to his phone.

  • Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    8 days ago

    I saw on Reddit yesterday that some Costcos have Skibidi action figures in stock. I guess that, given its popularity, this kind of cash-grab was probably inevitable. Apparently there’s even a full-length movie in the works. Michael Bay is supposed to be directing it.

      • Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        7 days ago

        I can kind of see it. There are a lot of episodes of it now, and there’s kind of a plot that starts developing after a while. I watched however many episodes were out as of last October because the American Hysteria podcast did an episode on it and made it sound kind of interesting, and I can see why so many people are a little obsessed with it. It’s weirdly compelling even if it leaves you wondering wtf you just put in your brain. Surprised it’s Michael Bay attached to direct it and not Uwe Boll though.

  • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    8 days ago

    Not mainstream enough? Fucking Michael Bay is making a Skibidi Toilet movie, this shit is huge.

  • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 days ago

    really shows how laid back Valve is with their IP that the guy hasn’t been dragged behind a moving vehicle all the way to the courthouse

  • brsrklf@jlai.lu
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    8 days ago

    Vinesauce’s Vinny got one as a joke. He’s made full streams being baffled and trying to understand the trend (one of them with a lengthy tour from a “lore expert”). And of course being amazed that this is probably the only thing for what the G-man face is known to a lot of people now.

    But he’s got a segment where he opens silly collectibles and blind boxes, so of course he had to get that shit. And uses it as a prop once in a while for a convenient flush sound effect.

  • Luouth@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    8 days ago

    This reminds me of the kind of product that AI would create, right down to the almost nonsensical text

  • jqubed@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    8 days ago

    Literally just saw a whole bunch of product branded with this in a Canadian Walmart today. One of them I think was a game.