The Origins Of Skibidi Toilet Explained

In early 2023, seemingly overnight, the youth of the world became obsessed with creepy, disembodied heads that pop out of toilets and sing a catchy tune. This was the dawn of "Skibidi Toilet," a series of found-footage horror-comedy-action short videos on YouTube that has garnered an ever-growing diehard Generation Alpha viewership. While older YouTube users might be binging the slew of free TV shows and movies available on the video platform, this is the kind of content that's catching the eyes of kids.

Created by YouTuber DaFuq!?Boom!, whose total subscriber count skyrocketed to over 41 million in May 2024 thanks to the popularity of the series, "Skibidi Toilet" has caused quite a moral panic since its inception, with parents and teachers claiming that it's causing brain rot in youngsters. In fact, this panic has gotten so bad that Russian authorities have investigated the disturbing meme.

Still, there's more to "Skibidi Toilet" than meets the eye. While there is admittedly some crudeness and eye-rolling weirdness about singing heads popping out of toilets and urinals, the more you watch the series, the more you appreciate the increasingly good animation, dialogue-free storytelling, and surprisingly deep storyline about war and conflict. Here are the origins of "Skibidi Toilet," the most baffling Gen Alpha internet trend, explained.

DaFuq!?Boom!, aka Alexey Gerasimov, of Georgia, may have joined YouTube in 2017, but it wasn't until January 2023 that he posted his first short: a man saying "bjeow" over and over as he encounters a bespectacled head in a urinal. Several shorts later, the same man is singing the "Skibidi" tune on a roof, from which he jumps as "Dream On" by Aerosmith plays. Shortly after, in what's officially the inaugural "Skibidi Toilet" release, he is now a disembodied head in a urinal. This short amassed 166 million views and counting.

Gerasimov said he never expected "Skibidi Toilet" to be a viral hit. He said he created the videos as a way to curb nightmares. The nightmares started, he told Forbes, in connection with his December 2022 video "STUCK IN A PISSMARE," which chronicles a guy who is desperate to relieve himself during the night who gets trapped in a horrifying subconscious loop involving intruders and a hand shooting out of the toilet. After completing the video, Gerasimov said, he was haunted in his sleep by heads coming out of toilets. Finally, he said, one dream involving a toilet infestation in the city helped him see that, in order to stop the nightmares, he had to fight back.

"It was the first dream involving toilets where I wasn't terrified," he told Forbes. "It made me have a strange feeling of toilets being some kind of divine and unexplored entity. Thus, 'Skibidi Toilet' was born."

At a first glance, it's easy to categorize "Skibidi Toilet" as a thing of gross-out humor. However, there's actually a really deep and intricate storyline to the series of YouTube shorts. To summarize, the singing toilet heads are invading the world, and it's up to the protagonists — an army of Cameramen — to fight this new foe. When the battle begins, the Cameramen defeat the toilets rather easily by simply flushing their heads. Yet the toilets, which range from small in size to kaiju-esque, are numerous and expanding in numbers, even constructing monuments and forming worship sites.

With each video, DaFuq!?Boom! ups the ante, transforming "Skibidi Toilet" from a simple internet meme of singing heads in a toilet to an unprecedentedly epic war. Dozens of new characters have been introduced, including the impenetrable G-Toilet and more heroes in the form of Speakermen and TV Men. They, along with the Cameramen, make up the Alliance. There are twists and turns, including a particularly jaw-dropping moment in Episode 32, when the massive Titan Speakerman is commandeered by the toilets. Despite the strength of the Alliance, the toilet invaders are strategic and find new ways — like utilizing broken bits from the Alliance for gear — to enhance their strength. The war, though it's still ongoing, climaxes in Episode 70 in a daring raid on the toilet base of operations, full of dramatic character deaths and satisfying showdowns.

In one short year, "Skibidi Toilet" has transformed from a standalone potty joke into an entire series that keeps audiences coming back for more. While DaFuq!?Boom! used to drop "Skibidi Toilet" videos daily when the series began, he now has a release schedule of every two days because, as he said in an interview with Dexerto, "the quality of the videos has risen." With an ever-expanding lore and over 70 installments in the series, ranging from under a minute to over 10 minutes long, there's no sign of "Skibidi Toilet" slowing down. DaFuq!?Boom fans are on board with anything the animator has to offer. All videos continue to garner tons of views, most sitting at around 30 million and some attracting upwards of 70, 80, or even 90 million.

As the series has continued, viewers have praised Alexey Gerasimov for developing characters and lore with this ridiculous premise. Similar to how audiences get hooked on TV shows and film series, longtime "Skibidi Toilet" viewers have become emotionally invested in the fate of the Alliance. In response to Episode 32, when Titan Speakerman gets hijacked by the toilets, KraidTheSpacePirate said, "This is truly the most tragic loss in the war of the skibidi toilets and the Cameramen." Another user, marklafoai7270, added, "This is honestly one of the saddest episodes despite Speakerman's strength." The lore might be incomprehensible to outsiders, but fans have kept up with the series' ever-expanding plot.

The series is only continuing to get grander in scale and scope. Gerasimov told Forbes that he already wrote a conclusion to the series and promised, "The ending and the path leading to it are insane."

No matter how one feels about "Skibidi Toilet," it's hard to deny that the recurring song of the series ("Skibidi dom dom dom yes yes") is pretty darn catchy. But what exactly is this tune? It's not the brainwave of DaFuq!?Boom!, but rather a remix of Biser King's "Dom Dom Yes Yes" blended with Timbaland's "Give It To Me."

Bulgarian artist Biser King isn't exactly new to having the track attached to a viral meme. Before "Skibidi Toilet," there was Yasin Cengiz, a social media personality who shakes his belly and two-steps at different locales to the beat of the song. Biser King has said he doesn't mind the viral uses of his music. Instead, he said, he's happy that it's bringing some semblance of joy to the masses, whether it's through Cengiz or "Skibidi Toilet." He told Why Now, "The feeling of creating a world hit is unique. Feeling the love from many people all over the world and seeing hundreds of people all over the world having fun with my song is the most valuable thing to me."

Later "Skibidi Toilet" videos feature the song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears. One can only assume the English rock band is happy to have its song used as the anthem of a camera-headed resistance to a hostile toilet takeover.

Like many online animators, DaFuq!?Boom! utilizes Source Filmmaker (SFM) to create "Skibidi Toilet" content. The free 3D software was released in 2012 by Valve, the company behind the "Half-Life," "Team Fortress," "Left 4 Dead," and "Portal" franchises. SFM allows users to incorporate characters from those games into their own creations. The program supplants more complicated animation processes, since it uses preexisting assets from video games. "Half-Life" fans, for instance, are sure to recognize some characters in "Skibidi Toilet."

"Skibidi Toilet" isn't the first YouTube series to be created via SFM. Since its inception, the tool has been used in quite a variety of ways, from Valve's "Team Fortress 2" promotional videos to the concerningly viral "Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life" meme. Of SFM, DaFuq!?Boom! explained to Dexerto that he enjoys the easy-to-use interface: "I know how to animate as well in Blender, but the whole process, including lighting and rendering, would take [three times as long]."

Unless someone is the parent, older sibling, or teacher of an elementary or middle schooler, there's a chance that they've never heard of "Skibidi Toilet." That's because the series' audience largely comprises Gen Alpha, who latched onto it and don't seem to be letting go anytime soon.

On TikTok, clips have emerged of kids embodying "Skibidi Toilet" by sticking their heads out of clothes baskets and Amazon boxes while singing the song. One boy even used the tune as a coping mechanism while getting a needle at the doctor (and we honestly can't blame him). Some TikTokers have also made videos to parody the idea of "Skibidi Toilet Syndrome," including a dramatic post that shows one child suffering from "Skibidi" addiction, demanding that he get the family iPad to watch "Skibidi Toilet."

But why is Generation Alpha so obsessed with "Skibidi Toilet"? DaFuq!?Boom! may have been inspired by the millennial-centric "Half-Life 2" and "Transformers" when bringing "Skibidi Toilet" to life, but he thinks he understands why this younger generation has taken such an interest in his work — it's unlike anything that's available to them via streaming or network television. The animator told Forbes, "[It] doesn't feel generic or corporate." Despite using assets from some of the most popular games ever made, the series twists them with unrelenting action, an original mythology, and lots of toilet humor.

Some can view videos of children in clothes baskets singing the "Skibidi Toilet" song as just kids being kids. They're embracing and mimicking their new favorite thing. But others are fearful that Gen Alpha is suffering from what's become known as "Skibidi Toilet Syndrome."

So what on Earth is this so-called syndrome? Well, there are two components. On the one hand, a child might be so obsessed with "Skibidi Toilet" that they're constantly watching the series, singing the song and acting like the different characters, becoming irritable when told to stop. On the other, some claim the "syndrome" might cause a child to become cautious around toilets, fearful that a singing head is about to pop out.

While pediatricians probably aren't going to be diagnosing kids with "Skibidi Toilet Syndrome" anytime soon, some younger viewers of the series are genuinely freaked out by it and refuse to go near the bathroom. Several parents on Reddit expressed frustration over how "Skibidi" threw a wrench in their child's potty training progress because they're terrified of what may come out of the toilet. One user, u/nikkadamia, who says they have a 4-year-old daughter, wrote, "The worst part is, she was completely potty trained and starts Preschool in 2 weeks so this is a HUGE setback." This user stressed that she restricts her daughter's YouTube access but that "Skibidi Toilet" still popped up on YouTube Kids. So the kids might not be turning into toilet heads, but that doesn't mean they're all right.

A moral panic has formed around "Skibidi Toilet," with many adults expressing fear that the series causes brain rot and will have lasting detrimental effects on their children. After all, though the series isn't exactly gory, there are some rather violent war scenes between the toilets and camera-headed heroes, which parents believe isn't the best thing for a child to consume in large amounts on a daily basis. One Malaysian parenting website, Motherhood, outlined instructions on how to restrict "Skibidi Toilet" content on YouTube.

The moral panic has gotten so bad that, in January 2024, Russian authorities began investigating Alexey Gerasimov's viral series following a complaint by a Moscow parent whose son was, like countless other kids, obsessed with "Skibidi Toilet." A source told Russian news site IA Regnum (via Metro), "An appeal was received from a resident of Moscow about the need to block video materials on the internet in the form of short films Skibidi Toilet, which has a detrimental effect on children. After the appeal, the police began an investigation and appointed an officer who will collect materials on the application." While excessive screen use has been proven to cause negative effects like slow language development, sleep problems, and anxiety, according to the National Institutes of Health, there is no proof, as of yet, that "Skibidi Toilet" in particular has any detrimental effects beyond those that come from extended screen time, which can occur no matter what's being watched.

The word "skibidi" isn't exactly new. For years, it's been used in the singing style of scatting because, to put it simply, it has no meaning. Artists like Biser King use the word when freestyling. Now, thanks to "Skibidi Toilet," the term is used conversationally by Gen Alpha, much to the confusion of their parents and educators. On TikTok, teacher @mr_lindsay_sped attempted to make some sense of it. He said, "This word is just a filler word, used in the most random, obscure times. Like, nothing will be happening and a kid will just say, 'skibidi toilet' or 'skibidi.' However, language evolves, and this word is evolving as well, and the middle schoolers are seemingly trying to actually make it mean something."

Similar to the word "jawn," which is commonly used in eastern Pennsylvania to refer to literally anything, it seems as though "skibidi" is following a similar path. For now, until a new meaning evolves for "skibidi," it's just a fun word for kids to say.

On the heels of DaFuq!?Boom!'s fast success, other creators began making their own "Skibidi Toilet" series in an attempt to piggyback on the trend. One example is YouTuber DOM Studio, who releases videos of the toilets taking on characters from the video game "Garten of Banban." DOM Studio also does a "Skibidi Toilet Multiverse" series, which, as of May 2024, had 35 parts. These videos also garner millions of views, but nowhere near what DaFuq!?Boom!'s channel sees. Most videos of DOM Studio average about 10 million. Alexey Gerasimov's creation has also spawned the video games "Skibidi Defense" and "Skibidi Tower Defense," both by Fixated Games on Roblox and seemingly not associated with the creator.

Meanwhile, on TikTok, a number of accounts are pretending to be the YouTuber. They post his videos and have extremely similar usernames, tricking fans into believing they are the real creator. Though Gerasimov has attempted to have such stolen content removed, he hasn't had much luck. He told Dexerto, "I tried to take them down, but TikTok support doesn't care, even after all the proof I've given to them. They're unable to verify me."

Older generations might be expressing concern — and even fear — for Gen Alpha and wondering how on earth they could be so entertained by a singing head in a toilet. But the concept of young people latching onto a weird trend on the internet, whether it be the Ohio Final Boss or the Josh Hutcherson Rickroll, is far from new.

Since the dawn of YouTube in 2005, creators have been releasing off-putting content that kids can't help but flock toward. For example, Millennials might not "get" the "Skibidi Toilet" obsession, but there's millennial nostalgia surrounding darkly entertaining series from their own youth. There's "Charlie the Unicorn," which sees a grumpy unicorn get his organs harvested when he agrees to adventure to Candy Mountain; "Llamas with Hats," in which Carl nonchalantly admits to stabbing a man 30-plus times and eating his hands; and "Salad Fingers," starring the horrifying titular lead who loves rusty spoons. Later creepy internet trends include the likes of Slender Man, Siren Head, and stories from the Special Containment Procedures universe.

Basically, every generation that grows up in the era of the internet will have its own online series that consumes its childhood, bringing joy, entertainment, and excitement as parents and teachers judge such creepy taste in content. It's just how it's always been. Someday, like it or not, many members of Gen Alpha will feel a sense of nostalgia toward "Skibidi Toilet."