Jess Battison
Baffling phrases and slang often leave you feeling really old, or just thinking: 'What the f**k is going on?'
And among all the Gen Z words many people are trying to get their heads around is the more bizarre phenomenon of ‘Skibidi Toilet’.
From trending on TikTok to North West getting her mum Kim Kardashian a diamond necklace with it engraved on, it’s got to be the weirdest phrase of the year.
So, if you’re also confused as to just what on earth this even means, let’s bring ourselves up to date and have the viral Skibidi Toilet trend explained.
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So, the whole thing started thanks to a simple 11-second animated video which has gone on to be viewed over a gigantic 208 million times. And since then, there’s been a swathe of follow-ups and remixes.
Back in February 2023, animator Alexey Gerasimov took inspiration from a recurring nightmare he used to have. He then created a short which shows a man’s head emerging from a toilet, singing out a TikTok remix of the Biser King track ‘Dom Dom Yes Yes’.
It seems the gross toilets are some kind of invasive alien species or maybe a virus but there’s much debate over whether they are the baddies or not.
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And it appears the world is coming to an end around them with the army of mechanical men with speakers, screens and cameras for heads. Any humans that did seem dead are replaced by the toilets which keep getting stronger.
One fan theory is that the bizarre songs are how the Skibidis communicate and spread their ‘virus’ while others think it’s a battle between traditional and new media (film and TV vs. memes and viral content).
Gerasimov's channel is known as ‘DaFuq!?Boom!’ and continued to share toilet heads which gradually became a real narrative.
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This saw a great war between the Skibidi Toilets and the Camera Heads.
And there’s no argument that this series would’ve really been able to take off on a normal kids’ platform but kids are truly obsessed.
What was once a nightmare for Gerasimov has now become a huge series with its own dystopian universe, complete with bizarre songs.
Thanks to the catchy song and the weirdness of a human head inside a gross toilet, people can’t escape the very idea of it now.
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And while you might be thinking this all sounds ‘very Gen Z’, it’s actually Gen Alpha where Skibidi Toilet has taken off.
Yep, those born between 2010 and now seem to be the core fans of this trend.
Hugely popular on YouTube, Gerasimov has been able to rack up millions of subscribers as the series has become an absolute whopper. And then TikTok has further strengthened the popularity of the trend as videos relating to ‘Skibidi Toilet’ have over 20 billion views.
Well, Skibidi Toilet lads.