If you enjoy memes or have traveled around YouTube, chances are that you're heard of YouTube Poop. And while it's a common type of video, it's not particularly clear what a YouTube Poop actually is.
Below, we explain YouTube Poop by looking at its history, some examples, common themes, and more. You'll know everything you need to about this strange art form by the end.
What Is YouTube Poop?
YouTube Poop, commonly shortened to YTP, is an unofficial category of video on YouTube. To create a YouTube Poop, you take one or multiple videos and heavily remix them in wild and ridiculous ways. This can involve rearranging sentences so the characters say vulgar words, making pieces of the video repeat many times, adding puns, creating a new storyline, and much more.
There's no specific criteria for labeling a video as YouTube Poop. Most of them, especially modern ones, include a tag like [YTP] at the start of the video so people know what to expect. But each individual YTP features something different, and different YTP creators (often called "poopers") use their own styles.
The Origins of YouTube Poop
The first video generally regarded as a YouTube Poop (though it wasn't called so back then) is I'D SAY HE'S HOT ON OUR TAIL, uploaded by user SuperYoshi on November 27, 2006.
The video's description tells the story: he made it in December 2004 after having recently installed Windows XP and wanting to play around with Windows Movie Maker. He loaded an episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 (a cartoon adaptation of the beloved Nintendo game) into the software and messed around with it.
While it was originally submitted to a different site (the now-defunct Sheezyart), its presence on YouTube was vital to kickstarting the YTP trend. Early on, many people uploading these kinds of videos weren't necessarily trying to entertain with them. Instead, they enjoyed confusing people who were looking for actual videos of the sources used. This would change later on, as new YTP sources emerged and the videos started being labeled with their modern name.
Interestingly, YouTube Poop has offline origins that go back many decades. One of the earliest similarities to a YTP is from the 1938 cartoon Daffy Duck in Hollywood. In this, Daffy Duck visits a movie studio, grabs various films from shelves, and mixes them together randomly to create a "new" movie.
The final product, called Gold Is Where You Find It, bears some similarity to a YTP given its random nature. The part at 0:47, in particular, feels like it came straight out of a YTP.
Another example is a 1968 political ad that Richard Nixon put out to attack his opponent Hubert Humphrey in the presedential race. It's full of quick cuts between images, distorted sounds, and other remix elements that resemble a YTP.
The Evolution of YTP: SpaDinner and Beyond
The next major leap in YouTube Poop came in the late 2000s, when cutscenes from several maligned video game were uploaded to YouTube and became extremely popular YTP sources.
The most popular clips came from three titles on the Philips CD-i: Hotel Mario, Link: The Faces of Evil, and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon. These titles were widely criticized for their terrible gameplay, but also included poorly-animated cutscenes with laughable voice acting. These became better-known through YTP.
During this time, many famous sound bites from the games were used to death, including "dinner," "spaghetti," and "die!". The term "SpaDinner" is now used to refer to these early YTPs, and while there's a nostalgic quality to them, YTP creation moved beyond these primitive times.
Modern YTPs and Concerns
Later YTPs lessened reliance on dubbing in the same old voice lines and turned to more advanced techniques like word splicing, which is cutting out parts of words to make a character say something else.
People also started making YouTube Poops from all kinds of video sources. Commercials, movies, PSAs, cartoons, music videos, and even other YouTube videos are all common material.
Related: The Best Video Editing Apps and Software for YouTube
However, as YouTube grew in the 2010s, YouTube Poopers experienced issues with these expanded video sources. Some owners of copyrighted media weren't happy that a person looking for the original show or music video might find a remixed version instead, so they sued YouTube to take further action.
As a result, some poopers stopped making YTPS, as getting their videos copyright claimed was too much of a risk. However, many YTPs containing such material are still on the site. They do fall under Fair use in most cases, so it depends on how heavily the copyright owners (and YouTube's automated systems) pursue the matter.
Common Techniques Used in YouTube Poop
As discussed earlier, YouTube Poops use a wide variety of effects to mix up the original material. There are too many to include them all, so let's go over some of the most popular:
- Reversals: Playing part of the video, then playing it immediately afterward in reverse (or vice-versa, starting with the reversed version first). Can lead to funny situations like someone walking into a room, saying "Hi," and then walking right out the door.
- Freezing: Freezing the frame on a character looking shocked, in pain, etc. for an extended time to highlight their reaction.
- Sentence mixing: A common technique where the pooper meshes words from a character together to make them say something different. This is how characters can discuss topics that are not present in the original.
- Sus: In this YTP trope, the pooper simply reverses part of a word to make a repetitive sound. The most common example is someone saying a word like "sorry," which is shortened and mirrored to "sos" (and since it sounds like "sauce," you can add a visual gag of a jar of sauce to it).
- Visual gags: Poops will often have a quick image flashed on the screen. These can make it easier to understand a mixed sentence, or add a joke by showing a hom*ophone for the word. For example, when a character says "That's mine," an image of a mining entrance might appear.
- Boosting audio: Blasting part of the sound for comedic effect.
- Bleeping: Using a bleep sound to "censor" words that aren't actually explicit for comedic effect.
- Screen replacement: Changing the contents of a TV, phone, or other display to make it look like the person using it is doing something stupid, embarrassing, or silly.
Enjoy YouTube Poop Today
Now you have a grip on what YouTube Poop is, and can hopefully appreciate it more. While we've highlighted some examples of clean YTPs here, be aware that the majority of YouTube Poop videos are explicit. We've thus skipped providing any specific channel recommendations, but you can find plenty of these videos just by searching for "YTP" on YouTube.
As you watch more YouTube Poop, you'll come to identify and enjoy certain tropes more. Most poopers have their own inside jokes that they repeat across videos, so there's a lot to enjoy if you like this style of entertainment.
