KirstenCyv: Video genre

2023-10-02T13:00:50Z

Video genre

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{{Short description|Video genre consisting of edited pre-existing media}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2020}}
A '''YouTube poop''' ('''YTP''') is a type of [[video mashup]] or edit created by remixing/editing pre-existing media sources often carrying [[Subculture|subcultural]] significance into a new video for humorous, satirical, obscene, absurd, and profane—as well as annoying, confusing, or dramatic purposes. YouTube poops are traditionally uploaded to the American [[video sharing website]] [[YouTube]], hence the name.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Blackard |first1=Cat |title=Break Yo' TV: YouTube Poop |url=https://consequenceofsound.net/2009/07/break-yo-tv-youtube-poop/ |website=Consequence of Sound |date=July 22, 2009 |access-date=July 22, 2009}}</ref>

==History==

===Precursors and influences===

YouTube Poop is a subset of [[remix culture]],<ref>{{harvtxt|Coppa|2022|page=4}}</ref> in which existing ideas and media are modified and reinterpreted to create new art and media in various contexts.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/22/from-artistic-to-technological-mash-up/|title=Remixing Culture And Why The Art Of The Mash-Up Matters|first=Ben |last=Murray|date=March 22, 2015|newspaper=[[Tech Crunch]]}}</ref> Forms of remix culture have existed long before the internet, with DigitalTrends's Luke Dormehl listing the [[cut-up technique]] of [[William Burroughs]] and [[Sampling (music)|sampling]] in [[hip-hop]] as examples.<ref name=punk/> Dormehl also says that "aesthetically", YouTube Poop is similar to the "frenetic editing style" of [[MTV]] in the 1980s, which featured "fast, non-linear cuts" that focused less on character or plot than on evoking a feeling.<ref name=punk/>

YouTube Poop also draws on elements from the [[vidding]] scene,<ref name="Yale">{{cite web| title = YouTube Poop: Memes and Community|url=http://www.yalelawtech.org/fair-use-remix-culture/youtube-poop-meme-as-art-community| date = November 3, 2012| publisher = Yale University, Law and Technology| access-date = November 4, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412222642/http://www.yalelawtech.org/fair-use-remix-culture/youtube-poop-meme-as-art-community| archive-date = April 12, 2016| url-status = live}}</ref> in which fans of a piece of media would create music videos using footage from the work.<ref>{{harvtxt|Coppa|2022|page=1}}</ref> Observers have also proposed influences from a more modern, internet-based practice similar to vidding, the [[Anime music video]] (AMV) – particularly from more comedic variations of the AMV.<ref name=ferrini/>

===Early history and "golden age"===

The genre began in the early 2000s.<ref name=statesman>{{Cite magazine |last=Tait |first=Amelia |date=2016-11-29 |title=The art of the YouTube Poop |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2016/11/art-youtube-poop |access-date=2023-07-13 |magazine=[[New Statesman]]}}</ref> The video regarded as the first YouTube poop is "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 REMIXED!!!" (now commonly known as "I'D SAY HE'S HOT ON OUR TAIL") by the creator SuperYoshi, originally uploaded on December 22, 2004, preceding the creation of YouTube by a few months.<ref name=punk>{{Cite news|last=Dormehl|first=Luke|date=March 30, 2019|title=YouTube Poop is punk rock for the internet age, and you probably don't get it|work=Digital Trends|url=https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/youtube-poop-worthy-respect/|access-date=May 29, 2020}}</ref> It remixes clips from the 1989 animated television series ''[[The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3]]'' as a primary source,<ref name=punk/> using the video editing software [[Windows Movie Maker]].<ref name=halle>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oc0fEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22i%27d+say+he%27s+hot+on+our+tail%22&pg=PT162|title= Visual Alterity: Seeing Difference in Cinema|chapter=Heterotactic Community Formation: YouTube Pooping|date=March 30, 2021|first=Randall|last=Halle|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn= 9780252052590|via=Google Books}}</ref> Media scholar Randall Halle suggests that the name "poop" as used to refer to videos like SuperYoshi's referred to the purported low quality of these early works.<ref name=halle/>

In the mid-2000s, YTP became one of the most popular types of video on YouTube.<ref name=pingas>{{cite magazine|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/how-pingas-became-a-famous-sonic-the-hedgehog-meme.html|title=How Pingas Became One of Sonic the Hedgehog's Most Famous Memes|first=Brian|last=Feldman|date=February 10, 2020|access-date=December 21, 2020|magazine=[[New York Magazine]]}}</ref> YouTuber EmpLemon describes this era as being characterized by popular recurring memes and in-jokes in the community.<ref name=punk/> According to Halle, the 2010 video "jonathan swift returns from the dead to eat a cheese sandwich" has been cited as "a work that moved YTP towards artistry", with heavy use of video in video editing and other methods of distortion.<ref name=halle/>

===Decline in mainstream popularity===

The YouTube Poop genre declined in popularity during the 2010s.<ref name=statesman/> [[eMarketer]] principal analyst Nicole Perrin speculated that the reason why the genre had "fallen to the wayside" was as part of a larger YouTube "shift to glossier more corporate-friendly content."<ref name=green>{{Cite news |last=Greenburg |first=Zack O'Malley |title=YouTube Poop And The 'Sanic' Boom: Digesting The Strangest Slice Of Google's $15B Video Business |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2020/03/03/youtube-poop-and-the-sanic-boom-digesting-the-strangest-slice-of-googles-15b-video-business/ |access-date=2023-07-13|work=[[Forbes]]}}</ref>

Luke Dormehl wrote in 2019 in relation to this loss of mainstream popularity that "as with every other corner of the internet", YTP had undergone fragmentization from a large single community with a shared set of sources into a series of sub-communities, each with their own preferred source material. However, this has also allowed each individual sub-community to develop its own set of convoluted "references-within-references" even further.<ref name=punk/> Additionally, YTP has followed the general YouTube trend of increasing professionalization and editing, with lots of special effects and elaborate writing.<ref name=punk/><ref name=numerama>{{Cite news |work=[[Numerama]] |date=2020-02-02 |title=Grandeur et décadence du YouTube Poop, pilier de la culture mème française |language=fr-FR |url=https://www.numerama.com/pop-culture/602727-pilier-de-la-culture-meme-francaise-en-un-peu-plus-de-dix-ans-les-youtube-poop-ont-bien-change.html |access-date=2023-07-12}}</ref>

YTP has had a large influence on much of modern meme culture and internet culture as a whole.<ref name=punk/> Many stylistic traits of YTP have entered the editing vocabulary of mainstream YouTubers, such as rapid editing and sudden drastic changes in volume for comedic effect.<ref name=numerama/> Many mainstream YouTubers even hire YTP editors to edit their normal videos.<ref name=numerama/>

==Style and techniques==

===Structure, culture and subgenres===

Some videos may involve completely or partially repurposing sources to create or convey an often self-aware story, while others follow a [[non-linear narrative]], and some may contain no storyline at all, instead regarded among the lines of [[surreal humour|surreal humor]] and artistic experimentation.<ref name="Yale" /> To this degree, a YouTube poop may even consist solely of an existing video, sometimes modified, repeated in a slowed or remixed loop.<ref name="demorgen">{{cite news|title = Slow TV: Youtube doet het op zijn manier|first = Tommy|last = Van Damme|work = De Morgen|language = nl|date = November 8, 2013|access-date = November 18, 2013|url=http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/994/opmerkelijk/article/detail/1737136/2013/11/08/Slow-TV-Youtube-doet-het-op-zijn-manier.dhtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111035914/http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/994/opmerkelijk/article/detail/1737136/2013/11/08/Slow-TV-Youtube-doet-het-op-zijn-manier.dhtml|archive-date = November 11, 2013|url-status = live}}</ref> Associate professor of [[cultural anthropology]] at [[Kansas State University]], [[Michael Wesch]], has defined YouTube poops as "absurdist remixes that ape and mock the lowest technical and aesthetic standards of [[remix culture]] to comment on remix culture itself".<ref name="EFF">{{cite web|title = In the matter of exemption to prohibition on circumvention of copyright protection systems for access control technologies|url=https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/2012_dmca_exemption_requests_Final_1.pdf|author = Electronic Frontier Foundation|author-link = Electronic Frontier Foundation|access-date = November 11, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912135137/https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/2012_dmca_exemption_requests_final_1.pdf|archive-date = September 12, 2016|url-status = live}}</ref>

YTP can often be derivative in the sense that the work of one creator (or, within the community, ''pooper'') is sometimes used as the underlying work for another video; this can be recirculated and lead to the creation of "YTP tennis" videos, named for how they exist in rounds where the original video accumulates edits and alterations. [[Lawrence Lessig]], Professor of Law at [[Harvard Law School]], compared this aspect to a form of [[call and response]], here seen as being prominent within [[remix culture]].<ref name="Lessig">{{cite web| last = Lessig| first = Lawrence| title = REMIX at Computer History Museum|url=http://blip.tv/lessig/remix-at-computer-history-museum-1600233| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150804164854/http://blip.tv/lessig/remix-at-computer-history-museum-1600233| archive-date = August 4, 2015}}</ref>

A YTP "collab", or collaboration, is a common practice, and involves various creators joining together to produce a single, sometimes very long, video.<ref name=halle/>

A subgenre of YouTube poops is YouTube Poop Music Video (YTPMV), which involves clips from different forms of media remixed in a musical form, often in a fast-paced and editing-intensive manner.<ref name=ferrini>{{Cite news |last=Ferrini |first=Francesca |date=28 February 2023 |title=La storia degli AMV, gli Anime Music Video |language=it |quote=Vista la tipologia dei montaggi, possiamo ipotizzare che questo genere di video dalla comicità caotica e nonsense abbia avuto una grossa influenza sulle cosiddette YouTube Poop (abbreviate in YTP), create proprio in quel periodo. Pochi anni dopo nacquero le YTPMV, video comici con remix di musiche e scene di film, anime, videogiochi o talk-show, spesso fatti con un ottimo livello di editing e con un ritmo frenetico.|url= https://www.akibagamers.it/28-02-2023/storia-degli-amv-anime-music-video/}}</ref>

===Source material===

While essentially any audiovisual media is "fair game" for source material,<ref name=green/> some of the most sources of YouTube poops include [[Television program|television shows]], [[anime]], [[commercials]], other YouTube [[videos]].<ref name=burgFull/>
In particular, YouTube Poops often use 1990s cartoons, particularly critically disregarded ones such as ''[[The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!]]'' and ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]''.<ref>{{harvtxt|Burgess|Green|Jenkins|Hartley|2013|page=53}}</ref><ref name=pingas/> The work of children's poet [[Michael Rosen]] has also been used.<ref name=randall>{{Cite news |first=Harvey |last=Randall |date=2023-07-13 |title=The internet shitposted too close to the sun, and now we're getting a spiritual successor to the most cursed Zelda games of all time |language=en |work=PC Gamer |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/the-internet-shitposted-too-close-to-the-sun-and-now-were-getting-a-spiritual-successor-to-the-most-cursed-zelda-games-of-all-time/ |access-date=2023-07-13}}</ref> These diverse media sources, from different time periods and styles, are often combined in YTPs.<ref>{{harvtxt|Moran|2017|page=25}}</ref>

The [[cutscenes]] from Nintendo games released on the [[Philips CD-i]] - most notably ''[[Hotel Mario]]'', ''[[Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon]]'' - which have been widely criticized for their bizarre animation, voice acting, and scripts, are also frequently used, and have achieved more widespread notoriety as a result.<ref name="Yale" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Donohoo |first=Timothy |date=2023-04-05 |title=Super Mario's Worst Game Will Never Be Rereleased by Nintendo |work=CBR |url=https://www.cbr.com/hotel-mario-worst-game-cdi-nintendo/ |access-date=2023-07-13}}</ref>

===Editing techniques===

A typical YouTube poop uses visual and auditory effects to alter the [[underlying work]], as well as rearrangement of individual clips.<ref name="Yale" /> The edits are often "abrupt and jarring", with lots of quick [[Cut (transition)|cut]]s and time stretching leading to an "often-frenetic" pace.<ref name=burgFull>{{harvtxt|Burgess|Green|Jenkins|Hartley|2013|pages=52–53}}</ref> Ruth Alexandra Moran interprets the style as producing "aesthetics of malfunction".<ref>{{harvtxt|Moran|2017|page=31}}</ref>

The most common type of rearrangement is "sentence-mixing", a form of editing in which dialogue is rearranged or chopped up to form new, often humorous or vulgar dialogue.<ref name=punk/><ref name=statesman/> One famous sentence-mix from the YouTube Poop "Robotnik Has a Viagra Overdose" by creator Stegblob takes a scene from ''Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog'' in which [[Doctor Robotnik]] accuses his henchmen of "snooping as usual" and cuts out everything but the second and third [[syllable]] to leave only the nonsensical word "pingas", which was construed to resemble the word "[[penis]]". Over the years, "Pingas" has since become one of the biggest memes related to the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' franchise in general and has been referenced in both the [[Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)|Archie comic]] and the ''[[Sonic Boom (TV series)|Sonic Boom]]'' television series.<ref name=pingas/> In an interview, ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (film)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' co-star [[James Marsden]] was asked a question about the word, in which he erroneously guessed that it was Doctor Robotnik's original catchphrase.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-02-07 |title=James Marsden Takes the Ultimate Sonic Quiz |url=https://www.ign.com/videos/james-marsden-takes-the-ultimate-sonic-quiz |access-date=2023-07-13 |website=IGN |language=en}}</ref>

Some techniques are more abrasive, like the "stutter loop", in which a short clip of video is repeated over and over.<ref name=punk/><ref name=statesman/> An abrasive auditory trope is the sudden extreme increase in volume to shock the viewer, known as "ear-rape" or "ear rape".<ref name=statesman/><ref name=pingas/><ref name=numerama/> This term has entered general [[internet slang]] referring to a loud or unpleasant unexpected noise in any medium, intentional or otherwise.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-07-13 |title=Bungie wins lawsuit against Destiny 2 player, following racist harassment and threats to employee |work=Eurogamer.net |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/bungie-wins-lawsuit-against-destiny-2-player-following-racist-harassment-and-threats-to-employee |access-date=2023-07-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |first=Matt |last=Fowler|title=Wrestling Wrap Up: From 04/06 - 04/12 2010 |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2010/04/13/wrestling-wrap-up-from-0406-0412-2010 |access-date=2023-07-13|work=IGN}}</ref>

==Copyright and fair use==
As YTP is a medium built on repurposing copyrighted media, it has been particularly vulnerable to copyright law.<ref name=punk/> YouTube poops have often been subject to copyright claims on YouTube.<ref name=statesman/> Political scientist and author Trajce Cvetkovski noted in 2013 that, despite [[Viacom (2005–2019)|Viacom]] filing a [[copyright infringement]] [[lawsuit]] against YouTube in 2007 explicitly concerning YouTube poops, in particular "The Sky Had a Weegee" by Hurricoaster, which features scenes from the animated series ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' episode "[[Shanghaied (SpongeBob SquarePants) |Shanghaied]]" and Weegee (a satiric caricature based on [[Nintendo]]'s [[Luigi]] as he appears in the DOS version of ''[[Mario Is Missing!]]''), it and many others have remained on YouTube.<ref>{{cite book| title = Copyright and Popular Media: Liberal Villains and Technological Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i7Bd0BTfmN4C&q=%22youtube+poop&pg=PT175| first = Trajce| last = Cvetkovski| page = 175| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan| year = 2013| isbn = 9781137172372| access-date = May 14, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803124727/https://books.google.com/books?id=i7Bd0BTfmN4C&pg=PT175&dq=%22youtube+poop| archive-date = August 3, 2019| url-status = live|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Copyright law in the [[United Kingdom]] allows people to use copyrighted material for the purposes of [[parody]], [[pastiche]], and [[caricature]] without being seen as infringing on the copyright of the material.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111116029|title=The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Quotation and Parody) Regulations 2014|work=legislation.gov.uk|access-date=August 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127181904/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111116029|archive-date=January 27, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Copyright owners are only able to sue the parodist if the work is perceived as communicating hateful or discriminative messages, and modifying the intended purpose of the copyright owner's material. If the case is then taken to court, judges are advised in jurisdictional terms to decide whether the video meets these criteria.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29408121|title=Parody copyright laws set to come into effect|date=October 20, 2014|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917183332/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29408121|archive-date=September 17, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Individual responses==
[[File:Michael Rosen.jpg|thumb|248x248px|British children's poet [[Michael Rosen]] has issued multiple statements concerning his appearances in YouTube Poops.]]

British children's poet [[Michael Rosen]] issued a warning on his website in 2012, saying, "Quite a few people have fun taking my videos and making new versions of them, known as 'YouTube Poops'. Many of these are not suitable for young children. I am not responsible for either the words or pictures of these."<ref>{{cite web|author1=Rosen, Michael|author-link1=Michael Rosen|title=News - For Adults|url=http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/foradults_news.html|website=michaelrosen.co.uk|access-date=25 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311053545/http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/foradults_news.html|archive-date=March 11, 2015 |date=29 May 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Circa 2015, Rosen put a similar warning on his YouTube channel's "about" page.<ref>{{cite web|title=artificedesign - YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/user/artificedesign/about|website=YouTube|publisher=Michael Rosen|access-date=June 11, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309160847/https://www.youtube.com/user/artificedesign/about|archive-date=March 9, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2021, a British teacher accidentally sent her students an extremely vulgar YouTube Poop of Rosen's poem "The Car Trip" instead of the original poem, mistaking it for the original.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lovell |first=Joanna |date=2021-01-14 |title=Hull teacher shares vile parody video to class of nine year olds |url=https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/hull-teacher-michael-rosen-video-4884349 |access-date=2023-07-13|work= Hull Daily Mail}}</ref>

In 2019, Rosen claimed there were "about 4,000 YTPs" of Rosen performing his poems and stories.<ref>{{Cite tweet |last=Rosen |first=Michael |user=MichaelRosenYes|date=January 19, 2019 |title=A YouTube Poop - that is a mash-up of another YouTube vid. There are now about 4000 YTPs on YouTube of the videos that @J0e_R0sen makes of my poems and stories. Some are very funny and innocent, some are obscene, some are defamatory, some are racist, some are anti-semitic.|number=1086608646434361344 |access-date=2022-11-05}}</ref> He stated, "Some are very funny... I'm fond of the funny ones. I have tried to get the racist, antisemitic ones taken down."<ref>{{Cite tweet |last=Rosen |first=Michael |user=MichaelRosenYes |date=January 19, 2019 |title=Some are very funny. Some are not so funny but funny all the same. Some are naff. Some are foul, racist, antisemitic rubbish. I'm fond of the funny ones. I have tried to get the racist, antisemitic ones taken down. |number=1086606067042344960 |access-date=2022-11-05 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Animutation]]
* ''[[Cult Toons]]''
* ''[[Daffy Duck in Hollywood]]'' – a 1938 ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' short with similarities to YouTube poop
* [[Downfall Parodies|''Downfall'' (2004 film) § Parodies]]
* [[Netdisaster]]
* [[Remix album]] – an album with remixes, first used in Harry Nilsson's album ''[[Aerial Pandemonium Ballet]]''
* ''[[Schichlegruber Doing the Lambeth Walk]]'' – a 1942 British propaganda short with similarities to YouTube poop
* [[Weird SoundCloud]]
* [[YTMND]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0NsWtPHNl88C | title=YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture | publisher=John Wiley & Sons | date=2013 | access-date=March 28, 2016 | first1=Jean |last1=Burgess |first2=Joshua |last2=Green |first3=Henry |last3=Jenkins |first4= John |last4=Hartley| author-link1=Jean Burgess |author-link3=Henry Jenkins |author-link4=John Hartley (academic)| isbn=9780745675350 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170303125741/https://books.google.com/books?id=0NsWtPHNl88C | archive-date=March 3, 2017 | url-status=live }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Coppa |first=Francesca |author-link=Francesca Coppa|title=Introduction: Vidding and the Rise of Remix Culture |date=2022 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.10069132.6 |journal=Vidding |pages=1–22 |series=A History |publisher=University of Michigan Press |doi=10.3998/mpub.10069132 |jstor=10.3998/mpub.10069132 |isbn=978-0-472-03852-7 |access-date=July 13, 2023}}
* {{Cite journal|title=Concepts of the database in contemporary media practice|first=Ruth Alexandra |last=Moran|date=April 1, 2017|doi=10.1386/iscc.8.1.21_1|url=https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/iscc.8.1.21_1|journal= Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture|volume=8|issue=1|pages=21–34}}

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YouTube poop - Revision history

KirstenCyv: Video genre