On the surface, 'Skibidi Toilet' and the montage parody may seem to be similarly nonsensical video forms, designed to be a mindless cacophany of noise and movement, interpreted as parallel media for different generations. This would be a disingenuous interpretation. It ignores the contrasting contexts of production and reception for both, contexts which mean they cannot be compared without an understanding of the differing intentions beside these two genre of video.
Here, 'Skibidi Toilet' refers both to the video content created by 'DaFuq!?Boom!' and the plethora of related video content by other creators. This content primarily seems to exist in the medium of youtube shorts, and is slightly asburd - this is from where the comparison with montage parodies is drawn, this and them both being prominent on youtube, but it is here where the similarities between 'Skibidi Toilet'and montage parodies end. It could be argued that the use of the peculiar to entertain an audience grants both artistic merit, but that is untrue - the peculiar nature of 'Skibidi Toilet' is not unique and is similar to that of a plethora of other 'children's' content which places an emphasis on usually toilet-based humour as a way for the creator to make money. In other words, it is very different to the ironic, but genuine, humour of the montage parody. So, the two may seem similar at first, but are in fact separated by the intent behind their content, as well as their audience.
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| The thumbnail of 'Harry Potter and the Noscoper's Stone' - silly and obviously handmade. |
Expanding on the previous point, the seemingly genuine nature of the montage parody can be explained by the context of production. Montage parodies were predominatly made by teenagers for other, similar teenagers, and were parodies of other media, usually those enjoyed by said teens, an example of which would be 'Harry Potter and the Noscopers Stone', made by a then teenaged 'Memeulous'. It's silly, but it's fun, and importantly, is genuine. Contrastingly, the children's content of which Skibidi Toilet is an example is usually made by adults either for the purpose of synically making money from an audience of young children, or as functional entertainment for children - it has value as it serves a purpose, but has different artistic value to the montage parody. Overall, the montage parody stands out as different because of why they were made. Rather than video for video's sake, they are an exploration of video editing made by young people in an age where making youtube videos was a relatively new thing.
To conclude, it would be disingenuous to say that only one has value, but instead this piece argues that they have different values. Whilst neither are simply meaningless, they are not comparable either. They are often touted as equivalent phoenomena for different generations, but they are not artistic equivalents, being that they are made by different demographics, for different audiences, with different intentions. The montage parody is creative video, and 'Skibidi Toilet' (and its derivatives) is functional video, without the creative, genuine spark that made the Montage Parody genre so memorable.