10Cyriak
Cyriak is a professional freelance animator from the UK. He has been uploading videos to YouTube since 2006. Typically, Cyriak uses Photoshop and After Effects to edit his work, and his resume includes commercials and music videos. He’s even animated some of Adult Swim’s signature “bumps.” But just about everything Cyriak has ever done is incredibly creepy. Several of his videos begin with mild-mannered clips of everyday sights—like a herd of cows eating, or a house cat meowing—before morphing into horrifying, multi-limbed nightmares. Cyriak’s most disturbing video: “Something.” In this video, Cyriak edits some old, seemingly innocuous black-and-white clips into—well—something else. Multiple faces begin to appear on people’s heads, and not long after that, streams of multi-faced heads begin to flow from everyone’s bodies. Yikes.
9Seinfeldspitstain
Seinfeldspitstain has been uploading videos since 2013. Most of his videos are computer animations. In the short amount of time that he’s been active, seinfeldspitstain has achieved some mild success, and his computer animation quality has improved dramatically. Seinfeldspitstain seems to have a particular fascination with the Nickelodeon franchise Jimmy Neutron, which consists of a movie and television series. Jimmy Neutron is a boy genius who uses inventions to solve problems. Seinfeldspitstain’s most disturbing video: “Jimmy Neutron Happy Family Hour,” which is literally anything but a happy family hour. In this poorly animated video, Mrs. Neutron tells Jimmy she is cooking dinner, but is then killed by Jimmy’s father, Hugh—who then demands that Jimmy order a pizza and spend quality time with him. When Jimmy answers the door for the pizza, it flies into the room and decapitates Hugh. That pizza was aggressive.
8Larry Carlson
Larry Carlson is a Vermont-based artist whose express goal is to make his work as trippy as possible. He’s done it in many mediums, too, including video, photography, print collage, and music. Carlson likes to explore surrealism and mysticism, with the results being nothing short of psychedelic. A graduate of Cooper Union School of Art in New York City, Carlson has shown his art around the world. Carlson has been uploading videos to YouTube since 2006, but much of his work, including older flash videos, can be found directly on his website. Have fun playing around with Jim the Spider. Larry Carlson’s most disturbing video: “In Your Cube.” After a while, Larry Carlson’s splitting faces and trippy colors all start to blend together, but “In Your Cube” inexplicably features a dummy speaking nonsensically behind psychedelic patterns. After some time, the dummy tags out for some of Carlson’s signature psychedelic color flashes—but don’t worry, the dummy will be back.
7Don’t Hug Me .I’m Scared
UK-based Don’t Hug Me .I’m Scared seems like a children’s channel upon first impression. It makes use of puppets and bright colors, and most of its videos appear to have been filmed on the set of some faux children’s program. Of course, kid shows don’t usually feature copious amounts of blood and organs. Don’t Hug Me has only been around since 2010, and most of their videos are actually advertisements for a now successfully funded Kickstarter to make more videos. Don’t Hug Me’s most disturbing video: “Don’t Hug me I’m Scared,” the channel’s titular flagship video. The video features three puppets eating breakfast, when they are suddenly interrupted by a talking notebook who encourages them to get creative. It seems like a normal enough children’s program, but before you know it, craft projects and cakes are full of human organs.
6Andywilson92
Andywilson92 has produced over 100 low-quality computer-animated videos, and pretty much all of them are unsettling. His main focus seems to be ruining everyone’s childhoods—he’s made disturbing parodies of Sonic the Hedgehog, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Legend of Zelda, and The Simpsons, among others. Wilson has been uploading videos since 2009. This year, he also started a gaming channel. Andywilson92’s most disturbing video: “Squidward’s Suicide.” This video is based on a popular creepypasta of the same name, which is a story about a mysterious episode of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants. Squidward performs poorly at a clarinet recital, and after he returns home, the viewer is presented with a series of disturbing images before Squidward ultimately kills himself. Wilson’s take on the tale is an almost intolerable, incredibly annoying, and disturbing caricature of the original. The short features a grotesque Patrick and menacing, female Spongebob annoying their neighbor Squidward (who is particularly deformed) until he kills himself.
5Nana825763
We’ve mentioned one of nana825763’s videos before—“Username: 666,” about a user finding a secret demonic channel on YouTube. Much of nana’s channel is in the same vein: terrifying, creepy, and eerie, and all-too reminiscent of popular conceptions of Hell. Watch this video on YouTube Nana825763 has been uploading videos since 2006. One of the longest-running series on the channel is actually, randomly, an ant diary, which follows the progress of nana’s pet ant colony. These, for the most part, are horror-free, though they often feature grotesque dolls in the background. Nana825763’s most disturbing video: “Mr. East Loves Mom,” which starts out with a video of a cute baby. Simple enough. But then, the screen messes up, and images and noises become indecipherable. In between the mess, you can hear the beep of a heart monitor.
4Jillian Mayer
Jillian Mayer is an American postmodern artist. Mayer often explores the implications of our growing dependence on technology, but she usually does so in ways that might leave some viewers unsettled (if not extremely confused). While her art has been featured all around the world, Mayer is probably best known for her viral YouTube hit, “I Am Your Grandma.” In this video, Mayer leaves a message for her as-of-yet unborn grandchildren through a brief song, during which she dons a series of creepy and scary costumes. It might be a message they would rather have not received. Jillian Mayer’s most disturbing video: “Day Chip.” A young woman and her friend are lounging around, casually performing some unexplained ritual. Suddenly, one woman is carving open the other’s forehead with a box cutter. When the injured woman wakes, she is pleased to find that a large computer chip has been haphazardly shoved into her forehead. She uses it to access images of the Internet (from the early 2000s, for some reason) before freaking out due to information overload.
3Vikram Yadav
Vikram Yadav is an Indian doctor who uploads videos of his medical procedures—but, apparently, only the most grotesque ones. His channel features everything from pimples and blackheads to gashes and deformities. For the medically uninitiated, Yadav’s videos are educational—and disgusting. Though Yadav has only been a member of YouTube for four years, he has uploaded over 1,000 videos. He currently uploads new videos every Sunday and Wednesday. Vikram Yadav’s most disturbing video: There’s so much to sift through, it’s hard to say. But we’ll go with “Severe Dog Bite & Abscess Drained,” which features an unfortunate girl whose scalp has been ripped open by a dog. Not only that, but she has a large abscess (think of it as an uber pimple) behind her ear. Yadav is kind enough to drain it, and blood and pus ooze out.
2RubberFruit
Team Fortress 2, a video game by Valve, is commonplace on the weird side of YouTube. It’s a multiplayer first-person shooter that features class-based cartoony warfare. Many YouTubers have made hobbies of editing Team Fortress 2 characters—like Spy, Soldier, or Heavy—into odd and unusual videos using a program called Garry’s Mod. RubberFruit is one of those YouTubers. His videos are typically disjointed and confusing. Besides Team Fortress 2, RubberFruit has drawn on characters from Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog, among others. RubberFruit’s most disturbing video: “Spy Gets His Driver’s License.” We can only assume from the title that Spy (from Team Fortress 2) has just gotten his driver’s license. He’s celebrating this by driving a pink car in a desert in front of an army of robots. Some friends appear to warn Spy of danger. He turns around and is eaten by a giant Wario head. He wakes up elsewhere, lying on the ground, then contemplates things for a moment, before scurrying away like a crab.
1David Firth
David Firth is a British animator whose strange, nightmarish cartoons have actually garnered him quite a bit of success in the UK (they’ve even been featured on the BBC). As of 2013, he is working on a feature-length film with the working title The Meadow Man. Firth has been on YouTube since 2006. Many of his earliest videos are live-action, not animated, and feature a character named Devvo (played by Firth) acting rather silly. David Firth’s most disturbing video: “Dog of Man.” A man is jealous of his house plant’s growths. His dog, which communicates in English with the help of a machine, encourages the man to buy “tumor seeds” at the store. He plants them in his own body by slicing a chunk of it open. Tumors aren’t good, of course, and when the growth becomes too large, the dogs offers his own body to the man as a replacement. The man chops off the dog’s head and limbs and replaces them with his own. Garcia has also contributed to KnowledgeNuts.
