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if you've been around youtube for a bit, you've probably seen this face:
[image of the bfdi smile]
it'd be more odd if you haven't, honestly. it's become very common to use all over video thumbnails, for whatever reason.
i don't really know why it's so popular. eye-catching, maybe. looks funny, especially on a human person.
and it does, it does look funny. but, okay, where is it actually /from/?
well, luckily, it's not some drawn-out internet mystery. chances are, going to any video that happens to use this smile, and heading towards the comments section, will yield you at least. three comments maybe. going "LOL!!! BFDI mouth jumpscare!!!" or something. i dont use youtube a lot anymore. stay with me here
Battle For Dream Island is a youtube indie animation series created by the Huang brothers, officially beginning on January 1st, 2010, with the upload of BFDI Episode 1a, "Take the Plunge". as of March 2025, the first episode (well, the part one to the first episode, anyway) sits at around 71 million views on Youtube. The show revolves around inanimate objects competing in a series of competitions for a chance to win a prize-- originally a decked-out resort island, the eponymous Dream Island. The show currently spans five seasons; Battle For Dream Island, Battle For Dream Island Again (BFDIA), Island Dream For Battle (IDFB), Battle For BFDI (BFB), and Battle For Dream Island: The Power Of Two (TPOT or i guess BFDI:TPOT). add dates for seasons later
there. now that you know the basics, i can talk about II you see, BFDI is actually far from the only show of its kind; it's actually something of a trailblazer for indie animation. it ended up spawning hundreds of shows mimicking the format of "objects competing for a prize". many broke the mold and created BFDI-inspired shows outside of the genre of reality-competition, but a majority tend to keep to safe waters and stay within. which isn't bad, far from it; object shows, as they went on to be called, can still do interesting things even when they /are/ competing for a prize, though most successfull shows have more to them than that. before we talk about the wider community and the legacy of BFDI, though, we should touch on II. Inanimate Insanity is generally considered both the second ever object show and the second biggest, behind BFDI only in both. It began on september 14, 2011 (at this point BFDI was still running; its first season only concluded in 2012) with "The Crappy Cliff", and has been going since. currently, it has three seasons: Inanimate Insanity, II Seasons 2 (yeah), and Inanimate Insanity Invintational (III). Seasons 1 is also getting a remaster, which is much needed, because the original season looked like this. [screencap of e1] GRANTED. a) this was released in 2012 by Literal Children, and b) later episodes actually give some pretty interesting lore reasons as to why it looked like that in-universe. that said, though, it's something of a barrier for entry to newcomers. It also probably doesn't help that the voice actor of the show's host, in episode one (only episode one) happens to be the former voice actor of Chris McLean from Total Drama (ironic, as BFDI was originally a parody of TD was originally a parody of Survivor), which was... more of a boast in 2011 than today. I know very little about TD, but I will say that in 2023, it was confirmed that Terry McGurrin would be voicing the character going forward. The previous actor was replaced due to "creative differences". I don't... fully thing that's the case (FROM AN OUTSIDER POV. AGAIN I KNOW NEXT TO LITTLE ABOUT TD) Which isn't to say II hasn't had their share of controversial cast members (cough taylor cough justin), but regardless. II helped popularize the concept of object shows. While it shares plenty in common with BFDI, such as the overall format and the shared enjoyment of pausing seasons only to begin a brand new one (in BFDI's case, releasing episodes for two (TPOT and BFB) at once), and while the creators of both remain close friends, having done voicework for each others shows and even going on US tours together, II was markedly different. S2's later episodes had a markedly more mature tone (and musical numbers!), and Invintational styled itself as a more... I hesitate to say professional show? but it kind of felt like they were trying to replicate actual cartoons in subtle ways, such as the way the titles were displayed at the beginning of each episode in quotes, and like the humour? felt different? it's been a minute since ive seen II but trust me here
II showed people that they could just Make Their Own Show, and perhaps even be successful, and it gave them a blank slate medium (object shows) to do that. Without II, it's quite possible that there may simply not /be/ other object shows. Instead, today, we've got thousands upon thousands of people making their own, unique indie shows, and I think that's really cool. you don't need prior experience or money to make an object show; you just need an idea and a lot of free time. there's an utterly fascinating community (the object show community, or OSC, is what it's called by the way) surrounding this gateway into animation, and it's almost like a fandom within a fandom? like it's not exactly seperate fandoms, it's not quite overlapping fandoms. it's one big fandom for multiple shows only connected by inspiration, and i think that's fascinating.
ive always been struck by how... neurodivergent object shows and the wider community are. for one, the very concept of them; when you create an object show, or even your own object OCs, you're giving life to things around you, things which you may not notice on a daily basis, and because of that you're getting kind of in touch with the world, in a weird way. which is on its own an incredibly cool thing, and probably what draws me to object shows the most. but it also strikes me as incredibly similar to object personification, which is very common to see in multiple neurodivergences, most famously autism, as well as adhd and ocd off the top of my head (though im sure it doesnt end there). it probably wont surprise you, then, that a notable portion of the OSC is some form of neurodivergent
i'm sure it also doesn't hurt that, as stated above, the fandom is really three hundred fandoms in a trench coat. you'll never run out of shows to watch, and it's all free and very easily accessible. there's always something new to stumble upon. that alone makes it a great hyperfixation, though i can't help but notice the joy many- and by many i mean I- take in rattling off all the object shows ive watched and scouring the fandom for more. it feels almost like creating and engaging with a collection of trinkets. which is, speaking from personal experience, very appealing to neurodivergents. the collection and the trinkets both.
now, of course, it's probably worth talking about some of those "thousands upon thousands" of object shows. granted, with the very nature of object shows being indie cartoons, and on youtube of all places, most fizzle out and get cancelled after a few episodes. it's not unsurprising; many of the people who start their own shows are young and don't have much experience running a show. but! a handful have been able to achieve niche internet stardom by making object shows, with some even being able to produce their own merchandise
off the top of my head:
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