In what you might charitably call an audacious legal move, Garry Newman—he of Garry’s Mod fame—says he’s been served with a DMCA over none other than Skibidi Toilet, the intensely baffling Generation Alpha meme consisting of a Half-Life 2 character’s head beatboxing in a toilet. It was originally made in Garry’s Mod and is also in talks to become a Michael Bay movie. This is the world we live in and we’re just going to have to accept that, you and me.
Newman revealed the DMCA request in a post on the S&box Discord channel, posting a screenshot in which someone claiming to act on behalf of the Michael Bay-run film studio Invisible Narratives (the one attached to the Skibidi Toilet cinematic universe) accuses Garry’s Mod of misusing copyrighted Skibidi Toilet characters like “Titan Cameraman, Titan Speakerman, Titan TV man, and Skibidi Toilet.” Driving the point home, the request says that “There is absolutely no licensed Steam, Valve, Garry’s Mod content related to Skibidi Toilet.”
And what do you know? Look up Titan Cameraman on the United States Copyright Office website, and it has been claimed by Invisible Narratives.
“Can you believe the cheek?” wrote Newman on Discord. He’s got a point: Skibidi Toilet itself owes a whole bunch to Garry’s Mod. It uses the same Half-Life 2 assets that people have been mucking around with in GMod for years, and creator Alexey “Dafuqboom” Gerasimov credits the GMod machinima scene as a big inspiration.
In fact, Gerasimov himself popped up on the S&box Discord to try to get in touch with Newman. “I did NOT strike Garry’s Mod and I’m trying to understand what else is written in the letter!”
Which certainly makes the whole thing seem like a bit of a mystery. It could be, of course, that the upcoming Skibidi Toilet movie—and the rights Gerasimov handed over to Bay and co to make it—have set lawyers aflutter, and GMod has been caught up in that. Or perhaps the whole thing is an elaborate prank.
I’ve reached out to Newman to ask about his intended response to the DMCA, and I’ll update this piece if I hear back. But for now, only Skibidi time will tell.
