The Slimy, Technicolor World of Satisfying YouTube Videos

Massive on YouTube, these viral videos are colonies of forms and formlessness in rainbow hues

I can spend hours watching disembodied hands inject silicone molds with clear or tinted fluids. Sometimes syringes of glitter are involved, or gelatin. Often, there is slime. Coca-Cola features prominently, injected into the kind of membranous and fragile balloon you make from a tube of goo. Or there’s kinetic sand in the perfect shape of a soda bottle. The backgrounds are always white. Charmless unlicensed music plays. People speak softly, if at all.

“Satisfying videos,” as they’re called, are massive on YouTube, viral colonies of forms and formlessness in rainbow hues. It’s impossible to tell who originated them. Faceless channels borrow liberally from one another, continually spawning compilations, propagating the same oddly specific content: “Colors Spoon Ice Jelly,” “Glitter Ball Galaxy Slime,” “Eyeball Jelly Pudding,” “Slime Poking and Cutting Kinetic Sand.” The most popular configurations can claim millions of views, sometimes tens of millions for the scene’s major channels (PomPomToys, ToyMonster, MonsterKids).