In the genres of things that didn’t exist before the internet age, photos and videos tagged as “oddly satisfying” are up there with both the exceptionally weird, and overwhelmingly wonderful. A term born out of reddit as an attempt to describe the inexplicably pleasing quality that watching some mundane thing could rouse in its viewer, oddly satisfying videos encompass everything from watching pressure washers clean pavements to marbled cake glazing and industrial machines cutting through ice. Defining the oddly satisfying is akin to throwing a scrunched up ball of paper and getting it smack bang in the trash can the first time round. And then watching it as a compilation, over and over and over again.
However in recent months the tag “oddly satisfying” has been hijacked by teens across the US and UK making psychedelic videos that feature disembodied hands mixing glitter, glue and other materials in a play-dough like substance called slime. It blew up the oddly satisfying tag to unprecedented proportions (there are now nearly 900k posts tagged as #oddlysatisfying on Instagram alone), but this wasn’t just found in slime-making. Other concoctions quick began to appear such as kinetic sand slicing, soap cutting, paint mixing, and there are just as many videos using cake, sponge, liquid metal, icing – whatever materials that are malleable enough to make it a satisfying watch.
Whether it’s pouring, cutting, washing, mixing or slicing, an entire ecosystem of these videos has surfaced, hypnotising the internet in a technicolour dream of instant satisfaction. Which got me wondering, what exactly is it about oddly satisfying videos that make them, well, so oddly satisfying?
Visually congruent
“In 2018, we don’t need to be able to explain why we like something in order for it to exist,” says Kevin Allocca, head of trends and culture at YouTube and author of Videocracy. I ask Allocca why he thinks oddly satisfying has become such a huge online phenomenon. “I don’t know if it’s necessarily a thing that’s tied to this moment,” he says. But he believes the change lies in the taxonomy, of now being able to categorise the oddly satisfying. “I think we’ve always had a desire to watch these type of things, but we just didn’t have a language for it. Now we do.”
Explaining why we like anything can be complicated, but within the diversity of oddly satisfying videos on the web we can perhaps find some clues. Unlike the older versions of the oddly satisfying, what these newer videos have in common (aside from the lurid colours and excessive glitter) is a deliberate recreation of visually congruous elements that have no real utility other than to satisfy its viewers. It is purposeful where others before were accidental, but it is also creative. “There is something about finding congruence in visual stimuli that seems to be the value,” says Allocca. “I think people are starting to understand that there is an art to creating things that are oddly satisfying.”
A childlike focus
According to Google, slime became the biggest DIY trend of 2017 – even causing a national shortage of glue in the US. It had all the right elements – cheap and low cost materials, quick and easy to make, visually captivating, and of course had an army of young teens with the time and the online know how to replicate one another’s movements. But most interesting, is that young, digitally-equipped people are watching these videos before they go to bed to help them sleep. Because of this, there have been numerous reports that watching videos of slime and other things under the oddly satisfying umbrella help make people feel relaxed and calm, which has led to some conjecture as to whether the “oddly satisfying” is in fact another branch of ASMR. Professor Craig Richard, founder of ASMR University, believes it is – albeit a specific trigger type which he calls observation-mediated ASMR. “What many of this videos have in common is that they feature people doing something skilled with their hands,” he says. Richard also believes that this second wave has captivated younger audiences because it appeals to our more childlike tendencies. “It is appealing to our younger brain because we’re hardwired to be entranced by hand movements,” he says. “We evolved to learn fine motor skills by watching what someone else is doing with their hands, because the benefit of that is you just might learn something.”
It can be argued that the oddly satisfying has seen a surge in popularity driven by younger audiences because younger people are exposed to screen time earlier, and so do not come across the tactile oddly satisfying experiences in their everyday in the physical realm. Instead, they are turning towards deliberating creating them for online consumption. Like ASMR, it seems that audiences are watching these videos as a kind of microtherapy – a shot of anxiety reducing relief. Dr Anita Deák, a psychology professor at the University of Pécs, thinks that one of the reasons why people are saying that watching these videos help them feel relaxed is because of something called mirror neuron theory. “Mirror neurons are motor neurons in the brain that become active when we see someone doing an action,” she says. “But these neurons are also active when we do the action.” In essence, viewers are deriving pleasure from these videos as if they were actually conducting the action themselves.
Though Deák doesn’t believe we can speculate on the calming effects these videos are said to have, she thinks their popularity lies in the ‘instant hit’ of the experience – but that they would find more anxiety-relieving effects if they were to have these experiences in real life. “When you do it in real life you not only have visual information but kinaesthetic, acoustic, olfactory,” she says. “In my opinion, it would be more relaxing if you had the full experience.”
Cinematicity of the everyday
I distinctly remember recognising my first oddly satisfying experience. It was 2011, when Lindt aired its famous ‘Dream in Chocolate’ advert for Lindor. In the 30 second advert, the gooey chocolate centre continues to fill up, precariously threatening to ooze over the sides. I later became obsessed with melting chocolate, trying to recreate that experience if only for a moment. It was addictive and the pleasure of the action was in fact, more satisfying that consuming the chocolate after.
Advertising has used the construct of the oddly satisfying for decades to create visually arresting videos that capture our attention. They showcase perfect moments, perfect actions. But these are manufactured experiences, constructed experiences, made by experts. In real life the chocolate in the Lindt advert would spill over, but in the ad it is perfect. This has led to some theories about the oddly satisfying being a quest for finality, the ‘just right’ Goldilocks feeling that many sufferers with OCD search for. But in the diversity of the videos under the oddly satisfying umbrella we can find videos that include both finished and unfinished tasks, both the creation of something and the destruction of it. It is clear that there is something for everyone and the satisfaction derived from the videos perhaps actually has a much simpler explanation.
In an essay penned by Evan Malone, a professor of art and film philosophy at the University of Houston, he describes his interaction of the oddly satisfying as a “daily moment of transcendental bliss in streaming videos of folks pressure-washing their driveways.” For Malone, the oddly satisfying is an ordinary, mundane, everyday experience that when works just right, assumes a cinematic feeling.
Malone thinks that this cinematicity of the everyday is being replicated through this new wave of oddly satisfying videos on the internet, but also assumes what French philosopher Baudrillard conceptualised as the ‘hyper-real’. “In the beginning it seemed like there was this element of hyper reality, it’s like your real life but better! It’s more real, and by more real it’s more cinematic, it’s perfect in a way,” he says. “And now it seems like theres this a second of wave of things that seem even more hyper real: the colours are richer, it’s more cinematic.”
But how does the oddly satisfying manifest? “There’s some kind of aesthetic quality that is visual, but it could also be tactile. It could also be the sound, a nice click when something closes,” he says. “There seems to be something unifying about all these vastly different things that are just entirely different sense modalities.”
Whether right now it’s a generation finding relief in watching the playful manipulation of materials, the oddly satisfying for just a moment holds the promise of perfection, of beautifully controlled chaos. “We get these shots of cinematicity that burst into our conscious experience when something works or fits just right in a way it rarely does in our usually, clumsy real life,” he says. “It’s a comforting escapism, something that’s familiar but more ordered, more cinematic than reality.”
But in the end, Malone thinks that there is no need to rely on finding the oddly satisfying through web video. “I would hate for people to watch these videos and feel like they are dependent for a hit,” he says. “The most satisfying moments for me still are the ones that happen in my lived experience.” Whether it’s getting that ball of paper in the trash can the first time round, cutting that cake just right or taking a moment to watch your barista artfully swirl the milk at the top of your latte, it may be easier than you think to find the oddly satisfying in your everyday. Which, after all, is an oddly satisfying thought in itself.
