Many ideas were planned for Unus Annus, but were dropped due to safety issues, logistical problems, generally being vapid, and/or most damaging of them all, the COVID-19 Pandemic.
General Unused Ideas
- Three unfilmed episodes were mentioned in "Judging Your Terrible Unus Annus Ideas":
- "The Bonerpill Olympics", in which Mark and Ethan would buy a bunch of 'gas station boner pills' and take all of them at once to see what would happen. They ditched the idea when they learned that said industry is unregulated, and could pose health risks.
- "The Pass-Out Challenge", in which they would see how long they could last in a chokehold before passing out. Like the above, this was abandoned for safety reasons — losing consciousness can damage your brain and cause aneurysms down the road.
- "The Fetish Challenge", in which they would watch various types of pornography with a thermal camera aimed at their crotch to see what they found arousing. No reason was given for why this one was cancelled.
"All Our Video Ideas That Never Happened"
November 5th, 2020's video consisted of Mark and Ethan going over every single idea in their backlog of hundreds that didn't make it to production. As such, this resulted in a laundry list of dropped ideas listed below.
- "Parkour," referring to Ethan and Mark planning to visit a parkour trainer and/or training course.
- "Claustrophobia," in which Ethan and Mark would restrain themselves through a rug.
- "Blacklight," one of Ethan's ideas in which they would shine blacklights in each others' rooms. Mark mentions calling the idea vapid when Ethan first put it in, but also adds that there is genuine credence to it in hindsight - ever shined a blacklight in a cheap hotel room?
- "Watching Ethan Sleep."
- "Five Senses," where Ethan and Mark would compete for having the best five senses. Mark describes a hypothetical scene where Amy would hold out some aromatherapy products at a distance and measure the farthest at which he or Ethan could smell them.
- "Guessing Each Other's Wills." Mark notes that there's a conundrum in that idea since he doesn't actually have a last will, despite his persistence in getting one worked out.
- A collaboration with William Osman was planned in which they would build a machine that would lick a Tootsie Pop down to the center with literally anything except for Tootsie Pops themselves.
- Asking YouTubers what's on their bucket list; the original plan was to use their responses to plan out collaborations. Despite the herculean task of properly networking with lots of people, Mark and Ethan were well on their way to starting the project until the pandemic hit.
- Mark was originally threatened to get his nipples pierced if the channel couldn't get more than a million subscribers. You can probably guess why this didn't happen.
- Mark and Ethan were also supposed to get tattoos if a certain condition involving a non-descript threshold was met. It was at this point that they dropped any similar ideas due to it not fitting in with the channel's spirit.
- "Making Weapons for Each Other" and then fighting with them; Ethan considers it a missed opportunity rather than anything actually preventing the idea from happening.
- A paintball fight was supposed to be hosted which pitted a fully-geared Mark and Ethan against 500 viewers. Even without the pandemic, Ethan states that the logistics involved were far beyond what the channel was capable of.
- In rapid succession, Mark mentions stunt car racing, skydiving, and bungee jumping; the last one was meant to be a collaboration with Pokimane, though it eventually fell through when she didn't respond.
- Performing in a burlesque show was next, which Mark comments could've been a collaboration with Vixen Deville.
- Mark desperately (okay, maybe not desperately) wanted to get stung by a bullet ant. The Freeze-Frame Bonus in this part suggests that they had trouble securing a live specimen to use.
- "How Much Criticism can Ninja Take?", where Mark and Ethan would call him up and sling as many insults at him as possible, likely in reference to several memes and jabs at his perceived inability to handle being called out by others.
- Trying to see how many copies of Fortnite can a bullet shoot through. Or Elmo, for that matter. Ethan is honestly quite stumped when he and Mark get to this one.
