Line #15 WebAnimation/FingerFamilyVideos


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spiderman_finger_family_0.jpg]]
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3	Finger Family is the name for a popular yet bizarre group of animated children's videos on Website/YouTube based on a nursery rhyme of the same name (though sometimes other nursery rhymes such as "Five little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" are used). These videos are often found on different channels from each other with varying art styles, but what they all share in common is [[LimitedAnimation poorly done animation]], being scored to nursery rhyme music and absolutely bizarre content. Though it's hard to pinpoint when exactly these videos became popular, the earliest known one (often referred to as "Patient zero") was released in 2007. It had no connections to the current videos being an average kid friendly video, but sooner or later imitators spawned that added stranger content. Perhaps what makes Finger Family so weird in comparison to so many other children's nursery rhyme videos is the fact that rather than using their own original characters in their videos, they instead use licensed characters.
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5	Yes, that's right. There are ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' finger family videos as well as there ComicBook/BatMan, [[Anime/DragonBallZ Goku]], WesternAnimation/PeppaPig and Manga/YuGiOh (Though the most popular videos tend to star either [[Franchise/{{Frozen}} Elsa]], the ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' family, [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]], [[Franchise/DespicableMe The Minions]] or Franchise/MickeyMouse.) There's a joke that you can type in the name of any popular fictional franchise behind the words "finger family" and pull up a finger family video. Yep, from more kid oriented franchises like ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' to more adult franchises like ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and ''Manga/DeathNote'', there exists a finger family video for almost anything out there. But that's not even the weirdest part. There are two types of finger family videos, music videos and "story" videos. The Music videos are the most common and basically see the aforementioned licensed characters dancing to the finger family song or whatever nursery rhyme song the video is based on.
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7	The Story kind sees the characters interacting with each other (including characters from different franchises) in a series of mime-like sketches. Said interactions are so insane that they make the average CrackFic seem relatively sane in comparison. Among the insane scenarios featured in these videos are [[WeirdCrossover Spiderman going a picnic with Elsa]], [[CrackShip Elsa and the Hulk]] taking [[{{Squick}} the children they had with each other]] to the park and [[HulkingOut hulked out]] versions of the Pig family fighting ''WesternAnimation/PawPatrol'' zombies. Suffice to say, the story videos really place the characters in all sorts of situations that must be seen to believed. Surprisingly the content of the videos aren't even the strangest part of the videos.
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9	There are hundreds of different finger family channels and thousands of individual videos, but the authorship of these videos still remain unknown. There has been no one who has officially come forward admitting themselves to be the creators of the finger family videos (lucky for them or else they'd have probably had their pants sued off by now). Theories range from automated bots programmed to make videos to earn views to [[ThePrankster a random guy pranking everyone]] to a sentient AI trying to use the videos to communicate with humanity. Of course nothing is known for sure but what is known is that it's impossible to all be the work of one person due to the sheer amount of the videos along with the fact that tons of new ones come out every week. What we do know is that a lot of different channels are indeed connected in the fact that a lot of similar BackgroundMusic is used. Virtually every single version of the finger family song is sung by someone with a very heavy Indian accent, and it isn't uncommon to see entirely different channels complimenting each other in the comment section. The most likely case scenario is that the videos are being mass produced by some obscure, small animation company in India to earn some money from getting thousands of views from kids.
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11	A lot of the videos have notably stirred up controversy among parents for having [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids child unfriendly content]]. It isn't uncommon to find a video with blood, characters suffering grievous injuries, sexual content, and sometimes even the videos' titles containing swear words (specifically the "P word"). There are also some other things (such as ToiletHumour and pregnancy) that aren't inappropriate for kids in themselves, but are presented in an inappropriate way. For instance, the toilet jokes might go next-level to the point where it's not safe for daytime TV, or a woman might be seen graphically giving birth onscreen. A rather notorious finger family channel called Superkids TV was well known for this kind of content including an infamous scene where Elsa gets her arm stuck in an escalator and [[AnArmAndALeg ripped off]] in a brutal fashion. The term used for these kind of videos is called Elsa[[{{Scandalgate}} gate]] though it also applies to non-finger family videos including toy channels, unboxing channels and channels where people dress up as popular kids' characters doing the same inappropriate content as the animated ones. The concern with Elsagate videos reached its peak with the shutting down of a completely unrelated channel to the finger family videos called Toy Freaks which featured a dad placing his two daughters in completely inappropriate situations in order to earn views.
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13	The whole ordeal ended up raising awareness of Elsagate videos which lead to Website/YouTube updating its policy in 2017 and shutting down hundreds of finger family channels and taking down a lot of videos that fell into the Elsagate category. It should be noted however that not all finger family videos are Elsagate and almost none of the Elsagate ones are available on Website/YouTube anymore. That said, there are still a few out there on Website/YouTube though they're pretty hard to find and tend to get very few views and there are also a lot on less child friendly viewing websites like Platform/{{Vimeo}}. Regardless of the controversy, ''Finger Family'' has developed a small fanbase of older people who like to watch it for the sole purpose of laughing at the [[SoBadItsGood insanity of the videos and the poorly done animation]] plus how addictive they are. One such person even went on to make a popular Website/YouTube channel called Toys in Japan featuring a bunch of finger family parodies for adults (with the most famous being Five little [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitlers]] "jumping on the bed").
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15	It became so popular that the channel wasn't deleted when Website/YouTube purged itself of inappropriate finger family videos but it was re-branded as an adult channel. Another similar parody emerged in the form of the infamous king of uncanny valley Johnny Johnny Yes Papa videos on the Edukayfun channel. The videos became popular quickly due to how creepy they were almost to memetic levels but were taken down due to being too scary for small children. The popularity of the channel lead to it being resurrected as Edukayfun 2.0 but re-branded as an adult only channel.
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17	Part of the YouTubeKidsChannel trend.
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20	!!''Daddy trope, daddy trope, where are you?''
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22	* AbusiveParents: A lot of the parents in the finger family world are pretty dang awful. Among the horrors they commit are leaving their toddlers in the middle of the road and leaving dangerous objects out where their little kids can play with them and then proceeding to severely punish the poor kids after they get hurt from the dangerous object they left out. This rule does not apply to all of the parents however.
23	* AdaptationalWimp: Nearly every character in the series has been shown breaking down crying like a baby at some point. This include the badass Batman and the indestructible Hulk.
24	* ArtShift: As the videos are done by different channels, the way the characters are animated or even drawn varies. You can be watching a rather detailed character one minute a chibi character the next video and the next a Claymation video.
25	* AscendedMeme: [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.fingerfamilyapp.fingerfamilyapp Now you too can create your own custom Finger Family video]].
26	* BigBad: You can bet that if there's a villain in the videos, it's either going to be ComicBook/TheJoker or [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]].
27	* CrapsaccharineWorld: The finger family universe initially seems like a great place to live when you think about it. Colorful and full of all of your favorite fictional characters it seems like nothing could possibly go wrong. Except for the fact that AdultsAreUseless is in full effect, with most of the adults being helpless to do anything about the various villains running around, and a lot of the parents being so incompetent they're borderline abusive. The law enforcement fails on a regular basis to capture common criminals and the few times they are competent, they're jailing and shooting kids for [[DisproportionateRetribution accidentally busting a guy's window]]. The superheroes seem like they'll make the world a little better but they tend to neglect their heroic duties in favor of having a picnic or going shopping.
28	* {{Crossover}}: And a darn big one too. The series often sees characters from other franchises interacting with each other. Probably the only series where you can see Elsa and Anna fight over [[WesternAnimation/BubbleGuppies Gil]].
29	* DependingOnTheWriter: How the characters are drawn tends to depend on the channel they're on.
30	* WeirdCrossover: A lot of the crossovers are totally bizarre, like Spider-Man/Frozen.
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Context WebAnimation / FingerFamilyVideos