During YouTube’s Geek Week, you’re in for an Easter egg hunt of a different kind.
Easter eggs have long been a staple in video games, TV shows, and even movies. They’re hidden nods to the audience by the designers, inserted to reward the super-fans who take the time to look for them.
On YouTube, it’s almost like a competition. You don’t win for “being first” (or commenting that you were first). You earn a series of badges (think Pokémon) for every Easter egg you unlock, for taking the Geek IQ test, and for watching as many Geek Week videos as possible.
Each Easter Egg is a nod to a different aspects of geek culture, and you can unlock many of them with a simple search or even while watching one of the many videos made this week.
YouTube has given out hints throughout the week on its official Twitter account, but we’ve got the lowdown on all of the Easter eggs in one place so that you can collect them all.
1) YouTube, ASCII-style
Type “/ geek week” into the search bar (that space is vital) and discover the ASCII version of YouTube: old-school graphics with a black background and a serif typeface.
2) “Beam me up, Scotty”
Although nobody in the Star Trek TV show and films ever actually uttered the phrase “beam me up, Scotty” to chief engineer Montgomery Scott, typing the iconic catchphrase into the search engine will transport the search results right to you.
3) Use the Force, Luke
You no longer need Midi-chlorians in your body to use the Force. Just typing Obi-Wan Kenobi’s advice to Luke Skywalker into the search field will give you access to those powers (although only on that particular page).
4) Fibonacci Sequence
The Fibonacci Sequence might come in handy in mathematics, but you don’t actually need to know the sequence of numbers to unlock this Easter egg. Just type in “Fibonacci” and you can see the resulting videos pop up in a corresponding spiral.
5) Leetspeak
Type in “1337” (leetspeak for “leet”) anywhere that isn’t the search bar or comment box while watching any video and see the comments section turn into a jumble of 13375P34K, which just might improve them.
6) POW!
A feature only for Geek Week videos published on Aug. 6. On the same tab where you can adjust volume, quality, and queue the video to watch later, you’ll see a “POW!” button. Click that and your video is transformed into a grainy-looking video comic book.
7) Missile Command
Type “1980” while watching any video and you’ll be thrust into a game of Missile Command, the classic 1980 Atari game. You’ll have to protect your video from the missiles raining down on it, and if you let too many pass by, your video will break.
8) My Little Pony
An Easter egg just for the Bronies. Type in the name of any character from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic into the search bar, and your bar will change colors.
Photo via worldofheroes/YouTube
