Full Stop Punctuation, or Typing "." into YouTube, was a glitch in YouTube's search function in the mid-00s which brought otherwise unlisted search results to the top of the page. The website quirk, known by early YouTubers, brought all kinds of content that would otherwise be deemed inappropriate to the forefront until the platform put a stop to it.
Meme basics:
- Meme Creator: Unknown
- Meme Type: YouTube glitch
- First Appearance: June 2006
- Origin Source: YouTube
- Peak Popularity: May 2015
What does typing Full Stop Punctuation or "." on YouTube mean?
A glitch in YouTube's algorithm went viral in 2006 after users noticed it provided unusual search results. By typing either Full Stop Punctation or ".", videos of particularly horrifying, gory, or quirkily comedic content would appear in the search results.
YouTube users noted that while some of the content was just shitposting kind of content, others went deeper into violence and gore.
When did the glitch first show up?
Google searches for the two terms first began to appear in 2006, with searches peaking in 2008. However, what started as YouTube's inside secret spread to other social media platforms.
In 2019, u/reeveomega1 posted to r/ElsaGate — a community dedicated to understanding why ominous or violent messaging was being packaged in animated content directed in kids on YouTube — about the phenomenon.
Why does the Full Stop Punctuation YouTube glitch happen?
There are a few theories online as to why the YouTube glitch was present in the first place. One Redditor believed it was the result of the platform not filtering periods out of search results. They also pointed out that it doesn't happen with other punctuation marks.
Some also theorized that the periods somehow interfered with the platform's algorithm and that tagging videos with certain punctuation marks allowed them to bypass YouTube's review. Videos that might otherwise have been taken down for violating the platform's Terms of Service thus continued to live and proliferate on the platform.
YouTube has never officially commented on the glitch or the content that appeared as a result.
Does the glitch still exist?
The glitch no longer exists. One Redditor noted that it disappeared around 2021 after an algorithm update stopped these random, often inappropriate videos from being pulled into the search results.
That said, many of the videos added Full Stop Punctuation or "." into the video's descriptions or elsewhere in the metadata. Now, videos with these tags will appear in the search because the search is functioning as intended, pulling content related to those tags rather than random untagged content as it did previously.
Was Full Stop Punctuation replaced?
Redditor u/Cringe_Dumpster highlighted some other searches that yielded similar responses. According to them, the following searches also produce gory, uncomfortable, and otherwise unusual videos can be found under these searches
- "jdjdjdjdj🥰s"
- "💀, 💀🐛 , 🤢 , 💩 ,🔪💀🫀"
- "......__", "/.. ⚽+🐧+☕+🌳🌳+🐘"
- "ø·ø ̈ùšù„ø© ø£øoù†ùšø© ù„ù„ø£ø·ù ø§ù„ ù„ùšø ̈ùšø§ шрек0"
The poster warns these searches should not be attempted lightly, writing, "These videos are potentially life-changing, and not in a good way. These videos are horribly disgusting and horrid. I recommend NEVER searching that because I'm pretty sure some of those videos are actual gore."
Full Stop Punctuation memes and reactions
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