Non-Linear Storytelling

Submission 2,413

Part of a series on YouTube Poop / YTP. [View Related Entries]

About

Non-Linear Storytelling refers to a video editing trend where the punchline of a humorous clip is foreshadowed in the form of brief glimpses as the video progresses. The video editing style, sometimes referred to as "non-linear editing," grew popular on TikTok and Instagram in September 2024, and draws inspiration from YouTube Poop edits of the 2010s.

Origin

On September 15th, 2024, Instagram^[1] page @verylegendairy posted a video of a young boy trying to run through a spinning farm instrument, interspersing clips of him falling throughout the video, long before the video comes to an end and shows how he fell. The post gathered over 3.5 million likes in two weeks.

Spread

On September 24th, 2024, Instagram^[3] page @dullstaples posted two non-linear storytelling edits, one showing a scene from Everybody Hates Chris, and another from The Office. The post gathered over 54,000 likes in a week.

On September 26th, 2024, TikTokers^[4]^[5] @hyunjinofficialreal and @michaeldredawg made non-linear TikToks that gathered over 2.8 million views and 600,000 likes, and 800,000 views and 170,000 likes respectively.

@michaeldredawg #crashandbernstein ♬ original sound – rigby

@hyunjinofficialreal FAKE BODY #fyp #foryou #xyxbca #fy #fypシ #hyunjinofficialreal ♬ original sound – kim hyunjin from loossemble

On September 28th, 2024 TikToker @taco.junk posted a video in the "non-linear storytelling" TikTok format, with an edit of a TikTok titled "Husbands Reaction To Peach Cobbler" gathering over 1 million likes and an unknown number of views.

The original video was posted to TikTok^[2] by @barrettfam4 on July 5th, 2021, showing a woman throwing a large pot at her husband after he insults her peach cobbler. The video edited by @taco.junk shows the clip of the husband getting hit in brief flashes before showing the reason why he got hit. The post, which was removed by TikTok,^[1] was captioned, "non linear storytelling."

A repost of the video is shown below.