Humor is a funny thing, both literally and figuratively.
Obviously, it’s subjective—a joke that makes me laugh might make you roll your eyes, and vice versa—but it’s also constantly evolving. The epitome of humor to a 10-year-old in 2010 would likely make a 10-year-old in 2026 scratch their head in confusion.
To that kid in 2010, the epitome of humor was probably the YouTube channel TomSka (source: the Gen Z-er writing this who was, in fact, a 10-year-old in 2010). British filmmaker and comedian Thomas Ridgewell posted his first sketch to the TomSka channel in 2006, when he was only 16 years old. Two years later, he uploaded a two-minute cartoon called asdfmovie (pronounced “as-def-moo-vee”), written by Ridgewell and animated by a 13-year-old named James Cunningham.
Asdfmovie stitches together a series of unrelated sketches, most no more than a few seconds long and each more absurd than the last. And when I say absurd, I mean absurd — as in, a character says “Die, potato,” then steps on a potato, and … yep, that’s it. It’s entirely nonsensical, and it made TomSka an internet legend.
As of 2026, asdfmovie has nearly 75 million views, and the series has expanded to include 16 videos, multiple spinoffs, a published comic book, and two card games. The channel’s explosion in popularity allowed Ridgewell to produce a variety of content, including a slew of live-action comedy sketches and an animated series called Crash Zoom, which follows the chaotic exploits of three amateur filmmakers.
Since 2024, uploads to the TomSka channel have slowed significantly. Currently, the most recent video is asdfmovie16, posted in February 2026. Ridgewell is much more active on his second channel, “TomSka & Friends,” where he posts longform content like vlogs and commentary videos.
But even if he never uploads to his main channel again, TomSka has cemented his place in the YouTube Hall of Fame. In fact, it may not be an exaggeration to say he helped define the comedic tastes of an entire generation, for better and for worse.
One of the most positive impacts of the TomSka channel doesn’t come from the content at all: It comes from the creator behind it. Thomas Ridgewell started posting sketches when he was 16, and he uploaded asdfmovie while studying Media Production at the University of Lincoln. Before founding his production company TurboPunch, he wrote, shot, directed and edited all of his sketches himself. It’s an important reminder that you don’t need an unlimited budget or years of experience to pursue a creative outlet. After all, if a college student with nothing but a camera and a few jokes could become YouTube royalty, what could you do?
In terms of actual content, most of TomSka’s videos are relatively harmless. Shockingly, there’s not much depth to a 5-second gag in which the punchline is a guy turning into a train.
The channel isn’t completely void of positive messaging. In one Crash Zoom episode, a character obsessed with money sacrifices a sack of cash to protect a magical creature. But if you’re looking for role models and righteousness, you should probably look elsewhere.
You know how just a minute ago, I mentioned how influential TomSka was for kids in the mid-2000s? Well, TomSka himself has some feelings about that.
In a video called “No Kids Allowed,” posted to his second channel in 2021, Ridgewell is candid about concerns with how many young people engage with his content.
“The number of kids watching my videos has been freaking me out a lot lately,” he says to the camera. “I’d love to be able to say, ‘f— it, it’s not my job to babysit these kids or parent these kids’ and carry on as I have been, but I know they’re there, and that’s always been an issue for me.”
So, what about Ridgewell’s content makes him so uncomfortable with the age of his audience?
Violence is the biggest issue across the channel. Ridgewell himself admits to being influenced by “the hyper-ultra violence of early online content.” Guns, grenades and knives all feature regularly across the asdfmovie series, Crash Zoom and other sketches. Characters are frequently shot in the head, stabbed, cut in half, and more.
In the animated videos, this violence is cartoonish and far from realistic, and in live action, we don’t see much blood at all. Still, good luck getting through a TomSka cartoon without seeing an ocean of animated blood.
Ridgewell’s dark humor can also be mature and unsettling. Police brutality, alcoholism and suicide are just a few of the issues joked about in asdfmovie and other videos. Ridgewell is also an ex-Jehovah’s Witness, and his feelings on religion occasionally come through in his content. One character in Crash Zoom frequently performs demonic rituals, and in one live-action sketch called “Bible Time,” the video tells us that the Bible is written based on suggestions from a drunk time traveler. The video ends with a modern-day pastor exclaiming “This book makes no sense!”
Language and sexual content are also issues, though much more infrequently. Characters are often humorously interrupted mid-curse, and in Crash Zoom, “hug” is used as a substitute for the f-word.
Live-action sketches are the worst perpetrators in terms of sexual content. For example, in one video called “Stripper Cop” … actually, the title is pretty self-explanatory. Not every video pushes the boundaries of YouTube monetization quite so far, but just know that when you click on a TomSka video, the odds of a police officer taking off their clothes in the name of comedy are never zero.
In “No Kids Allowed,” Ridgewell begins with a very clear message to everyone under the age of 13: “I don’t think you should be watching my videos. I don’t think they are appropriate for you. I think they could potentially be bad for your growth and development, and I think you should probably watch something else.”
He goes on to recommend that the children in his audience should show his content to their parents, then let them make an informed decision about whether they should keep watching. It’s an unexpected message from a YouTube creator, particularly one as influential as TomSka, but a welcome one.
Ridgewell uploaded the first asdfmovie when YouTube was still in its infancy. He likely never imagined that it would impact an entire generation, or that 18 years later, we would live in a world where the darkest depths of the internet are open to anyone old enough to tap a screen.
But we do live in that world. And while it’s refreshing to see creators like Ridgewell discuss the impact of their content on young viewers, it doesn’t excuse the violence and mature humor that makes it dangerous to begin with. To parents wondering if TomSka is appropriate for the young, impressionable minds at home, look no further than the channel description, written by the man himself: “Not suitable for kids.”
