(soft music)
(keyboard clacking)
(mouse clicks)
- On March 30th 2015, a channel appeared on YouTube
that would confound and mystify its viewers.
To this day despite the channels relatively short lifespan,
and a lengthy absence,
a cult following has emerged
with its members intent on unlocking the mysteries
that they're sure is contained within the channel.
The intriguing channel's name: Unfavorable Semicircle.
It wasn't until April 5th 2015
that Unfavorable Semicircle started to upload videos
but boy, did they upload.
At its peak, the channel was posting two to three videos
every couple minutes,
and in less than a year more than 84,000 videos
had been uploaded by the anonymous creator.
Most of them were only around five seconds long
and consisted of bizarre abstract images
combined with shrill blasts of audio.
However, some lasted for hours
with the longest being more than 11 hours
worth of seemingly random images
but this time in complete silence.
How any sane person can sit through
and enjoy the entire thing is a mystery to me.
But then again, I doubt that enjoyment and entertainment
were ever the main purpose of these videos.
Having started out in obscurity,
the channel began to garner attention
when it was mentioned on two subreddits:
Unexplained Photos and Deep Into YouTube.
When more and more people became hooked by the phenomenon,
a new subreddit was formed simply called
Unfavorable Semicircle.
This is where users gathered to theorize
about the true nature of this unknown channel
in hopes of unlocking its secrets.
Eventually, enough interest was generated
that it warranted attention
from mainstream media outlets too.
Articles in the Atlas Obscura and BBC News
pondered the significance of Unfavorable Semicircle
and commented on how the channels upload rate
had quote, unquote "skyrocketed" in February 2016.
However, this new found notoriety
had a huge sting in it's tail.
Just a few short hours after the BBC article was posted,
the channel was suspended.
At approximately 3:40 Eastern Standard Time
on the 25th of February 2016,
YouTube terminated the Unfavorable Semicircle channel
and removed its content due to quote,
"Multiple or severe violations of the company's policy
against spam or misleading content."
And due to Google and YouTube unwilling to comment further
on the matter, the channel suspension
just made it more popular.
(soft music)
Just one year before the creation
of the Unfavorable Semicircle channel,
a similar mystery surrounding a channel
called Webdriver Torso had been solved
when Google explained that it was just an automated account
used to test YouTube algorithms.
Naturally, people were quick to suggest
that Unfavorable Semicircle could be a similar thing,
but upon investigation this turned out not to be true.
There were notable differences
between the two channels and the content.
For starters, the images used in the Webdriver Torso videos
were very simple,
always red and blue blocks with a plain white background.
And the audio tones were also very basic.
(tones beeping)
In contrast, the sound and visuals
featured in Unfavorable Semicircle's videos
were much more varied.
Some even included music, humming noises,
and more noticeably a man's voice
reading out letters and numbers.
- Test.
Four.
Five.
Four.
Z.
- Simply put, Unfavorable Semicircle appeared to be
much more cryptic as though they were begging
for somebody to figure out its clues.
More to the point, the Webdriver Torso channel still exists
and it's unlike that YouTube would have terminated
their own channel
and kept quiet about it for so long.
So if the channel wasn't another test platform, what was it?
All the uploaded videos featured either a Sagittarius symbol
in the title, a random six digit number,
or a combination of both.
The graphics of the videos were often just pixelated images.
And in some instances,
were as simple as a dot in the field of solid brown.
Some videos were loud and had distorted sounds,
while others were quiet.
Although all of this may seem random,
the general consensus among theorists is that it's not.
The fact that there are often hidden elements
such as music and patterns means that in all likelihood
somebody put them there deliberately for people to find.
One of the more unsettling aspects of the channel is
that it's content can cause unusual behavior
in certain devices.
People have reported issues such as their Android phone
spontaneously shutting down
or the video is still playing
after the YouTube duration bar has finished moving.
This has led to a plausible yet unproven theory
that the creator could be testing memory exploits
in YouTube's video player and compression capabilities.
Even though Unfavorable Semicircle uploaded
tens of thousands of unique videos,
many enthusiasts believe that the key to solving the riddle
lies in just two, a video titled Lock
and another one called Delock.
Lock was posted in July 2015
and Delock followed in December.
Lock is notable for its intense flashing colors
and eerie warped soundtrack that lasts over 27 minutes.
(warped audio playing)
Delock on the other hand, first appeared as a series
of smaller segments before the full version was uploaded
on December 28th 2015.
It features a voice that one Redditor described
as a distant echoed scream.
Both videos are of different lengths
and have different soundtracks
but many believe that they are linked.
After Delock was posted,
the channel fell silent
and didn't upload for an entire week.
In describing the two videos,
one user by the name of Sweep
explained that the main reason he was still interested
in the entire thing was because of the two videos,
Lock and Delock,
going on to state that quote,
"They're so weird and Delock at one minute and 26 seconds,
it sounds like a man whispering
but I don't know if that's my imagination
or if that's actually what I'm hearing."
A lot of man hours have gone into archiving
and analyzing the footage that was saved
or copied from the original channel.
Another Redditor by the name of ItsSaferIndoors
created an entire website dedicated
to cataloging all the data related
to the bizarre internet legend.
On the site, you can find a full timeline of major events
in the saga so far, a list of theories,
both plausible and debunked,
plus a list of accomplishments made by the community.
The site explains that quote,
"We're a friendly active community
dedicated to solving the mystery.
There was a lot of work to be done
because there are so many unknown parts to this phenomenon.
A wide variety of skills are required.
Coding, video editing, and sound engineering
are just a few that we are using to figure it out."
ItsSaferIndoors works with the audio
and visual technology himself.
And while he hasn't been able to decipher much
from the videos, his site has attracted hundreds
of keen and talented contributors
which has resulted in some significant breakthroughs.
For example, one user noted that in the video Lock,
an image is formed when you overlap
every frame sequentially.
It's difficult to tell exactly what is being depicted
in the resulting image, but it certainly seems intentional
and you can clearly make out a semicircular shape.
This discovery led to images being found in other videos,
some of which were modeled in 3D
and created images that looked like planets
and constellations.
This would make sense due to the obvious link
to astrology with the Sagittarius symbol.
However, in spite of all of the progress
and mounting speculation, nobody can yet be certain
as to what Unfavorable Semicircle was really all about.
After its YouTube take-down,
hardcore fans found a post on the Google Plus page
that was previously linked to the channel.
Upon decoding the post, the message directed them
to a Twitter account under the name Unfavorable Semi.
It was created on the 7th of March, 2016
and sent out it's first tweet the following day.
From there, followers were directed
to a new YouTube channel set up
under the same shortened name.
Following a further year of content
similar to that which was shown on the first channel,
another weird turn of events took place
on September 15th 2017
in what has been dubbed the strange reset.
A video is uploaded to the Unfavorable Semi YouTube channel
titled RESET STRANGE YD.
Approximately half an hour after being uploaded
it was deleted along with the entire
Unfavorable Semi Twitter and YouTube account.
Yet another Twitter profile was then linked
to the Google Plus page,
this time shortened even further to Unfavorable Sem.
But despite being created in March 2019
and still up and running now,
the account has made zero posts.
This ghostly Twitter account appears to be
the last surviving remnant
of the Unfavorable Semicircle legacy.
The Google Plus page and all of its content were removed
on the 27th of March 2019
several days before the services scheduled shutdown.
However, all is not lost.
Thanks to preservation of content by its cult followers,
additional breadcrumbs continued to be found
that are helping to keep the mystery alive.
For instance, someone has discovered
that within the large video harvest,
there are small but legible texts
copied from the Wikipedia article about art.
It was also confirmed that some videos can indeed
be used to extrapolate 3D composites
and that glitches in videos likely exist
to explore exploits in Android devices.
There are many more ideas and suggestions being put forward
by the community that could lead to different discoveries.
At this stage in time though,
we are still only left with numerous possible theories
rather than a definitive answer.
Over the years, those theories have ranged
from the dull and plausible to the ludicrous and unlikely.
Everything from an online recruitment tool,
to an art project, to the work of aliens has been said.
Almost everything is out on the table by now.
All we can really do is narrow down these theories
into those which are likely and those which are not.
Let's start by looking at the latter.
It's highly unlikely that Unfavorable Semicircle
is a viral advertising campaign or an internet troll
simply because of the length of time
and the ongoing lack of purpose or end goal in sight.
We note that it's not a test system affiliated with Google
or YouTube because it's not restricted to those platforms
and was even banned there.
Some have suggested that it could be a scripting engine
or a computer program that run amuck.
However, given the human element present in some videos
and the switching across platforms,
this is highly improbable.
As for aliens, well,
you can make up your own mind about that
but until there's conclusive proof that they exist,
I think we're safe to rule that one out.
More plausible theories for the existence
of Unfavorable Semicircle are that it's an example
of an outsider art or a recruitment tool
similar to that of Cicada 3301.
Of course, there's always the possibility
that it's the work of a mentally disturbed individual.
There's some evidence that supports it may be a tool
for testing exploits if not made by YouTube,
than perhaps by one of their rival companies.
Or maybe it's the case of steganography,
the act of hiding information in plain sight,
a kind of a security through obscurity measure.
Whether it's an art project
or even an alien brainwashing technique,
we may never know the true meaning
of Unfavorable Semicircle.
Yet, we are curious beings
and there are so many pieces to this puzzle
that someone out there must know how they fit together.
If you think you've got what it takes to crack the case,
why not head over to the Unfavorable Semicircle website
and join their official Discord.
It's still very much active.
If you do get involved in this mystery though,
be prepared to sacrifice many hours
and to chase down endless leads
until you start going a little crazy.
Perhaps that's the point though.
Thank you guys so much for making it to the end of the video
and watching it.
If you enjoyed, please consider subscribing
and supporting the channel.
It would really mean a lot to me.
Let me know what you guys want me to talk about
in the next video and I will see you there.