Taken from the winter 2024 issue of Dazed. You can buy a copy of our latest issue here.
If one thing is certain in 2024, it’s that the internet is an ever-growing festival of absurdity (read Clive Martin on our addiction to mind-bendingly banal content here). One moment, you’re placidly watching an AI bee play an instrumental saxophone cover of “Always Remember Us This Way”, the next you’re clicking on a deep-fried meme captioned “Mama a girl behind you” – and all, seemingly, for no reason at all. Unlike typical viruses, which diminish in power with mutation, the current wave of brain rot appears only to be claiming more victims. But who is responsible for this digital contagion? Who are the true originators – the patient zeros?
Recently, I stumbled upon two people asking similar questions. Hamzah and Martin are the pair behind Slushy Noobz, a cult YouTube channel chronicling the current wave of intense online sludge, mixing mukbangs with vlogs and hilariously OTT gaming streams. Hailing from Canada, the duo’s journey to the bottom of the internet began during the pandemic. “I feel like a lot of people who get on the internet are very isolated in real life,” says Hamzah, triggering a nod of agreement from his cohort. The two met after stumbling into each other’s TikTok For You pages and connecting over a shared fascination with the drama, pace and DayGlo nihilism of the internet today.
While Martin has spent his entire life in Canada, Hamzah’s origin story is a little more complicated: he moved there from the US aged 17, after concerns over his immigration status linked to his Yemeni heritage. “I knew nobody [in Canada] and that isolation is what led me to create content,” he says. But it wasn’t until 2023, after meeting up a few times in Toronto, that Hamzah and Martin launched the channel that would make them FYP-famous.
On a video call, Hamzah explains that their content choices are simply “whatever [they] feel and whatever comes to mind”, drawing my attention to a skit parodying the bodycam clip he had stumbled across on TikTok. From an outsider’s perspective, the duo’s content has become nothing short of a masterclass in internet-sludge navigation. Here, the pair discuss their origins, their favourite creators and their unending quest for diamonds in the digital rough.
And why gaming? Was that because it was something you were doing in your everyday life anyway?
Hamzah: Yeah. When you’re transitioning from short-form to long-form, often it’s about what you can do consistently that’s not going to make you lose your mind. So often people set the bar too high when they make long-form content, and they just never do it consistently. So that was the priority: whether we could repeat our concepts or not.
Now you’ve branched out into more skit stuff, how do you come up with ideas? Do you both sit down and plan or is it more of a ‘turn the camera on and see what happens’ vibe?
Martin: It’s just whatever we feel and whatever comes to mind. Recently we shot a parody of those bodycam police videos because Hamzah came across a video on his TikTok of kids playing around with a bodycam and we decided we wanted to do it too. You get inspired by random things on the internet, and it’s just whatever you want to do, because that’s ultimately what people are there for, to see what we are passionate about doing.
Is it hard to stay in character when you’re filming?
Martin: I don’t think anyone is 100 per cent themselves in front of a camera, there’s always a natural persona that you put on, even when you’re on a Skype call or FaceTime with family. So yes, there is a YouTuber persona, but that’s just also our humour. We do little bits here and there because that’s how we connected originally anyway.
When you started, did you expect this to be your full-time career? Or was it more of a passion project for the both of you?
Martin: The reason why I started TikTok was never to do it full-time. Although I always looked up to YouTubers and thought it was cool – I had many failed channels – I just posted casually on TikTok while I worked at my job on the side. Even when Hamzah and I started Slushy Noobz, I was still working and stepping up the corporate ladder. I found myself at a crossroads of choosing to work for the government or carrying on with Slushy Noobz full-time to see where it went. I think my decision to move to Toronto from Ottawa was to be able to upload more often and take it more seriously. My job at the time was also still remote so I was able to make that move swiftly. I think if I had been asked to go back to the office that definitely would have changed the course of things.
What kinds of things were you doing at your job?
Martin: I got my degree in computer science first and then I worked for the Canadian government. I was a regular IT guy. It felt like I was in Severance, just pushing buttons.
“We like memes that have been run into the ground, it just makes everything funnier”
So you’re kind of trained in the internet, you could say…
Martin: Yeah, I still use all of the skills I learned; I coded the website we use.
You guys have been described as being at the forefront of a lot of Gen Z humour right now. Are you influenced by anyone in particular?
Hamzah: Not necessarily. In the beginning, there were some people who inspired us, but at some point we decided that we couldn’t look at them any more because when you’re trying to make authentic content, consuming other things hinders that. I used to love podcasts; they were one of my favourite things. But when I wanted to make my own I had to stop.
Martin: You have to carve your own path and the way to do that is to keep trekking forwards without stopping and admiring sometimes. Maybe it’s a negative thing, but we don’t have time to sit and watch YouTube, and that just comes with what we do.
Do you watch other forms of media?
Hamzah: I watch true crime programmes and documentaries, normal TV stuff. MARTIN: I love to watch commentary videos while I eat.
What about reality TV?
Martin: Reality TV is my favourite. Love Island in particular. I used to watch it before it was popular! I was on it first.
UK or US?
Martin: UK, always. I think British people are so much cooler than us. I love how they talk and their [adopts British accent] ‘bantah’.
Have you played the Love Island game yet?
Hamzah: No, we might have to though.
Martin: I love mobile games, specifically Block Blast.
Hamzah: I’m so bad at Roblox, Dress to Impress specifically.
What’s your favourite ‘brain-rot’ meme right now?
Hamzah: I like the ‘emotional damage’ meme.
Martin: We like memes that have been run into the ground, it just makes everything funnier.
Hamzah: Also, ‘oh no no no no’.
Martin: I love ‘bro, what are you talking about bro’.
Hamzah: I have no idea how this is going to translate to text. I
In terms of gaining more traction and views on your videos, do you feel there’s a pressure to remain relatable while also wanting to accept more opportunities?
Hamzah: I don’t think there was ever a goal to be relatable, it’s just about being authentic. If you’re still trying to be relatable and you’re not, then it’s obviously not authentic and it’s awkward.
Martin: Yeah, I mean if you’re at that point where you’re trying to stay relatable, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Just own it, even if you’re an unrelatable person. Some internet stars have lost viewers when people have claimed they have lost their so-called ‘relatability’ – do you ever worry about being labelled as sellouts?
Hamzah: We try very hard to keep the power in our hands in terms of financials. We have the freedom to say no to anything so when we say yes, we’ve earned the right to. When you have confidence in yourself that you’ll be around [on the internet] for a long time, then you don’t have to say yes to everything that comes in.
Martin: There are things we have passed on because they’re too serious and they don’t have that ‘fun’ element that we like. Our friends inspire us a lot as well – both online and off.
Hamzah: Yeah, we do have offline friends, by the way.
Martin: My dad also loves to have conversations with me about our content. He will offer an idea and it’s usually terrible, but I appreciate it nonetheless.
Does your dad watch your videos, Martin?
Martin: He watches them all. He has a really old iPhone, and he uses it to play our videos on repeat just to give us views.
Broaching the topic of your ‘out of character’ podcast, what pushed you both to expand into the podcast world?
Hamzah: I used to do a solo podcast once or twice a week, which then branched out to me and Martin around October last year. When I began on my own, I made the cardinal sin of starting with interviewing, which people often think is the easiest format when actually it’s the hardest. It takes a special kind of someone to open up another person. I’m like a purist in podcasting, also.
Martin: Yeah, we only have one camera, minimal editing and little-to-no graphics.
Would you say that’s why you rarely have guests on the podcast?
Hamzah: Yeah, there are people who are good at that, but I don’t like to overcomplicate the format. If I could I would make it audio only but that would fail.
Martin: Usually, we have guests who are our close friends and whatnot. But that’s not to say that we wouldn’t capitalise on having someone we loved on the show.
Is there anyone that you’d love to have on?
Martin: People who need a voice.
Hamzah: What did JoJo Siwa say again? “Dream guest on my podcast… one of my exes.”
Martin: You should have your ex on, Hamzah.
Hamzah: All my thousands of exes.
Is there a favourite episode that you’ve done?
Hamzah: It’s probably the most recent one we’ve done every time. I don’t think podcast episodes usually live past a couple of weeks; it’s not a timeless thing that you put back on. You wouldn’t want to see us talking about Will Smith getting slapped on next week’s episode.
Do you ever cringe when you rewatch episodes?
Martin: Sometimes we’ll scroll through TikTok and randomly get a clip of ourselves on our For You page and we do kind of cringe at ourselves, just because seeing yourself is always a little bit jarring.
People love to make edits of you too, is it equally jarring watching those?
Martin: We love the edits. I love the different mediums that there are. Sometimes people animate us, which is cool.
And finally, what’s next for the both of you?
Hamzah: We’re always plotting, let’s just say that… It would surprise you how far we ahead we’ve plotted. Sometimes we plant little Easter eggs, in terms of what we’re wearing or things like that, which directly foreshadow something in the future.
Martin: This isn’t all for nothing, we’re just trying to take over the internet.
