About

When I Turned On 8K refers to a series of parody videos in which a YouTuber or gamer puts a video or game onto the highest graphical setting, usually 8K or higher, causing their PC to overheat and explode or catch on fire. A clip of a PC overheating and smoking is typically used after a setting is changed to humorously depict what happens when someone turns on a high graphical setting.

Origin

On January 20th, 2018, YouTuber^[1] Luke Fainchey uploaded a video called "Computer Explodes!" in which he puts a PC under duress until it explodes and catches on fire after overheating (shown below), receiving over 4.8 million views, 104,000 likes and 8,400 comments in roughly four years.

On May 8th, 2021, YouTuber^[2] Flent posted a video in which they continuously put a YouTube video onto higher graphical settings. The video is interspersed with Fainchey's video of the PC making distressed noises, implying the graphics quality is what's causing the distress. When they put the video on 8K, the computer explodes. The video gained over 1.9 million views in six months (shown below).

Spread

After Flent's video was published, YouTubers began creating similar memes in which the graphical settings of a video or video game would cause the computer to explode. On May 20th, 2021, YouTuber^[3] INTER made a similar video using Grand Theft Auto 5, gaining over 13 million views (shown below, left). On July 4th, YouTuber^[4] Megamanny posted a variation with Minecraft, gaining over 2.4 million views (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References