Zajepasztet rewind

Back in 2009, I made a viral video starring my little brother and grandma. Lately, it resurfaced thanks to the highly motivated individual, who drove 1000 km to interview us.

I’m talking about “Zajepasztet” (“Hype-pâté” if you will):

Its popularity took me by surprise. I didn’t do my best, honestly: shaky takes, simplistic idea and “whatever” soundtrack (which made the clip demonetized soon). But it was short, and funny enough to start circulating. It made over 1 million views in first year, and almost 6 to date. I never really discovered what was the main driver for the viewership, but I do remember the times when YouTube search worked sanely!

What makes “Zajepasztet” unique is that it sparked countless remakes: live action, animated and even AI-generated. Something you rarely get with accidental meme video. By such reference and repetition, the Grześ’ phrase made it to the mainstream:

This damn minger, again?!

I know - not funny. In Polish, however, minger == pâté. Also, snippets from it were used by many, much more powerful youtubers in their own productions.

One of them took the extra step and put together a very insightful investigation, based solely on publicly available information:

I said hi in the comments section, and forgot about it - just to be asked by DOMINEWS a few months ago to meet him and reminisce about the hit short movie. I didn’t feel I could refuse at all!

The conversation turned out fun, revealing facts about the idea, technicalities, attempts at commercialization, personal perspective of the performers, and more. Trigger warning: child protective services involved! I believe YT even generated audio translation:

In the light of some of my other posts, I’d emphasise that something you did many years ago can strike back - even when you long stopped expecting it.

In the spirit of remixing the content, we shot a 2026 version of “Zajepasztet” - a few ones, actually. It was my first video since many years, and first vertical short ever - let it roll further into future.