From bottle flips to basketballs — celebrating the physics-defying magic of trick shots

If you’ve ever tried making a half-court basketball shot, flipping a water bottle so it lands right-side up, or tossing crumpled paper into a trash can 10 ft. away, guess what — you’ve taken a trick shot. And when you’re successful, there’s nothing like that feeling of luck and accomplishment. For today’s Yoodle, or temporary YouTube logo, we collaborated with Vancouver-based artist Rafael Mayani and New York-based animator Tucker Klein to celebrate the dynamic world of trick shots — from the deep concentration required to the unpredictable progress to the feeling of making the seemingly impossible, possible.

Trick shot videos have been around since YouTube’s earliest days — one of the first to go viral was in 2006. The trend really gained traction in the years that followed as more people began posting videos of themselves taking basketball trick shots, including popular trick shot creators Dude Perfect, who posted their first video in 2009. Now, you’ll find creators challenging themselves across a range of sports, including golf and archery. Interest in these videos has only continued to grow — there have been more than 13.4 billion views of videos related to trick shots in 2023.¹

Creators also continue to push the boundaries of what a trick shot includes. You might find them using skate ramps and a giant hand or pots and pans and a tape measure. As the shots grow more complex, they’ll often spend hours making one, sometimes lucking out and failing successfully along the way.

Their videos bring us along for every toss, flip and bounce, so we feel that same rush of excitement the creators do when a shot is successful. We’ve captured that feeling in our original Short featuring several trick shot creators finally succeeding.

Ready to take your shot? Head over to our playlist to get started.

1. _{Source: YouTube data, Global, 1 Jan - 4 Nov 2023.}