On March 31, 2025, YouTube changed how views would be counted on Shorts. From that day forward, a view was counted as soon as a Short started playing or was replayed — no minimum watch-time needed.
Many content creators didn’t know what to do with this new method of counting views, or how it would affect their channel. Some wondered if Shorts needed to loop over and over to be recognized, while others worried that looping might be seen as spam and hurt their channel.
When YouTube first made the change, my 60-second Shorts didn’t do very well. So I decided to try something new — something short and eye-catching that might put us back in YouTube’s good graces.
Creating Super Shorts
I thought maybe a fast Super Short, no longer than 10 to 20 seconds, would work better. The first step was figuring out how to stop the fast-moving thumb — to make people pause scrolling and take a look.
My inspiration came from comic books. Comics always used eye-catching splashes of color with bold words written inside. The words were drawn in bright colors and huge fonts, often with movement lines that added emotion. These comic-style splashes gave the Short a burst of energy — exactly the kind of thing that stops thumbs mid-scroll.
That’s when I came up with my new type of fast looping Super Short — Cat Brain Candy.
What Is Cat Brain Candy?
To make Cat Brain Candy, I start with a very short cat clip — something unusual, funny, or chaotic that sparks an idea. For example, one time I found a clip of a cat in a front-facing dress, and her paws made it look like she was carrying a bat. The first thing that came to my mind was the classic cartoon of an angry wife chasing her husband with a rolling pin or frying pan. (Of course, these are silly cartoon tropes only — no one should ever go after anyone with anything dangerous!) From that idea, “Wrath of the Cat Wife” was born.
These Cat Brain Candy clips did very well and kept our channel alive while YouTube’s new rules were settling down. Eventually, I was able to go back to making longer 60-second Shorts too.
Why I Still Make Cat Brain Candy
I didn’t stop creating Cat Brain Candy even after my 60-second Shorts recovered. I just balanced both. The longer Shorts let me use humor, add my own sound effects, and include licensed music from TunePocket. But Cat Brain Candy is super fun to create, and people love them.
Of course, I can’t always find the perfect clip to turn into Cat Brain Candy. But when I do, I add a funny caption, give it that comic-book flair, and make sure it loops smoothly. Before viewers realize it, they’ve watched the same cat attacking a toy bird or knocking ceiling tiles down from inside the ceiling — over and over. Cats don’t need much help from us to get into chaos; that’s just cat nature!
Please check out the videos and playlist below by clicking the link.
We even combined all our Cat Brain Candy Shorts into one longer video, and people really enjoyed it. Click the link below so you can watch it too!
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