<
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/01/australian-plumber-is-a-youtube-sensation/>
"Large swathes of the US were blanketed in snow and ice over the weekend, and
what better way to spend a snow day than going down a YouTube rabbit hole?
Everyone has their favorite oddity: ASMR, jazzy pop song covers, cooking
channels, or what have you. But DIY enthusiasts in particular are missing out
if they’re not watching
Drain Cleaning Australia, featuring an Australian
plumber known only as Bruce as he goes about his daily business of shooting
high-powered water jets into stubborn clogged drainage systems. It’s “the
YouTube channel you never knew you needed.” And it’s done so well that he’s now
launched a second channel,
Bruce the Plumber.
I stumbled upon the
Drain Cleaning Australia channel via Amy Poehler‘s
Good
Hang podcast episode with Kate McKinnon, who is a big fan and does a dead-on
delivery of Bruce’s trademark lines (“You little rippah!”). Bruce never appears
in his videos, apart from his hands and the occasional shadow as he films
various challenging jobs with his intrepid smartphone. He seems to have struck
a good balance between online popularity and protecting his personal privacy.
(Bruce did not respond to our interview request. It’s okay, mate, we know all
those drains Down Under aren’t going to unclog themselves.)
Armed with his trusty collection of jet nozzles and “Mister Plungey,” Bruce has
removed all manner of nasty things from drains over the years: masses of human
hair from shower drains; tree roots; plastic bags and other refuse that somehow
found their way into drainage systems; and the less said about the many clogged
toilets, the better.
My personal favorites are when Bruce takes on clogged restaurant grease traps,
including the one at the top of this article in which he pulls out a massive
greaseberg “the size of a chihuahua.” When it’s Bruce versus a nasty grease
trap, the man remains undefeated (well, almost—sometimes he needs to get a
grease trap pumped out before he can fix the problem). And I have learned more
than I probably ever needed to know about how grease traps work."
Via Christoph S.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
