I never click on a thumbnail when an idiot’s face is making an expression like that. Easy pass.

They are made that way on purpose because it has been proven that those "reaction face" thumbnails generate the most clicks. Unfortunately humans are like that. For the final form, check out the "Mr. Beast" channel's video thumbnails

Or Asmongold. That face just…

I’m so offended by the attempted manipulation that I outright block accounts that do it.

He or someone else said they found a similar or better result with smiling instead of shock face open mouth so there are variations being pioneered. Think it was mrbeast talking about a new analytics a/b tool or might be confusing it with something else

The hilarious part is when they inevitably end up addressing it as “welp, we ‘hate’ clickbait thumbnails too but it gets clicks from dummy viewers like you all so we just gotta go with it because we got mouths to feed!”, as they post yet another video of them spending an absurd amount of money on some obscure eBay or Craigslist trash for content

From "Clickbait is bad, and I don't do it." to "I am working to efficiently clickbait people." Reminds me of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng

That is THE YouTube splash screen - I assume it’s the one that gets the clicks since almost everyone who produces YouTube content uses it

The open mouth gasp thumbnail is really annoying, but it seems to get the clicks these people are after.

Doesn’t matter. SEO aesthetic we live with