Well said, Thanks SunnyV2.

I thought it was pretty obvious they weren't actually doing this by hand. Anybody that's ever tried to dig a hole deeper than a few feet would know what a nightmare this would be without machines

One thing about Primitive Technology is the scale of the projects. Everything he does is actually scaled for one person, both in terms of physical size and technical complexity. There is simply nothing in there that is too big, too complex or too labour intensive to be unfeasible for one person. This is then further re-enforced by how he so thoroughly displayes every step and gives an overview of how long each project actually takes.

Actually very humbling for PT to say hed rather stay out of the drama and leave it up to the viewer. Respect.

I’ve had suspicions about them for a while. They’re out here playing Minecraft irl in some jungle getting tens of millions of subs.

I always found it suspicious that a single person was able to complete fifty-two 100-day projects in a year.

6:01 Haha ok, You can definitely see the lighter in his hand. lol

Well, the most "compelling" or evident thing for me is that the Primitive Technology guy always does something relatively "basic" whether it's making/firing bricks out of mud and using it to build a shelter, or other things like that. I was always a bit skeptical of the other channels where it's like "hey we're building a swimming pool slash relaxing spa in the jungle!"

As someone with 10 years of construction experience, the funniest part of faking this is that they could just be honest about how they're building it and it'd still be impressive.

Hey SunnyV2, i can only say... THANK YOU. We are survival-ish content creators here in Brazil and we often have to deal with questions and critics from people saying things like "you guys are weak, i've seen many videos from other channels that are faster and do incredible things in the jungle". This kind of videos create a fake ideia that survival can be easy and you can "prosper" in the jungle, wich cant be more far from the truth. Anyway, thanks for the content and explanation! Greetings!

Sunny I had to rewatch this. Such a good video. Thanks for the work

I always thought it was a bit suspicious how they could just whip up an underground mansion with a pool in the time it takes for me to get up in the morning

This honestly makes me really sad and embarrassed that I didn't realize this sooner. I always figured they had more help off-screen, but as someone who has never attempted to build anything like this I really had no gauge of how possible it would be without machinery.

the thing I can't get out of my head is that these guys could just feature the fact that they have a large team, make the structures more elaborate and still get a lot of views

That was one of my main concerns about all of the builds that the others do is what would happen to them after they built them. There are so many different channels that do so many builds and I would just always worry about what would happen to the land after they were done with that episode.

You’re one of the only UKpostsrs who know the comically underrated song “Heaven and Hell”, which I’ve known for a quite awhile now. I love it and it makes you video more entertaining! Also, Heaven and Hell by Jeremy Blake.

Wow. Primitive Technology is actually quite a standup fellow. He stays out of the drama, despite it being more algorithmic and directly competitive to his brand.

Having dug a fairly decent amount of holes by hand on my channel, I knew something was up with those guys! This is such a great video exposing those channels. Thanks for taking the time to make it. But more so for giving John (OG Primitive Technology) the exposure he deserves. He was so ahead of the trends way back when he started. His authenticity and uniqueness had me glued to his channel. When these other channels popped up not long after, I could tell something wasn’t right. They could have at least not dressed EXACTLY like OG Primitive Tech. With the shorts etc, I also noticed last year that all these channels had their UKposts accounts set to “United States”, which was strange. Either way, I hope that people who watch this video go straight over to OG Primitive Technology and give him a sub and watch all his videos. He was (and still is) the best no-talk Primitive Channel out there.

As a bushcraft builder myself, I’ve tried to build some of these simpler structures, and they are near impossible unless it is tooken over a year to build

I viewed a few of their videos and personally I'm never convinced that they did it with just 2 persons alone. Thanks for making this video SunnyV2.

You mean to tell me i cant build a 3 story mansion with indoor plumbing with a rock and a stick in under a week

Yeah, I never watched more than a few seconds of those Primitive Technology copycat channels before I realised the fakery - I watch all of John's though... Even digging a 6-foot fox hole with a small shovel is hard enough (just ask any soldier). Faking it just for money is one thing but the environmental damage as you point out is the thing that annoys me most. Hopefully, this video will help to spread the word and the popularity will fade out until it's not commercially viable anymore. Cheers :)

Regarding the firemaking, if the rocks contain flint it is possible to light a fire by just smashing em together, however to light a log on fire would be impossible.

I've been watching John's videos for over a year now, and I've watched every single one of them. Some, I've watched several times because I couldn't remember parts of how he accomplishes some tasks. I've enjoyed just how AUTHENTIC his methods are, as I've lived most of my life using bushcraft and wilderness survival skills similar to what he does. I'm so pleased to watch this video and see it holding him up as the 'authentic end of the scale'. I couldn't agree more. Without ever having met the man, I can confirm many of his methods from my own experience decades before seeing these videos!

Man, I'm glad primitive technology is legit, he was the first channel I ever watched, and I loved it. I hated all the copycat channels that followed. I liked the channels that focus on the primitive methods, it's interesting to see how things like Bricks, and Blacksmithing were done to make the tools we now use today. It makes you appreciate how hard work it was back then for something so simple

I feel really stupid now after you laid the mountain of evidence as to why these are fake. I always just turn my brain off and like to see the progress step by step. I never even thought to think that these were faked. Thanks Sunny for enlightening me on this!

Primitive technology is the man. He started it all and no one can come close to comparing. I have been subed from the get go.

it's a shame. I'm a Civil Engineer, I really had my doubts about the technicalities and structural works of some of their structures. they faked all of it just to generate views in order to get paid by youtube. it's a shame.

I remember watching Primitive Technology years ago, he's a legend

8:30 here in Australia we do actually have a special kind of termite mound that can be used to make mudbrick, i've seen old settler homes made out of it myself. the mounds themselves can sometimes be up to 2m tall, its crazy. but thats very region and soil specific

There is a quick fix for those type of fake vids - bring back the visible dislike count. Any content creator can remove comments exposing their lies, but back then at least they couldn't hide the huge count of dislikes, which would easily alert any viewer before watching those things.

Primitive Technology is seriously educational specially for those who want to hike and camp in the wild.

Primitive Technology has always been, first, an educational survival channel. The rest have always felt like entertainment. No survivalist has ever made building an underground pool with a water slide, and a fresh cut green lawn a priority.

I grew up hacking down trees and building forts in the Amazon rainforest with my friends as a young teen. When I saw these videos my first initial reaction was "huh, we couldn't have dug 3 square inches without hitting roots the size of your arm"

I love the respect given to and from primitive technology and this channel. It's nice to see people supporting eachother

Thanks for the video exposing these fakes. I’ve had a subscription to Primitive Technology for quite awhile now. I really enjoy his videos and I did not know he is a fellow Aussie. 👍

Haven't done the research this guy has. But I remember when primitive technology started, I commented about corners cut on a few of his early videos. Using modern tools to do some things for example, just seemed against the style of video he was attempting. Dude responded to every comment, admitting he felt the same, and said he was working on going fully legit making his own everything. Then he did. Much respect. I purposely avoid all the other knockoffs specifically because they were obviously stealing the idea, the fact they are faking it all on top of that is just icing on the poo cake.

Honestly, I wish these channels would just be honest on how these builds are done. They all look pretty cool, it'd be nice to watch the real process

You ever notice how so many of these videos have an "animal sidekick" like a random puppy or something like that? Makes you wonder where the animals go in-between videos..

I'm not even that mad that they're lying to people, but not cleaning up after themselves is unforgivable.

I was ready to be heartbroken if primitive technology was going to be proved to be staged. My faith in his has and will continue to grow and I'm happy that the only primitive technology channel I've found interest in has maintained integrity.

Honestly, severely understating the amount of manpower/resources/technology involved in a build and taking solo credit is EXACTLY what a primitive leader would do back before doing background research was easy. At least nowadays they can't literally bury their entire build team afterwards.

This certainly puts a different view on those channels. I'll take this info into consideration the next time I'm watching one as more of a 'personal project on private land' rather than a 'survival' type thing. Also, the only thing that actually annoys me if only a little, especially if the builds are on private land, is the clean up of the plastic bags and anything that won't just 'return to earth naturally over time'. Sure it might be private land, but at least clean up a little afterwards.

Your channel is by far one of the best things I've explored lately

The irony is that they’d probably still easily make over 15 million views showing the authentic building process. Machines and crew included in.

I am also a Civil Engineer. Some of these unsupported clay "structures" with sharp edges and no visible support are either completely fake (covering steel, or more likely wood, in a clay facade) or super dangerous and unstable. I would imagine it would be the first assumption because there haven't been any collapses shown in their videos yet. That clay soil they are building with weighs at least 100 pounds per cubic foot and is probably more like 130-150 pcf because of how dense it is from the wetting & drying. Also their unsupported trenches and excavations would give any OSHA compliance officer a heart attack

so glad john (primitive technology) makes new videos. in my opinion he is one of the most legit channel there is.

Investigative journalism is not dead, it just comes from different people. Congrats homie

I love the way all their digging is in conveniently soft clay or crumbly sandstone…you can only do this in a very few limited locations.

Primitive Technology despite not releasing much anymore, is still inspirational and also insightful. Not just reading how things were made with more primitive things l, but seeing it

The latest Primitive Technology video takes a dig at this sort of thing. While clearing an area he posts, 'no excavators were harmed'.

This is still my favorite videos from you and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD I CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHY-

honestly for someone that just wanted to watch anything and call it a day while eating my food, i never payed attention until the water part came in. was shocked how quick the water was dropping from those bamboo's and i was very confident that this was very fake. until i came upon your video. nicely done. you earned yourself a like and a subscribe

Damn you really got the research done quickly. Back to watching cos I didn’t always believe these elaborate builds

I’ve known it’s been fake, but it’s so interesting to watch

One of the few times you've made a good video Sunny.

I'm an excavator operator and I know from digging hundreds if not thousands of holes for swimming pools, septic tanks and ponds that the amount of dirt that comes out is quite unbelievable, so my issues with these videos is that it would take 2 men a very very long time to dig and then move the dirt by hand in buckets to another location. I take the videos for what they are and just enjoy the architecture and the creativity of the team, even tho they are lying to everyone.

I've been subscribed to Primitive Technology since practically his 1st video. The man sharpens stones to strip bark to be beaten into fibers that he then weaves into rope to build his home, 100% *in front of the camera*. He will dedicate minutes out of a video to show just how much time went into doing one thing if it warrants it, because even little things take time. No smash cuts to hours later, no tools but what he makes on camera. Homie even burned his hands in Lye, making mortar for his clay brick walls. That kind of dedication is something I haven't seen in any other primitive tech/life channel, which sucks, because I love the genre...

Concerning too how those water-filled holes might be unnecesary death-traps to random animals. Glad if at least some of the projects are real and pure!

I still remember the first time I came across primitive technology video it was 2016-2017 and got me hooked which after a couple of years YT being YT started seeing lots and lots of channels which to be honest is lacking the main purpose is to understand how its done

I always figured Mr. Primitive Technology was legit. You literally see him doing everything by hand. Its also much more interesting to me to see actual survival style structures being built than these crazy pools and water slide nonsense

I've gotta be honest... I'm usually pretty good at understanding what's fake on the internet, but this genre has always been so innocent and rural in my eyes, it just totally went over my head. Thanks for being a consistent voice of reason!

Us there a link to the videos of the abandoned builds? It'd be quire interesting tonsee

Great video! The Social Media minds, yet again, Lying for fame... unsurprising but still gross. Although They're still quit beautiful constructions none the less... A shame they aren't utilised more after the build ay... modern madness... Big ups to you SunnyV2 and Big ups to John Plant, the OG PT! :) I'm fascinated with the (legit) Prime Tech - I think I'll buy John Plants book'n try some builds out for myself :)

I've always wondered what happened to these structures after they were completed. Sad to see that they're just abandoned. I always assumed they were partially demolished or covered in dirt and reused for other videos since a lot of the structures look very similar.

My brother was heavily inspired by primitive building videos, and dragged me outside to make one ourselves. Then we realized we had no idea what we were doing, so we switched to modern tools. Even with actual tools like saws and nails and screws, the process in which we had to find the right trees and logs for our “hut” and build one from scratch took about 3 weeks.

The only channel other than Primitive Technology that I watch is Primitive Life, one of very few other channels that seem legit. Unfortunately he stopped posting a couple years ago. (Note, that's Primitive Life, not Primitive Technology Life.)

I always had a suspicion that they were using machinery, didnt know it was to this extent but its quite obvious thinking about it, everything on youtube is basicly plagued by copycat people doing that shit to the maximum to get money out of it.

The imperfections and the relatively small builds are what make Primitive Technology so great. The tiny wins add up and give a real sense of progression from video to video. I’d rather watch five 10 minute videos of him making the tools and materials for his bigger projects rather than a single one with him making a mansion.

Yes, well-put video. As a civil/structural engineer, I was never convinced with the Southeast Asian Primitive Build channels' builds- too precise considering the tools available, no soil corrosion, water unnaturally blue, amount of manpower, etc as mentioned. But then again, it should be fairly obvious there's MORE involved in their projects than what they're letting on and not being truthful even if the viewer has no engineering/architecture/construction background.

Amazing work, getting all this info together for us....

The amount of effort you put into these videos is insane man

The thing with Primitive Technology is also, you can see that his builds take months. The Brick hut is a good example, as the video goes you can see the algae growing on the already layed bricks, you can see the wood age while he is building. You can observe the time going on as he crafts. And thats a very good indication for his stuff being legit, as this would not happen if he was working with the help of modern technogogy.

I was always extremely skeptical about the clean cuts and sharp edges seen in those videos. As someone who is familiar with doing manual labor and basic construction I find it very hard to believe that any patch of land could be dug out so cleanly with only sticks and shovels. A jungle floor would be filled with rocks and tree roots and removing any of them would cause the structure to collapse. They are almost certainly dug with machines and reinforced with panels then covered with clay or mud to hide evidence of modern building materials.

I am so glad to find this video. I hate being scammed and that is what the fakers are doing, or at least trying to do. I had my suspicions but couldn't figure it out till I found this video.👍

I always thought it was weird that the water went through bamboo even though bamboo has walls every so often that would block the water.

A friend, a civil engineer, built a water filtration system for a village in Mexico using only "locally sourced" materials. Local means they could dig it out or cut it down and haul it to the site. There were saws and steel chisels and surveying instruments in use. It took him and most of the village several months of working part time to build the system. It wasn't fancy, but it made potable water and could be maintained by the village. No alligators, water slides or underground hidden mansions ... just clean water.

im glad Primitive technology got some recognition as the founder of this genre in this video. I remember finding his stuff back in 2017 while i was in highschool and have enjoyed his content since. He's leagues above any other channel like his

Hello! Can you please tell me what the music playing in the background at 8:15 is called? I am desperate.

I doubted this on the first place. Everything is so beautifully and perfectly made. Impossible by one man....

Great work, it always seemed like too much of a massive money grab for them to all be legitimate - a bit like the fake "animal rescue" trend

The fact Primitive Technology does this in Australia where literally everything there wants you dead is that much more impressive

Bro I rlly liked how you did not risk the guys job good stuff man

3:36 That's the definition of 'when you see it, you can't unsee it'

Has no one ever turned on the closed captions on primitive technology’s videos. He walks through the science and techniques of what he’s doing. Not just digging holes and making mud like all these other channels

honestly, a video showing 10 guys building a cool underground swimming pool would be pretty fun to watch, more fun then just 2

can't wait for future historians to think these builds are great archeological finds 😂🤣

I can’t believe anyone would actually believe only two people are doing all that work. The storyline and videos are part of the fun.

Man I was such a fool for thinking that a lot of effort is put into these videos, but this video explains everything now. It makes so much sense. Big ups to Sunny for conducting an outstanding ounce of research.

I feel really sorry for anyone who actually believes that two guys in Thailand or wherever could build a mud mansion with a working swimming pool in 50 days using just their hands and primitive tools. And that they can dig 20 feet underground and only find consistently perfect dirt for building structures.

I love john and I'm happy to hear most find him to be genuine

Thanks for this. My BS RADAR was on high alert. I saw several red flags. Good to see some research and examination.

I always liked Primitive Technology, the fact that you see his process and the quality matches the primitive nature of his builds always gave his channel a ring of authenticity. The copycats on the other hand even before they started more extravagant builds like giant pools and underground bunk beds, I notice something fishy with their editing. How one moment they would be making a straw hut by hand, and then hard cut to it finished and looking like a 5 star resort cabana. Once they began more complicated builds, I figured these guys were fake. It's weird but I think the fact that reason so many people buy into the ridiculous builds by the fake channels, is that they are made in Cambodia by Cambodians and play on the western perceptions of their supposed primitiveness. In the videos they portray themselves like humble village folk who are using their seemingly aboriginal knowledge of life in these forests to lend their builds the appearance of legitimacy. I've seen similar videos by similar groups about fishing traps, where they build these primitive looking contraptions out of bamboo, plastic bottles and holes in the ground and manage to catch buckets full of large fish, but they are almost always staged.

I was legitimately anxious when I clicked on this video, worrying that Primitive Technology himself was cheating. I’ve loved that channel since I found it years ago, and was so impressed, it was the first time I ever used patreon. I had no idea there even were any other copycats, but seeing them for the first time in this video, it was immediately obvious that it was nonsense. Glad Primitive Technology is keeping up his work! Thanks for making this video!

I remember a couple years ago I forgot Primitive Technology's name and when I searched for it I ended up seeing a bunch of these fake ones. I immediately knew something was wrong, mostly because the thumbnails/results were wildly too polished, among other things. I was really sad too because I happened to be when PT was on hiatus and it looked like he had gotten pushed out by dozens of knock offs cheating for flashier videos and getting massive view counts. I was so happy when I saw PT return because it had left a bad taste in my mouth the whole time

How the soundtracks called? especially the one around 7:00

I absolutely love Primitive Technology and have been watching John for years. I am so glad he’s back and getting some much deserved recognition and respect from other community members. It’s easy to see him as isolated because of the nature of his videos and I’m happy people are giving him the much deserved kudos

When I first watched Primitive Technology, I was simply captivated by the pure simplicity and down-to-earth nature the videos have. It's just one guy, one camera, the nature and an idea. I know it's truly geniune because every single step is cohesive to each other didn't cut out any edges. Comparing his videos to other "fake" primitive videos are honestly a heaven-and-hell difference.

I never thought these videos were real mostly because when i dig a hole my arms are to wrecked to go move a camera a dozen feet for another angle and thats after digging maybe 2 feet by 3 foot holes

7:40 pretty sure i hear some stellaris music in the background lol