# David Lynch Posts His Nightmarish Sitcom Rabbits Online–the Show That Psychologists Use to Induce a Sense of Existential Crisis in Research Subjects > [!noteinfo] Colin Marshall, https://www.openculture.com/2020/06/david-lynch-posts-his-nightmarish-sitcom-rabbits-online.html, http://blog.colinmarshall.org/?page_id=2, https://x.com/colinmarshall · 08.11.2024 · Source: [David Lynch Posts His Nightmarish Sitcom Rabbits Online–the Show That Psychologists Use to Induce a Sense of Existential Crisis in Research Subjects](https://www.openculture.com/2020/06/david-lynch-posts-his-nightmarish-sitcom-rabbits-online.html) · #clippings #video in *Film, [Television](https://www.openculture.com/category/television)* | June 10th, 2020 Comments Off on David Lynch Posts His Nightmarish Sitcom *Rabbits* Online–the Show That Psychologists Use to Induce a Sense of Existential Crisis in Research Subjects  If recent world events feel to you like an exis­ten­tial cri­sis, you may find your­self brows­ing Youtube for calm­ing view­ing mate­r­i­al. But there’s also some­thing to be said for fight­ing fire with fire, so why not plunge straight into the dread and pan­ic with David Lynch’s sit­com *Rab­bits*? Set “in a name­less city del­uged by a con­tin­u­ous rain” where a fam­i­ly of three humanoid rab­bits live “with a fear­ful mys­tery,” the eight-episode web series has, [as we’ve pre­vi­ous­ly men­tioned here on Open Cul­ture](http://www.openculture.com/2018/05/david-lynch-made-a-disturbing-web-sitcom-called-rabbits.html), been used by Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia psy­chol­o­gists to [induce a sense of exis­ten­tial cri­sis](http://www.openculture.com/2018/05/david-lynch-made-a-disturbing-web-sitcom-called-rabbits.html) in research sub­jects. Hav­ing orig­i­nal­ly shot it on a set in his back­yard in 2002 (and incor­po­rat­ed pieces of it into his 2006 fea­ture *Inland Empire*), Lynch has just begun mak­ing *Rab­bits* avail­able again on Youtube.  [The first episode of](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66XPYk9bdhc) *[Rab­bits](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66XPYk9bdhc)* went up yes­ter­day on [David Lynch The­ater](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDLD_zxiuyh1IMasq9nbjrA), the offi­cial Youtube chan­nel of the man who direct­ed *Eraser­head*, *Blue Vel­vet*, *Mul­hol­land Dri­ve*, and oth­er such pieces of [Lynchi­an](http://www.openculture.com/2017/11/what-makes-a-david-lynch-film-lynchian-a-video-essay.html) cin­e­ma. Though he has­n’t made a fea­ture film in quite some time, he’s kept busy, as his fre­quent uploads have doc­u­ment­ed: take [his 2015 ani­mat­ed short *Fire (Pozar)*](http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/david-lynch-releases-an-animated-film-online-watch-fire-pozar.html), which we fea­tured last month, or his [dai­ly Los Ange­les weath­er reports](http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/david-lynch-creates-daily-weather-reports-for-los-angeles.html). More recent­ly, Lynch has been post­ing short videos called “[What Is David Work­ing on Today?](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTPQcjlcvvXFyiLY4OwfhA5r6aguJ-WoU)” These offer just what their title promis­es: a look at such art projects as and craft projects as “a [drain spout](https://youtu.be/mCHet0Sddk0) for the bot­tom of my wood­en sink,” the [“swing-out uri­nal”](https://youtu.be/5DRa7D0UnkI) installed, and most recent­ly [“the incred­i­ble check­ing stick.”](https://youtu.be/v8pVP4xeRyk)  This might at first sound dispir­it­ing­ly nor­mal — at least until you get to how the check­ing stick is sup­posed to work — but those who have long enjoyed Lynch’s films know that nor­mal­i­ty is what gives them pow­er. David Fos­ter Wal­lace described the “Lynchi­an” as “a par­tic­u­lar kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mun­dane com­bine in such a way as to reveal the for­mer’s per­pet­u­al con­tain­ment with­in the lat­ter.” There is, of course, noth­ing macabre (and often noth­ing mun­dane) about the wood­en objects Lynch builds and repairs in his work­shop these days. But *Rab­bits*, too, was also one of his home­made projects, and its “sto­ry of mod­ern life,” [as Lynch called it on Twit­ter](https://twitter.com/DAVID_LYNCH/status/1270037884930682880), still makes for a har­row­ing­ly mun­dane view­ing expe­ri­ence.  **Relat­ed Con­tent:** [David Lynch Made a Dis­turb­ing Web Sit­com Called “Rab­bits”: It’s Now Used by Psy­chol­o­gists to Induce a Sense of Exis­ten­tial Cri­sis in Research Sub­jects](http://www.openculture.com/2018/05/david-lynch-made-a-disturbing-web-sitcom-called-rabbits.html) [David Lynch Cre­ates Dai­ly Weath­er Reports for Los Ange­les: How the Film­mak­er Pass­es Time in Quar­an­tine](http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/david-lynch-creates-daily-weather-reports-for-los-angeles.html) [David Lynch Releas­es an Ani­mat­ed Film Online: Watch *Fire (Pozar)*](http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/david-lynch-releases-an-animated-film-online-watch-fire-pozar.html) [What Makes a David Lynch Film Lynchi­an: A Video Essay](http://www.openculture.com/2017/11/what-makes-a-david-lynch-film-lynchian-a-video-essay.html) *Based in Seoul, [Col­in Mar­shall](http://blog.colinmarshall.org/) writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His projects include the book* The State­less City: a Walk through 21st-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les *and the video series* [The City in Cin­e­ma](https://vimeo.com/channels/thecityincinema)*. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at [@colinmarshall](https://twitter.com/#%21/colinmarshall), on [Face­book](https://www.facebook.com/colinmarshallessayist), or on [Insta­gram](https://www.instagram.com/colinmarshallseoul/).*