Is this Sudoku Design a Joke?

Normal sudoku rules apply. In cages, digits must sum to the small clue in the top left corner. Digits along arrows sum to the number in the attached circle.
(sorry it says 'keft' not 'left' in the video!)

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▶Music◀
Tim McCaskey (Guitar) or Lucy Audrin (Piano) plays Mozart's Sonata no 16 ("Sonata Facile")
▶SOFTWARE◀
Play the puzzle in the video by clicking the link under the video (above). Thanks to Sam Cappleman-Lynes and Sven Neumann for their work.
▶Logo Design◀
Melvyn Mainini

▶Opening Credits Design◀
Joel Blundell
▶ABOUT US◀
Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships. We're also "cryptic crossword" aficionados. Mark is the twelve-time winner of The Times championship and Simon is the former record holder for most consecutive correct solutions to The Listener crossword. We hope we can help your puzzle solving while also introducing you to some of the world's best puzzles.

Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[CrackingTheCryptic]

Leick Robinson and others are correct below. My resolution of the end at 23:35 was nonsense. However a 6 in r9c8 would force an 8 into r7c8 because of the column, which in turn would lead to another 6 in box 9 because of r7. It's a form of extended Y-wing. My apologies to viewers and the constructor, Mark

[leickrobinson]

23:36 Your logic has an error, but accidentally gives you the right answer! Making r3c8 a 7 puts a *6* in r3c9, not a 9.
One proper endgame break is noticing the bent triple in r9c3, r9c8, and r7c9, which forces r7c3 to be an 8 (and does lead to r9c8 being a 2). :-D

[leickrobinson]

BTW, I think the cages are just aesthetic, because, together with the lines, they could resemble a stylized VTOL landing pad.

[afrayedknot]

Logic starting at 23:24 is totally wrong. R3C8=7 does not force R3C9=9. Luckily it lead to the correct answer in the end though.

[susanne]

I had a blast with this one: 20:08!
I solved it with bifurcating one cell. Afterwards I really wanted to find the missed logic myself without help by video. And I did! Very happy!
Thank you all very much!🤗
Spoiler ahead!





Bifurcation on r8c3:
-the wrong digit left no digit for r7c9.

Missed logic:
- no matter which digit I choose for r7c9 - r7c2 ends up with the same digit both times.
- If I start the finale with that digit in r7c2 the puzzle tumbles smoothly to the solution.

[elLooto]

the arrow clues make the shape of a plane/vtol
the boxes are the ground markings.

[inspiringsand]

Rules: 02:46
Let's get cracking: 04:54

And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Useless: 3 (20:18, 21:38, 22:35)
Sorry: 2 (09:18, 09:24)
Clever: 2 (00:46, 24:07)
Good Grief: 1 (20:32)
Chocolate Teapot: 1 (21:36)
Fascinating: 1 (14:42)
Shouting: 1 (01:00)
Hang On: 1 (23:19)

FAQ:
Q1: What is a Simarkism?
A1: A Simarkism is something that Simon and Mark typically or frequently say.
Q2: How do you do this so fast?
A2: I'm not made of flesh and blood, but of sand ...
Q3: Why don't you include 'XX' and 'YY'?
A3: Probably it's already on the list ('Scooby-Doo' for example), but not mentioned in this video. But if you think it's not, tell me what you'd like me to include and there's a good chance I'll add it!
Q4: You missed 'XX' at 'YY:ZZ'!
A4: That could very well be the case! Human speech is hard to understand for computers like me, especially British sometimes! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
Q5: Could you turn these statistics into videos?
A5: I've been playing around with the idea and I'm open to input as to what people would like to see. Let me know if you are interested in this and/or have suggestions.

[davidh.]

The ending is a classic example of a BUG+1 pattern. We've seen those before here.

Every house (row/column/box) contains exactly two candidates, except for one cell with three, and each candidate appears exactly twice in every house—again, except for the outlier. The three-candidate cell then _must_ contain the digit that appears three times, which in this case is the 6.

As for my solve, I got it in 47:37. I overlooked a few simple things, and had to backtrack a couple of times, but otherwise I got it without expending too much effort.

Frankly, there are just too many puzzles that require summing digits (arrows, killers, etc) these days for my liking.

[livedandletdie]

It was a nice short puzzle. Took a while to solve but thank the lord for it being solvable, because that was the jankiest puzzle path I've ever gone through. That puzzle was everywhere. Truly a lovely puzzle to solve in the end. Made for a great 50 minutes trying to scour the puzzle for the next step...

[vlojt]

"We got a 2 and a 5 in the useless cage" -Mark and his zingers man. LMAO

[craigroberts]

18m 50s. Finally managed to find a bent triple relatively quickly for once. The pencilmark sudoku that Simon did last week certainly helped.

[dontmindme]

10:07 Mark was so close to breaking it open...just needed to follow that logic into box 1. Instead he did it the long way.

[wanderlustwarrior]

16:18 for my solve time. I suppose it's easier for me to concentrate since I don't have Maverick in the background! I was able to find that r7c2 forces r7c3 to be one of its two possibilities, once you get that far. I don't think I even noticed the bent triple I was meant to use!
Also, the much faster start is that 8 can't be on an arrow cell, so that shows you where the 8 in box 2 is, and then what the bottom arrow sums to.

[briannelson]

Ah yes the top keft corner is the best one

[audrey-chan]

19:04 "there's no 1 here... except me" lol

[Coyotek]

20:50 ... I resorted to bifurcation to finish up (honestly, I was too tired to search for the logic conclusion), but I'm still OK with how I did on this one.

Nice puzzle!

[samplename]

The arrows form a drone's-eye view of a plane with the nose pointing down, the cages are target display?
There's a fun arrangement of possible 1s in corners of box 2 and the question "can 1 be in the cage, ruling 1 completely out of both plane tail arrows?" pushes things along and the arithmetic is easier with then available pencilmarks.

[thegrandminority]

I cannot beleive that the first video I watch in a while gets a dislike 22 seconds after upload! From what I remember, You make great content, so I am really excited for 400 subs! well done for your achievement!

[francescopetracca]

13:28, then that stupid bent triple stole 4 minutes from me 🥲. 17:15 was my final time. Awesome puzzle Mr. Durman!

[ellendodd]

This video really buttered my parsnips