Social media and video platforms are currently flooded with short vertical videos and images showcasing absurd creatures – bizarre hybrids of animals and objects, often featuring Italian voiceovers and surreal visuals. This peculiar trend is widely known as “Italian Brainrot” and has rapidly gone viral. Let`s dive into what exactly this phenomenon is. If you`ve spent any time recently in certain corners of the internet, these brainrot creatures have likely been unavoidable…
Brainrot memes, when described precisely, represent a popular cultural phenomenon. The term “brainrot” itself is a colloquial expression borrowed from English, literally meaning the decay or decomposition of the brain. While the concept is experiencing peak popularity now, it didn`t originate solely with the modern internet. In fact, this kind of “brain-bending” absurd humor existed even before the invention of the World Wide Web. It`s the kind of humor that might make you scratch your head, and arguably, your great-grandparents might have encountered or even created similar nonsensical jokes when they were young.
While you could look to family history for real-life examples, the internet provides an instant archive making parallels easy to see. Among examples of “old-school internet memes,” a common analogy is the Russian “concrete-block fish” (шлакоблокунь), where fins and a fish head were attached to a building block, playing on the humorous potential of word creation.
Looking beyond the linguistic aspect to the core idea behind the Tralaleo Tralala meme, one can draw small similarities with the trend of singing toilets known as “Skibidi Toilets” – both share a foundation in similar absurdism. However, predicting whether brainrot creatures will have the same kind of enduring presence and developing “lore” as the singing toilets, or if this trend will quickly fade, which is more frequently the case, is quite challenging.
The initial key figures of this new wave were Tralaleo Tralala – a three-legged shark sporting Nike sneakers and speaking meaningless Italian phrases – and Bombardiro Crocodilo – a strange hybrid of a crocodile and a bomber aircraft. These videos quickly amassed millions of views on platforms like TikTok, inspiring users to create their own original characters and further expand the “brainrot creature” universe.
Despite the common saying that a trend starts to “rot” once marketers get involved, in the case of Tralaleo Tralala and its counterparts, SMM specialists from major brands successfully jumped onto the hype train at the right moment. Large companies began developing their own branded brainrot creatures, which significantly boosted the trend`s visibility. Interestingly, this phenomenon spread across many countries (primarily Western ones): Europeans, Americans, and Russians, among others, became equally familiar with the brainrot creature lore. Not all internet trends achieve such broad international reach; many remain more localized.
The expanding universe of brainrot memes grew rather quickly. While it originated with Tralaleo Tralala and Bombardiro Crocodilo, internet users soon realized that they could combine various other animals and objects. The possibilities are endless: just objects, animals with animals, or even inanimate items. The main unwritten rule is that the resulting image should be funny and possess a peculiar sense of `organic` coherence despite its absurdity.
Ultimately, the popularity of specific types of characters is gauged by views: some creations “blow up” on social media, reaching millions of views, and are subsequently copied, remixed, and become widely recognized. Given that almost every internet user now has easy access to social media platforms and content creation tools, the online space is teeming with a vast number of diverse brainrot characters.
Beyond simple character creation, users are also generating other types of content centered around these AI-generated figures. Characters are shown interacting with each other, song covers are released in their names, and more complex lore is developed. For example, Tralaleo Tralala was humorously suggested to go on a date with a character called Ballerina Cappuccino. The shark character also performed a cover of a popular song by the Russian band “Ruki Vverkh!” (Hands Up!), slightly altering the lyrics of their hit “Ya Molodoy” (“I`m 18”).
Generating such a meme can take mere seconds, and the appealing chance to go viral attracts a wide range of participants, from everyday internet users to million-follower bloggers and even large corporations. Creators are primarily limited only by the creativity they can muster for their prompts, and even there, text-based AI tools can offer assistance by suggesting wildly unconventional combinations for new hybrids. Brainrot creatures might not be everyone`s cup of tea – you might find them strange or even unsettling – but they undeniably accumulate a colossal number of views. So, here`s a little dose of internet absurdity for your feeds!