Brain rot, a name for content that is nonsensical and arguably mentally damaging, is a new term coined in this recent social media age of short-term content. The significant characteristic of brain rot content is that it is considered bizarre and has little to no educational or creative value. Some notable brain rot icons include the Skibidi toilet, a series of toilets with human heads in a war against humanoid computers, and a new vernacular composed of terms from popular TikToKs. A new contender in the brain rot universe is a genre referred to as “Italian brain rot”.
“Italian brain rot” is essentially a bizarre AI-generated image with an Italian-sounding name and AI voice explaining the character’s backstory in Italian. Examples of this are characters like Bombardino Crocodilo, described as a B-17 with a crocodile head who bombs children in Gaza, Tralalero Tralala, a shark with blue nikes who plays Fortnite with his son Merdardo, Lirili Larila a cactus elephant wearing sandals. All of these characters come along with a complicated backstory of battles documented in a Civil War-like style.
When I first heard of Italian brain rot I genuinely thought it was something my friend made up. She has a habit of saying random stuff and then repeating it to the point where everyone else in the group starts saying it too. I did not believe her when she said that this is an actual thing and not some gibberish that she was gaslighting me into thinking was real. Slowly I began to hear about Italian brain rot everywhere I went, in every class I could hear people go “tun tun tun sahur”. This could just be attributed to frequency illusion but it was still jarring to experience.
People critique this trend as being the epitome of dumb Gen Z humor. They see it as nonsensical not funny and devoid of any creativity. This idea that absurdist art is invaluable isn’t new; the Dada movement of the 1910s was heavily criticized during its time because people would claim that the Dada moment undermined the importance of art and didn’t have any merit. Absurdist art challenges the status quo. It defies our entire notion of art and showcases works that provoke thought and emotions. Italian brainrot may be seen as nonsense but that’s the point. The meme expands on its bizarreness and tries to outdo itself on how strange the characters and stories can be. It’s simply funny because it’s stupid and that’s the purest form of entertainment.
