Internet "Brainrot" is the latest online affliction hitting Generation Zs and Alphas as online discussions become more and more convoluted to outsiders.
To finally understand the trend that has seemed to have taken over across all social platforms, here is a comprehensive breakdown of the "brainrot" content online.
Be warned that trying to fully grasp the meaning of the trend would only further hurt the brain.
Brainrot: Origins
According to Behind the Memes, the term "brainrot" started being associated with addictive online content often claimed to bring down people's intelligence.
There is no specific instance when the term started trending, although it can be pinpointed after the rise of meme videos directed to Gen Alpha like the "Skibidi Toilet" clips on YouTube or the "Sticking Out Your Gyatt for the Rizzler" song.
@mistermainer Sticking out your GYAT for the RIZZLER ur so SKIBIDI ur so FANUM TAX i just wanna be ur SIGMA #greenscreenvideo ♬ original sound - waxsdd
Due to the influence of streamers on younger people, most of the terms and words that emerged from this trend were inspired by inside jokes from the streaming community.
Among these are words like "Fanum Tax," a term popularized by streamer Kai Cenat after one of his friends, Fanum, suddenly appeared on stream to steal a portion of any food he was currently eating.
Although initially meant as a joke on younger generations, Gen Z users have started posting more ironic "brainrot" memes to TikTok and YouTube Shorts, exposing more people to the latest content meta.
Related Article : Skibidi Toilet Videos Record 65 Billion Views on YouTube
The Rise of Brainrot Memes
As more users have started creating content and videos centered around "brainrot" content, discussions and their extent have also started to blur into other communities.
Most notable was its rise in the "Jujutsu Kaisen" community with many fans using the word "brainrot" to describe the TikTok edits around its manga chapters that went viral last December.
The majority of these edits include an AI voiceover of the narrator from "Hunter x Hunter," another manga published on Shonen Jump, to describe an increasingly convoluted battle between the characters Satoru Gojo and Ryomen Sukuna.
@distortionvevo brainrot #jjk #jjkmanga #jujutsukaisen #nahidwin #fypシ #fyp ♬ jujutsu brainrot - DistortionVEVO
In many instances, the characters are even switched with characters from other popular series or even with mathematic concepts. Most of the edits were made during the manga's "break week."
As of writing, the trend has started to "infect" other online communities as fans started making their own "brainrot" edits to poke fun at the characters or the fandom.
