A shark strolling in oversized sneakers, a gorilla with a peeled banana body or a “Cappuccina ballerina” with a cup of coffee by milk as head are among these strange viral stars.
If the “Italian Brainrots” only have Italian names in the Italian Way Consonance, the word “Brainrot” (rotten brain) refers to the very real deleterious effect that the fact of making publications on social networks.
The avalanche of videos produced by strangers around the world using the generative AI began to surge in January on Tiktok, carried by the enthusiasm of the Z and Alpha generations.
«Maman! Crocodile bombardino! »
From now on, the success of the Italian Brainrot is planetary, from South Korea to Spain via Kenya.
Dozens of creatures have become memes, inspiring a flow of new content such as the “Brainrot Rap”, viewed 116 million times on YouTube.
A YouTube video showing how to draw Italian Brainrot, including a cross between a cactus and an elephant called “Lirili Larila”, was viewed 320 million times.
Their universe does not stop at their appearance.
“These characters have a lot of words to them,” explains Yoshi Yamanaka-Nebesney, a 16-year-old teenager who came to this store in the center of Tokyo with his mother, who has no idea what his son is talking about.
For Idil Galip, specializing in new media at the University of Amsterdam, “there have never been so many children and young people on the Internet”, hence an evolution of digital culture towards content “perceived as more childish”.
Some of the most popular videos refer to Indonesia, a country of 280 million inhabitants with a young and very active population on networks.
Nurina, a 41 -year -old Indonesian, employed by an NGO, tells how much her 7 -year -old son loves Italian Brainbots. “Sometimes when I go get him from school or when I work at home, he shouts +mom!” Bombardino Crocodilo!+ ”, Named after a Bombardier plane character with a crocodile head.
“I know it’s fun to watch,” says Nurina. But I must also make him understand that it is not real, ”she notes.
Some videos have been criticized to contain references that escape young spectators, such as the Bombardments in Gaza concerning “Bombardino Crocodilo”.
“The problem is that these characters are integrated into adult content” and “many parents are not comfortable with technology” to identify the dangers of messages, warns Oriza Sativa, a clinical psychologist based in Jakarta.
Tung Tung Tung Sahur
The best known Indonesian Brainrot character, “Tung Tung Sahur” looks like a long drum called Kentongan, used to wake up Muslims in order to take the Sahur, the meal before dawn during Ramadan.
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Noxa, the Indonesian tiktokeur behind the original clip “Tung Tung Sahur”, is now represented by a Parisian collective of artists, lawyers and researchers, Mementum Lab, according to which this production has been seen 10 billion times.
“Noxa is a content creator under the age of 20,” said Mementum Lab to AFP, who does not hesitate to call him “contemporary artist”.
“I didn’t want my character to be just a fleeting joke. I wanted him to make sense, “said Noxa, in comments provided by the company.
Cultural shades can however be lost on a large scale, like this 12 -year -old tourist in Tokyo who thought that rather than a stick striking the drum “Tung Tung Sahur” was holding .. a baseball bat.
