Italian brainrot
Italian brainrot is an Internet meme from early 2025. They show surrealist pictures of AI-generated creatures with names that are inspired by the Italian language.[1][2]
Name
[change | change source]The phrase brain rot was used as early as 1854.[3]
Description
[change | change source]
Italian brainrot combines unusual creatures and AI to create outlandish, and sometimes vulgar reactions.[4] Videos often have fictitious creatures with "Italian" names, while the video is narrated by an AI voice, with a nonsensical description of the creature or animal.[5] The meme is purposely illogical, with objects or items mixed with animals.[6]
History
[change | change source]Tralalero Tralalero is a three-legged shark with blue Nike shoes. First created in January 2025 by deleted Tiktok user @Ezburger401, Tralalero Tralala was the first creature in Italian brainrot to become widespread.[7][2][5] The meme has roots with other European memes featuring animals, like German Brainrot, a similar internet meme where animals are depicted in obscure scenarios.[7] The meme was formed in Italy, but has been enthusiastically shared and reproduced by Americans, Russians, and Indonesians.[4]
Characters
[change | change source]This list contains the relevant characters of the Italian Brainrot:
Tralalero Tralala is an athletic shark with blue Nike shoes.[6][5] Bombardiro Crocodilo is a crocodile fused with a military bomber plane.[1] A minor character is Brrr Brrr Patapim of. whom is a Proboscis monkey, with large human feet.[1]
Tung Tung Tung Sahur is an anthropomorphic wooden character resembling an Indian club; that is holding a baseball bat. The Tung Tung Tung in the character's name is an onomatopoeia reference to the drum-beating used in Indonesia to signify the beginning of Suhur.
Ballerina Cappuccina is a ballerina with a cappuccino mug as a head who wears a tutu and pointe shoes. The character emphasizes the absurdity of the genre by combining the incompatible: an everyday object and a classical dance image. The original meme featured her pirouetting gracefully.
Controversy
[change | change source]Tralalero Tralala and Bombardino Crocodilo have been called Islamophobic, as lyrics from Tralalero Tralala's origin video mock Allah in Italian,[a] though some Italian users have brushed it off as generic blasphemy.[8] The character Bombardino Crocodilo has been criticized for making fun of Gaza genocide, with some videos using audio which jokes about the plane bombing children in Gaza and Palestine. [8]
Notes
[change | change source]- ↑ "Tralalero Tralala" itself doesn't mean anything in Italian.
Sources
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Апогей брейнрота: Бомбардиро Крокодило и другие боевые ИИ-животные захватили соцсети". Афиша (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-04-20.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "«Итальянский брейнрот»: что это за мемы и почему они так популярны". Вечерняя Москва (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-04-20.
- ↑ Levitin, Mia (2024-12-28). "Social media, brain rot and the slow death of reading". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2025-01-02. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "I meme nati in Italia che stanno avendo un enorme successo su TikTok". Ilpost. 15 April 2025. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Gupta, Alisha (30 April 2025). "Brain Rot Comes for Italy". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Rossi, Luca (2024-04-25). "Quiénes son Tralarero Tralala y Bombardiro Crocodilo, las nuevas tendencias de TikTok entre los jóvenes". AS.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-05-08.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Ancell, Niamh (28 March 2025). "Italian brainrot has taken over my Instagram feed". Cybernews. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Ferraris, Matilda (2025-04-26). "From Ballerina Cappuccina to Trallalero Trallalà, we unpack the darker undertones of Italian brainrot". SCREENSHOT. Retrieved 28 April 2025.