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

The phrase brain rot was used as early as 1854.[3] The term is used to describe bizarre content.[4]

Description

Italian brainrot combines AI generated creatures to create absurd reactions.[4] Videos often have fictional creatures with "Italian" names, while the video is voiced over by an AI voice, with a nonsensical description of the creature or animal.[5] The meme is purposely "strange", with it having objects or items mixed with animals.[6]

History

The first Italian brainrot character is thought to be Tralalero Tralala.[5][2] A TikTok user named @eZburger401 created an audio featuring an Italian speaker talking about how his grandmother interrupted him while he was playing game Fortnite with his son. The audio contained the author cursing out the God in Christianity and Allah. The user was previously banned afterwards.[7][4] On January 13, 2025, a user named @amoamimandy.1a uploaded a video pairing the video with a shark with blue Nike sneakers. The video gained 7 million views before being deleted. [7]

The meme has roots with other European memes featuring animals, like German Brainrot, a similar internet meme where animals are depicted in unusual scenarios.[8]

Characters

Tralalero Tralala is an athletic shark with blue Nike shoes.[6][5] Bombardiro Crocodilo is a crocodile fused with a military bomber plane.[1]

Popularity

The meme was formed in Italy, but has been shared by Americans, Russians, and Germans.[4]

Tralalero Tralala and Bombardino Crocodilo have been called Islamophobic, as lyrics from Tralalero Tralala's origin video mock Allah in Italian, though some Italian users have stated that blasphemy[a] is often used as a filler word in Italian.[9] The character Bombardino Crocodilo has been criticized for making fun of Gaza genocide, with some videos using audio which jokes about the plane bombing kids in Palestine.[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ negative words and phrases against religion.

Sources

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Апогей брейнрота: Бомбардиро Крокодило и другие боевые ИИ-животные захватили соцсети". Афиша (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-04-20.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "«Итальянский брейнрот»: что это за мемы и почему они так популярны". Вечерняя Москва (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-04-20.
  3. ↑ 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. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "I meme nati in Italia che stanno avendo un enorme successo su TikTok". Ilpost. 15 April 2025. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  5. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Good, Anna (30 April 2025). "Tralalero Tralala: This AI-generated shark in Nikes is the face of TikTok's Italian brainrot obsession". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  8. ↑ Ancell, Niamh (28 March 2025). "Italian brainrot has taken over my Instagram feed". Cybernews. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Ferraris, Matilda (2025-04-26). "From Ballerina Cappuccina to Trallalero Trallalà, we unpack the darker undertones of Italian brainrot". SCREENSHOT. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
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