This picture taken on August 7, 2025 reveals a small brown smooth toy of the best-known Indonesian Brainrot character “Tung Tung Tung Sahur” (R), which resembles a protracted drum known as a “kentongan”, displayed on the market at a store in central Tokyo. (Picture by Richard A. Brooks / AFP)
TOKYO, Japan — In a Japanese store promoting pocket-money trinkets, there’s a rack of toys, stickers and keyrings primarily based on a worldwide crew of AI-generated characters that just about each youngster is aware of about — and only a few adults.
A strolling shark in outsized sneakers, an orange with muscular arms and a twirling “Ballerina Cappuccina” with a mug for a head are among the many unusual stars of the web phenomenon known as Italian Brainrot.
“At first it’s not humorous in any respect, but it surely sort of grows on you,” 16-year-old Yoshi Yamanaka-Nebesney from New York informed AFP.
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“You may use it to bother somebody and discover that humorous.”
The identify nods to the stupefying impact of scrolling via senseless social media posts, particularly over-the-top photographs created with synthetic intelligence instruments.
Shouty, crude and infrequently nonsensical Italian voiceovers function in most of the clips made by folks in numerous international locations that started to unfold this 12 months on platforms equivalent to TikTok, embraced by younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha members.
The dozen-plus cartoonish AI creatures have quick change into memes, inspiring a stream of latest content material equivalent to “Brainrot Rap”, considered 116 million instances on YouTube.
A YouTube Quick titled “Study to Draw 5 Loopy Italian Brainrot Animals” — together with a cactus-elephant crossover named “Lirili Larila” — has additionally been watched 320 million instances.
“There’s a complete bunch of phrases that every one these characters have,” mentioned Yamanaka-Nebesney, in Tokyo along with his mom Chinami, who had no thought what he was speaking about.
College-age Italian Brainrot followers will be discovered from Kenya to Spain and South Korea, whereas a number of the hottest movies reference Indonesia’s language and tradition as an alternative.
“I went on journeys with my boys to Mexico” and folks would “crack jokes about it” there too, Yamanaka-Nebesney mentioned.
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‘Melodic language’
Web traits transfer quick, and Italian Brainrot “hit its peak possibly two months in the past or a month in the past”, mentioned Idil Galip, a College of Amsterdam lecturer in new media and digital tradition.
Italian — a “melodic language that has alternatives for jokes” — has appeared in different memes earlier than.
And “there are simply so many individuals in Indonesia” sharing posts which have potential for world attain, Galip mentioned.
A “multi-level advertising economic system” has even emerged, with AI video-makers focusing on Italian Brainrot’s large viewers via on-line advertisements or merchandise gross sales, she added.
Nurina, a 41-year-old Indonesian NGO employee, mentioned her seven-year-old loves the mashed-up brainrot world.
“Generally once I decide him up from college, or once I’m working from residence, he shouts, ‘Mommy! Bombardino Crocodilo!’” — a bomber airplane character with a crocodile head.
“I do know it’s enjoyable to observe,” mentioned Nurina, who like many Indonesians goes by one identify.
“I simply must make him perceive that this isn’t actual.”
Some movies have been criticised for holding offensive messages that go over younger viewers’ heads, equivalent to rambling references in Italian to “Bombardino Crocodilo” bombing kids in Gaza.
“The issue is that these characters are put into grownup content material” and “many mother and father aren’t tech-savvy” sufficient to identify the risks, warned Oriza Sativa, a Jakarta-based medical psychologist.
Tung Tung Tung Sahur
One of the best-known Indonesian brainrot character “Tung Tung Tung Sahur” resembles a protracted drum known as a kentongan, which is used to wake folks up for a pre-dawn meal, or sahur, throughout Ramadan.
Indonesia has a younger, digitally energetic inhabitants of round 280 million, and “Tung Tung Tung Sahur” isn’t its solely viral export.
This summer time, video footage — not AI-generated — of a sunglass-wearing boy dancing on a rowboat throughout a race at a western Indonesian competition additionally grew to become an web sensation.
Noxa, the TikToker behind the unique “Tung Tung Tung Sahur” clip, is now represented by a Paris-based collective of artists, attorneys and researchers known as Mementum Lab.
“Noxa is a content material creator primarily based in Indonesia. He’s below 20,” they informed AFP. “He makes quick, overstimulated, AI-assisted movies.”
“He doesn’t name himself a ‘modern artist’, however we predict he’s already appearing like one,” mentioned Mementum Lab, which is targeted on advanced rising points round AI mental property, and says it’s serving to Noxa negotiate offers for his work.
Noxa, in feedback supplied by the collective, mentioned the character was “impressed by the sound of the sahur drum I used to listen to”.
“I didn’t need my character to be simply one other passing joke — I needed him to have which means,” he mentioned.
Cultural nuances will be misplaced at a mass scale, nonetheless, with one 12-year-old vacationer in Tokyo saying he thought “Tung Tung Tung Sahur” was a baseball bat.
And the era hole seems set to persist.
“What’s that?!” laughed a lady as she puzzled on the row of Italian Brainrot dolls.
“It’s not cute in any respect!”
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