No matter how many Rick Owens videos, Berlin techno mixes or filters with an aura of post-internet aesthetics you have consumed to educate your algorithm. It doesn’t matter how many videos of fashion shows or experimental digital art you’ve saved in your favourites. If you’re on TikTok, you know: There’s no going back.
A shark wearing Jordans dances awkwardly on a robotic soundtrack. It has its own name – Trallero Trallallallà – and even if you don’t understand anything, you feel something connect in your brain. Or rather: it disconnects. And that, precisely, is what makes it the most chaotically viral phenomenon of the moment.
Welcome to the universe of the Italian brainrot, the aesthetic-digital movement that has not only hacked our feeds, but also the very logic of viral.
What is brainrot and why are you watching it even if you don’t want to?
In the hyper-dense TikTok ecosystem, the term brainrot refers to a type of content so absurd, aesthetically questionable and intensely chaotic that it ends up being irresistible. But we are not talking about mental degeneration, but rather a guilty, incomprehensible, addictive and extremely entertaining visual pleasure.
Within this universe, the Italian brainrot has arrived as a particularly intense mutation: videos with grotesque characters – mostly AI-generated – presented with impossible names, alienating sounds and narratives as nonsensical as they are fascinating. The goal? There isn’t one. And that’s why it works.
The genesis: from meaningless shitpost to global language
It all starts with a seemingly innocent video. An anthropomorphic shark, looking like a badly rendered video game, moves on an electronic base. The accompanying voice is a kind of robotic intonation, reciting a nonsense phrase in Italian: ‘Trallallallero Trallallallà’.
That was enough. Millions of views. Chain reactions. Brands like Ryanair and Loewe incorporating it into their campaigns. Football teams like Atlético de Madrid replicating the sound. And users all over the world, from New York to Madrid to Milan, playing to create their own brainrot character.
Italian Brainrot: between Dadaism, artificial intelligence and viral folklore
The most curious thing about the phenomenon is not its amateur aesthetics, nor its illogical structure. It is its involuntary symbolic charge. Because although it may seem improvised, all brainrot works according to the same internal logic:
Singable, onomatopoeic and absurd names. Ex: Tripitropitropatripa, Cappuccino Asesino, Bombardiro Crocodilo.
Creatures generated with artificial intelligence. Impossible hybrids between animals, objects and characters.
A robotic and disturbing soundtrack. As if Siri had fallen into an acid trip.
Implicit storytelling. Relationships, confrontations, family sagas. As if it were a sitcom without a script or coherence.
All this makes each character a kind of postmodern relic, a kitsch icon that perfectly reflects the state of mind of contemporary digital culture.
Who’s who in the brainrot universe
The community has already made its own encyclopaedia. An unofficial wikibrainrot, where the most loved characters by the public are compiled. Here is the top 10 of the most popular:
Trallallallero Trallallallà – The OG. The shark with Jordans. The beginning of chaos.
Ballerina Capuchina – AI elegance, with tutu and lost look.
Bombardiro Crocodile – A military jet with a crocodile head. The ultimate mix.
Shimpannzini Bananinni – Post-apocalyptic ape with a gamer spirit.
Cappuccino Assassino – Lethal, but with intense foam and aroma.
Espressona Signorina – The rival sister, always wearing sunglasses.
Lirilì Larilà – Amphibious creature with melodic tendencies.
Saturno Saturnita Cow – Cosmic bovine. Literally, from another planet.
Tung Tung Tung Sahur – Nocturnal entity on the verge of illegality.
Tripos Too Many Troop – An army of self.
How to create a brainrot: DIY to conquer the algorithm
The brainrot is not observed. You create it. And you too can have your own viral character. Here’s the formula, step by step:
Imagine an illogical hybrid. An animal with mechanical parts, or an everyday object with eyes.
Generate its image with AI. Tools like ChatGPT, Bing Image Creator or Gemini will do the trick.
Come up with a catchy name. Repeat syllables, use diminutives or mix languages.
Accompany it with weird audio. The more disturbing, the better. Robotic voices, distorted music.
Create a story. Do you have a partner? An enemy? A secret mission?
Upload it to TikTok and let it fly. The algorithm will take care of the rest.
From meme to marketing: the brainrot as a brand language
And here comes the crazy part: brands are appropriating this language to connect with a saturated audience. Because in 2025, it is no longer enough to be aesthetic. You have to be chaotic. You have to be brainrot. We have seen it with Ryanair, which launched its own Planeicha Dancer. We’ve also seen it with fashion brands flirting with absurd characters to promote their drops. Because if we’ve learned anything, it’s that engagement no longer responds to logic. It responds to the unpredictable.
The Italian brainrot isn’t just a trend. It’s a distorted mirror of our culture. A kind of digital neo-Dadaism, an artistic response to information overload, cultural anxiety, and the search for meaning in a world that no longer has any. Because perhaps, amid so many perfectly curated reels, carefully thought-out outfits, and motivational productivity videos, what we needed was this: a sneaker-wearing shark that sings nonsense. And now that you know, only one question remains: What will your own brainrot be called?
‘La Leyenda de la Poochana’ from Jacquemus goes viral on TikTok.
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