This week, I am looking at a brain-rot creator Cookie King, whose fixed output of brain-rot movies is shaping the interior lives of hundreds of thousands of children below 15. I am additionally looking at what folks assume ChatGPT could be like if it have been an individual, introducing the clueless to Beabadoobee, and dunking on “millennial burger joints.”
Meet Cookie King, the mind behind the mind rot
I consider brain-rot web memes as springing totally shaped from the collective unconscious of the web like Athena sprang from the pinnacle of Zeus, however the tradition vultures at KnowYourMeme tracked down the precise one who might be most liable for brain-rot.
Demir Basceri, referred to as Cookie King to his hundreds of thousands of followers, has in all probability executed extra to create and outline the brain-rot aesthetic than anybody else. Cookie pioneered satirically making use of garish transitions, results, and filters from video modifying software program Capcut on all-but-meaningless footage. He began off making “fan edits” of The Strolling Useless like this one—
—then matured into making movies like this:
Then he began making movies that mix unrelated memes in ways in which defy that means. Take a look at this video:
Here is Cookie King’s clarification of it: “On Instagram, there was a brand new meme. It was about Chopped Chin and Property in Egypt, and folks have been doing battles between them. I used to be like, ‘Wait, what if I simply mixed them along with the Johnnie Walker factor and the Friggin’ Packet Yo?’ I simply thought, ‘I am gonna mix all of them.”
Cookie King says he is been posting movies since he was seven, first on YouTube after which all over the place else, and the important thing to his brain-rot supremacy is his work ethic: Dude says he spent his senior 12 months of highschool spamming “20, 30, 40, 50 movies a day.” Finally, a few of them caught on, just like the at the moment in style memes Eye of Rah and making “99% correct” copies of current movies. He appears to not assume in any respect about what he places out—brain-rot is a pure expression of his inner life, and it resonates along with his viewers of hundreds of thousands of “raised within the digital world” followers.
So what is going on on with all this shit?
Within the Nineteen Twenties, partly in response to the mechanized mass slaughter of World Conflict I, avant-garde artists created Dadaism, a motion that aimed to interchange that means in Artwork with chaos and nonsense. The Dadaist motion did not actually catch on—it was elitist, self-conscious, and slowed down by a central contradiction: The Dadaist stated they did not care about that means in artwork, however they positive favored publishing manifestos explaining what their work meant. Possibly brain-rot is precise Dadaism—chaos blotting out motive solely. Not like Dada artwork, there actually isn’t any discernible concepts or ideas behind brain-rot: It is truly nonsense. Mind-rotters are simply spamming 50 movies a day with out attempting to touch upon the horrifying alienation of modernity or no matter, even when that is the message I am taking from it. I do not assume this can be a good factor, however it’s the factor that is occurring.
“How I think about ChatGPT:” Younger ladies personifying AI
Talking of the unspeakable horror of the fashionable world, younger folks, particularly younger ladies, have been asking and answering an interesting query this week: If massive language mannequin synthetic intelligence program ChatGPT was an individual, what would they appear to be? The preliminary publish got here from TikToker @mymetaldiary. In keeping with them, ChatGPT is a brown-haired, good-looking younger white dude carrying glasses, as you possibly can see on this video:
Whereas many commenters replied with a variation of “nailed it,” others reported their very own head-canon visions of ChatGPT-as-a-person. These responses run the gamut from “an outdated girl like mom nature,” to “a mafia boss,” or “a golden retriever.”
I do not image something bodily once I consider ChatGPT, however the AI’s unfailing politeness and actually countless endurance counsel a human persona. I consider ChatGPT as somebody I remorse having began a dialog with at a celebration. They appear like somebody I do not know who’s attempting to get me to love them, and I am unable to work out why. ChatGPT is a mix of boring and determined, like somebody looking for probably the most non-offensive factor to say in any respect time. It is somebody I do not belief, though I’ve no motive to not belief them.
Well-known folks you have by no means heard of: Who’s Beabadoobee?
For those who’ve been listening to folks speaking about (or studying folks posting about) “Beabadoobee” these days, this is a take a look at the individual behind the distinctive title: Beabadoobee is a 24-year-old singer/songwriter who was born within the Philippines. Her dad and mom named her “Beatrice Kristi Ilejay Laus.” At three, her household moved to London. When she was 17, she taught herself to play guitar, began writing songs, and commenced calling herself Beabadoobee. It was a joke at first, however it caught. Her music may need been referred to as “twee” a technology in the past; it is wistful and comfortable and influenced by artists like Elliott Smith and Mazzy Star. It seems like this:
She launched her first single in 2017, and has been rising in reputation since, helped alongside by many, many makes use of of her songs on TikTok movies. As of 2025, there are three full-length Beabadoobee albums and 6 EPs, all launched on indie labels. In a nutshell: Beabadoobee is a cult-popular singer favored by younger ladies who make their very own clothes.
What does SYBAU stand for?
The acronym SYBAU is not precisely new—it was first outlined on city dictionary in 2008—however it’s rising in reputation within the remark part of TikTok and Instagram these days. It means “shut your bitch ass up.” (Impolite.)
What does “snatched” imply?
In keeping with young-people slang, “snatched” means very enticing and/or flawlessly styled. Instance: “That new gown has you trying snatched.”
(For extra definitions of slang phrases, try “‘Mewing,’ ‘Sigma,’ and Different Gen Z and Gen Alpha Slang You Would possibly Want Assist Decoding.“)
Viral video of the week: dunking on millennial burger joints
Tim Marcin over at our sister website Mashable observed a hilarious new pattern on TikTok: Generations Z and A are mocking millennial burger joints, mentioning the cliches and tropes of a sort of restaurant you have in all probability eaten at dozens of occasions, particularly in the event you’ve spent any time in a “medium-sized metropolis simply outdoors of a serious metropolitan space,” however by no means considered.
This week’s viral video from Tiktoker @user2521208780374 lays it out:
Listed here are among the hallmarks of a millennial burger joint:
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Based by “two pals with a dream”
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Burgers price $19
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Metallic barstools
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Reclaimed wooden desk
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Truffle fries
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Menu written on a chalkboard
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Garlic aioli
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Brioche bun
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Particular sauce described with delicate swear like “kick ass” or “bitchin'”
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Native “craft” beers, all the time IPAs.
Some millennial burger joints actually try to be completely different by serving meals on one thing apart from plates, normally slabs of wooden, a phenomenon coated intimately on Reddit’s “We Need Plates” board.
