When I first heard about TikTok's new meme trend, Italian brain rot, it reminded me of Sukumar Ray's Abol Tabol, a collection of Bengali nonsense verse. Only that was literature; this is actually ...
Is this my “Old Man Yells at (Digital) Cloud” moment? Gone are the days when our memes are all man-made. Just a couple years ago, the internet’s favorite absurd animals were photoshopped images of a ...
Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Leslie Katz covers the intersection of culture, science and tech. Lirili Larila, an elephant-cactus hybrid, is one of the breakout ...
In the first half of 2025, she racked up over 55 million views on TikTok and 4 million likes, mostly from tweens glued to their cellphones. Not bad for an AI-generated cartoon ballerina with a ...
The attempted “Great Meme Reset” reveals how inescapable the incoherent internet has become.
Ballerina Cappuccina, as depicted by @brainrotpumpfun, is one of the most well-known (and least controversial) Italian brain-rot characters. Photo: @brainrotpumpfun via TikTok Even if it hasn’t ...