S'pore content creators tap popular 'Italian brainrot' memes, unaware of darker undertones

New Paper

a day ago

In the last couple of months, adults and children alike may have come across a series of social media sensations: a wooden oblong creature holding a baseball bat, a ballerina with a cappuccino for a head and a walking shark wearing blue Nike shoes.
These surrealist internet memes first garnered views and "likes" in early 2025. Nonsensical and mildly grotesque, the artificial intelligence (AI)-generated characters instantly earned themselves a spot among social media's beloved "brainrot" genre.
Brainrot refers to content deemed to be of low quality or value, non-intellectual, trivial and addictive, and also refers to the supposed negative psychological and cognitive effects caused by it.
Tung Tung Tung Sahur (the wooden oblong object), Ballerina Cappuccina (the ballerina), Tralalero Tralala (the walking shark) and Bombardino Crocodilo (a crocodile head with a bomber plane body) are part of the cast. They all have pseudo-Italian names and their clips are voiced over in Italian.
One video of Tung Tung Tung Sahur doing a famous TikTok dance that was posted on April 27 received 26 million likes.
But these memes are sometimes embedded with offensive and problematic messaging, which viewers may be unaware of. The original AI-generated Italian-language video featuring Bombardino Crocodilo mocked the deaths of children in Gaza and glorified terrorism as a whole. As for some Tralalero Tralala clips, the narration mocks Islam and includes blasphemous statements.
Several Singaporean influencers and content creators have leveraged Italian brainrot's virality, creating fashion videos featuring outfits inspired by the characters or a Zumba video starring the dancing aunties of local community group Everdance.
On May 19, content creator Jovanna Yam, 22, posted a TikTok video of her mother reading out Italian brainrot names, while she played the instrumental audio on the piano.
The video has since amassed 15,600 likes and 284,000 views, up from her usual 13,000.
Ms Yam, who goes by migraineyy on TikTok, told The Straits Times: "I mostly post videos of myself playing classical piano pieces and pop covers, so I did not expect this one to go this viral. I was trying to create more funny content to hook my audience.
"When you watch an Italian brainrot video for too long, the algorithm deems that you like this kind of content and pushes out more of it on your 'For You' page. All my social media accounts were filled with these videos."
But she added she was not aware of the darker undertones of Italian brainrot.
"It is definitely a cause for concern as nobody would expect them to be controversial. Most of us watch these types of videos for entertainment because of how nonsensical they are."
Since finding out about some offensive versions, she intends to check her comments thoroughly to ensure she has not offended any followers.
In April, local Gen Z social media couple Dyce and Ce posted a video of themselves on Instagram and TikTok trying the Guess The Italian Brainrot Character filter challenge, which garnered 358,000 likes and nearly four million views.
In the comments section, most netizens praised their humour and asked where they could find the filter. But a few demonstrated more awareness of the implications of the series.
One netizen wrote: "I'm Italian. The first name (Tralalero Tralala) means something bad."
Another added: "It was funny until someone told me the meaning of Tralalero Tralala and Bombardino Crocodilo."