Revisiting my Gen Z "Brain-Rot" (it HAUNTS me..) 

I don't know why people are so surprised by kids watching Hazbin Hotel. There are grown-ups that watched South Park and Adult Swim as kids.

10 years ago WE were the ipad kids 😭

Nyan Cat is the one that I think is most directly comparable to Skibidi Toilet. I watched so much Nyan Cat on the family computer that my parents BANNED it from the house because they were slowly going crazy from hearing that from the computer room. (‘02)

Gen Z forgot that they were laughing to MLG Memes like it wasn’t Gen Z brain rot 😂

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING will compare to the collective brainrot everyone had for Undertale in 2015/2016. You just had to be there.

this is the reason why i don’t complain about the stuff that gen alpha likes, because they are just kids with unrestricted internet access enjoying nonsensical content, like we did all those years ago! it’s just that the internet is a different place than it was back then, so the videos they enjoy might not be the exact same to the ones we liked. also i would LOVE a lazy town video, i loved the show when i was very young and when it came back through memes in 2017 i was OBSESSED!

unfortunately I think my gen z brainrot is like…Fred and Annoying Orange. i remember thinking they were both super annoying even as a kid, but it was like i couldn’t look away…

Late Zoomer here, I can confirm that internet sensations like llamas with hats and asdfmovie were peak brainrot. ADMIT IT. THE ENTIRE GENERATION KNOWS AND WATCHES THIS STUFF AND LIKES IT. You can’t lie to me about that. 😏

The show for Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is available to watch on RU-vid, I binged the whole series when it uploaded in 2023. One of the best and strangest shows I’ve ever watched

My brain rot was definitely animation memes, amvs, and gacha videos. I miss amvs so much those were so fun.

By the same creator of Llamas with Hats, i was OBSESSED with the Charlie the Unicorn series when i was 9 or 10. I used to watch that sad little unicorn get his kidneys stolen on loop. Recently the creator made a finale for the series which was a genuinely really well written critique of consumerism and society's perception of mental wellness

I would LOVE a video on Lazy Town. Those YTPs of 'We Are Number One' and Stingy's 'Mine' song have ingrained themselves into my brain in a way that I cannot explain

This really highlights the overlap and differences of gen z depending on when you were birthed I was born in '98 and these were also really big things from my youth but hearing "going to your cousin's house and he shows you this on your iPad" instead of the family computer was just so wild to me. Not because there's anything wrong with it, I just never considered that kids upgraded from the family computer to showing stuff on to their cousins on their iPad

I will never forget being in 3rd grade and bringing my favorite fox stuffed animal to school with me and being so confused when all my classmates started singing about what the fox says lmfao

Idk if Game/Film Theory counts as “Brain Rot” but the videos that man made and craze around them was REAL

No mention of the infamous go animate era of youtube with the cailou and dora gets grounded videos 😭😭😭😭 has to be the genuinely funniest brain rot ever it still sends me so bad Also SMG4 which looking back is not funny once so ever more so just offensive and loud but at the time it was hilarious lmao

You forgot the “mi pan sum sum sum zoo zoos zoos” deep fried meme from 2020

Watching Lazy Town as a little kid to watching we are number one remixes in middle school was my full circle moment. Now as a highschool graduate waiting for the return of Lazy Town.

Tbh, homestuck was my biggest brain rot as a child/teen and the asdf movies too, most definitely

The "brainrot" i watched as a kid was happy tree friends, dhmis, and bfdi i still rewatch dhmis and bfdi from time to time and they have a special place in my heart edit: i got to the fnaf section and got flashbacks of that animatic fnaf comic dub on youtube with mangle and stuff and now im remembering all the cringe comic dubs i watched on yt 😭

i remember being obsessed with stuff like sparta remixes and hotel mario ytps as a little kid back in 2008-2011 (older gen z, ‘03)

*slides in* A GEN Z BRAINROT VIDEO WITH A GEN Z RU-vidR WHO IS UNDER THE AGE OF 20?? HALLELUJAH IM HOME /ref

The Globglogabgolab and Johnny Johnny are Imprinted in my brain. The first came out at the end of my eighth grade year and the other the first half of my Freshman year

ngl im not suprised kids are hazbin hotel i watched a bunch of edgy shit back in 2017

Dude someone saying Twaimz sounded like a sleeper agent code😭😭😭 the way my Brian lit up I have not heard that name in like a decade

"I'm born in 2005" GIRL SAME WTF

as an adult genZ ('02) i can't fathom other genZ making fun of gen alpha's interests, especially the ones who acted as if they wouldn't turn on the younger generations just like many millennials did with us when we were young. just because we don't exactly understand their interests or jokes doesn't give us the right to make fun of and demean them for enjoying what they enjoy, or what they find funny; genuinely, it doesn't help them, it didn't help us, it didn't help millennials. but i digress, as that has nothing to do with the video and just an off-hand comment you made about people making fun of gen alpha. that being said, some of these are such a huge throwback for me lmao. haven't thought about some of these in years (especially akbar and julian smith in general)

I was born in 2000, and when I was 11 to 12 my brain rot was "Sonic for hire". My god I shouldn't like that thing so much. English isn't even my native language. I LEARNED english partially because of that show.

haha speaking of Twaimz and llama song, I work with autistic kiddos and I love teaching them the llama song ❤. even tho, i do change “mentally disturbed llama” to “silly little goose” llama

gen z need to remember our origins we were brainrot goblins in middle school too

As an elder gen z, I grew up with charlie the unicorn and it was the funniest shit me and my brothers had ever seen at the time along with stick figures on crack 😂 (2010/11 ish, I was in 6th/7th grade)

As someone who was born a year after you, I can confirm I was too young for vine but lived and breathed RIP Vine compilations as well.

i watched the DHMIS show ! i rlly enjoyed that each episode was unpredictable. an example being the family episode and the creepy twins. there were so many cliché ways it could’ve gone but yellow guy ended up becoming the mom ??!! absolutely incredible. my personal fav episode was the brain worm/ internet one. i also rlly enjoyed the ending. idk how but i was giggling and creeped out the same time. my fav thing about the entire series was seeing their inner dynamic and how they interact with each other. i feel like in the original series they were always so distracted by whatever character featured in that episode, that they didn’t have much conversation between the main trio.

I still quote llamas with hats

CARLLLL there is a dead man in our house!!

Unless I missed a revival of the meme, the LazyTown meme stuff was from 2016. I would know, I DISTINCTLY remember watching those memes instead of paying attention in my freshman biology class. I really miss that era of memes, the whole thing of "We are Number One, but everytime X happens, Y happens" sort of stuff was so funny to me. Please do a video on that

I didn't realize What Does The Fox Say is considered brain rot. I guess cuz it played near constantly on the radio lol! Honestly, they are supremely talented cuz they made the best worst song ever! Also, I feel ancient cuz some of these got popular when I was on the brink of adulthood (16-18), but it's funny how much they became part of my humor😆

Honestly, my personal Skibidi Toilets were MLG memes, Minecraft machinimas (ESPECIALLY ExplodingTNT's vids), Minecraft mod showcase videos, asdfmovie, and those "((insert song here)) but every time..." memes

I remember during the early 2000s when people would take dora,barney and etc cartoon characters and use multiple clips to make them dance to Crank that by Soulja boy. And later there were also those 3DS vidoes of the blue men,charlie the unicorn and etc.🤷🏿‍♀️ These moments are burned into my mind lol.

The thumbnail alone is bringing back sealed memories that bring more shame than fondness

you on kazoo made me obsessed with kazoos to the point i would carry a kazoo with me everywhere...

Thank you for this video. I remember watching all of these things for the 1st time and still watch them to this day. I always think it's weird when people around my age (21, turning 22) make fun of Gen Alpha or their interests because I remember that happening to me and it never felt very good. Because of that I actively try to engage in their interests as well because I always want to be able to have an appreciation for younger generations interests and not turn into one of those people that is bitter and resentful because "I just don't get it". We truly need to be kinder and let them enjoy the things they do like we did when we were their age.

Its so weird that im old enough now to see creators the same age as me…you’re doing great! It just caught me off guard 😅

... this is helpful, as when Millennials talk about "brain rot" in Gen Alpha, all you have to do is point at them, look them directly in the eye and tell them, "Peaches come in a can. They were put there by a man. In a factory... downtown"... Alternatively, you can say "Yatta", "Captain Lou Albaino", "Yaoi Paddles", "Do you have stairs in your house? Please go stand by the stairs so you can be protected", "Several Badgers, a couple mushrooms and fear regarding a snake" or the classic "In AD 2101, war was beginning" The whole "darn kids on my lawn" stuff has always been a silly thing to do

I loooooved You On Kazoo lol, I remember watching the full thing after Chadtronic covered it and I unironically liked the song "Special Friends"? I'm a couple years older, so a few people in my grade were really into Fred in elementary school, but I had only heard of it and didn't really actually dive into it until a couple years ago. That's probably a good example of "gen z brainrot", even though I actually think there's some merit to it lol. When I was REALLY young, I remember loving Potter Puppet Pals. I also used to watch these animated videos of characters with real baby faces from a site/channel formerly known as "FlowGo", specifically the parodies they did of Harry Potter and Grease, but a couple others as well. Now that I'm thinking of it, I *really* need to look into what that was about lol And then there were videos here and there that really took off and all exist in the same space in my brain: Nyan Cat, It's Raining Tacos, Narwhals Song. And you know, the Gummy Bear Song... I remember everyone in my class begging our teacher to play it on the projector at the end of the day lol, I'm sure older generations back then were really shaking their heads at what the mindless entertainment we were consuming (if they were even aware of it)

I am so glad you made this video. We are the same age and I remember everything in this video. I feel like everyone is just so blinded by our nostalgia that we look back at all of this and feel it was totally normal, but if we look at it through the same lens as like skibidi toilet, we can kinda just see it for what it is.

I’m an elder millennial, my oldest two kids are Gen Z and since I’m obsessed with my kids, I enjoyed all of this along with them ❤️ I found your channel a few months ago and I’m so loving the nostalgia memories from their childhoods.

My childhood brainrot was The Most Popular Girls in High School and I love the fact that it’s getting a new life through edits on TikTok of all places 😭

2007 baby here, holy crap this is nostalgic. I remember my brain rot phase lol

this brought back so many forgotten memories 😭 as another 05 baby the idea of turning 20 next year is also crazy… i still forget that quarantine wasn’t like two years ago

gen z acts like we didn't think Bad Lip Reading was the funniest thing ever

I had quite the arc with What Does the Fox Say. When I was younger, when it was in its peak, I absolutely adored it. Thought it was the coolest song ever. Then I forgot about it for a bit, and when I came back to it in my early to mid teen years, I thought, "Eh, don't see what I saw in it". And then, when I was seventeen or eighteen, I decided to listen to it again for old times' sake. And let me tell you, my soul left my body. I ascended.

oh my god i just noticed your emily the strange posters lula i LOVE those

There were so many videos in this compilation that I remember being so obsessed with! I’m so glad that I wasn’t the only kid who had this kind of experience! Love your videos! :D

I remember in 5th grade watching one of the boys watching the Glob video being so scared of what I was seeing on a SCHOOL computer 😭

I remember you on kazoo because I’m a big fan of lost media. I especially love that they were two other VHS tapes that also became sort of media those ones called let’s sing along and ring along sing-along

Literally all of these were childhood defining to me, there was no greater pain than browsing RU-vid daily for any signs that the next DHMIS would be dropping soon.

Oof Julien Smith… I was his discord mod in 2022 when he tried to make a resurgence and.. ugh it really backfired. 😅 It was a mental health anonymous call line he operated on RU-vid live stream.

holy shit YESSS i loved the lazy town edits as a kid they were fucking hilarious i swear NOBODY talks about it nearly enough

I love this cause I was also so obsessed with nearly all these videos omg. I also remember being really obsessed with or having "brainrot" for those fandom "___ on crack" videos where half of the video was just vine audios

Speaking of the Not Scary videos, along with Garrett’s videos, the other Not Scary videos that also became popular were the ones made by Gabe aka Gamerduck, however some became lost media after on October 2023, Gabe deleted his channel when he was exposed on August of the same year to sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend on multiple occasions. And yes, I was pissed when I heard the allegations.

you guys remember when the internet was obsessed with the cup song and ice bucket challenge?

From being in middle school playing fnaf 1 on a shitty cracked Kindle after finding it free on the Kindle store, to blinking and suddenly I'm scheduling my first-ever college classes and now listing to a recap of all the things that were huge things to younger me is a different kind of surreal

yes please do a video on the grip that lazytown had on us!! (not only as a youtube meme but as a show as you mentioned) it’s soo iconic and under discussed on here!

Gen z forgot we were laughing at gmod videos with the same quality and value as skibbity toilet

Millennial here. We had our share of brainrot memes as well. Strong bad emails, all your base, the ultimate showdown, YTMND, end of ze world, salad fingers, numa numa, badgers, foamy the squirrel, arfenhouse, GI joe PSAs, peanut butter jelly time, potter puppet pals, the hampster dance, rejected cartoons, and so on. Zoomer brainrot like youtube poops, and alpha brainrot like skibidi toilet are pretty much just the same thing remixed.

The reason I love your videos so much is how much I can relate to you. I love that we were born in the same year and share the same childhood and we don’t even know each other!!!!

This literally reminds me of all the RU-vid Poops I used to watch (especially of Frozen). I was on the FNAF side of RU-vid a lot and often learned about memes from the fan-made Source Filmmaker Animations created. Memes I saw a lot were "Thomas the Dank Engine", "smoke weed everyday", "360 no scope", and "MLG". I watched a lot of Minecraft skits and one in particular had the character of "Pink Sheep" that wore pixel sunglasses and had a "well-trimmed mustache".

My GenZ brainrot definitely includes the Eddsworld, Pony.mov and the Sonic Shorts series. I'd watch each of these over and over back in the day. And of course, a copious amount of RU-vid Poops.

Always love your vids Lula ! ❤🔥

The living tombstones blue remix of dog of wisdom goes so hard

I've seen the DHMIS TV series and I adored it! My favorite episode hands down is Family. Easily the creepiest/darkest episode of the show.

How is THIS video how i found out that there's a kickstarter for an epilogue for llamas with hats?!

As a fellow 05' im glad your putting your voice in the mix. Its nice knowing theres another teen/ young adult who likes the kid stuff like i do, and someone who understands what our generation grew up on

omg i LOVED the Laytown memes back in '17-'18!!! I was a fan of the show in '15 so I feel like this era was made for me lmao. The amount of time I spent watching YTPs of the Mine song was INSANE 😭 love the video, i'm subscribing!! edit: OMG ALSO does anyone else remember that super weird video of FNaF characters twerking?? It sounds so strange but I remember watching this years ago and it's lowk traumatized me since 💀

YAAAAYYYYYY IVE BEEN WAITIN FOR THIS ONE!!!! ❤❤❤

I love your content!!!!

Oh god, does anyone remember those GoAnimate videos? Especially the ones featuring Caillou (always mispronounced as Kayloo, I swear) doing something bad and getting grounded? Those are what I think of when I hear the term "Gen Z Brainrot"😭😭

Thanks mentioning what does the fox say, literally stopped mid video and had to listen to it and then return back.

THANK U FOR DEFENDING THE FOX SONG THAT DROP GOES HARD

I un ironically have a whole playlist dedicated to FNAF songs, it has added up to 8 hours long. I was a HUGE fnaf fan, my 12th bday has a cake with a little freddy sitting on top. I've slowly stopped making everything I own FNAF related but I love the series SO much. I will admit, I was one of the many poeple begging for more not scary videos.

omg i LOVEEE dhmis!!! its actually so argrgrgrgrgrgggr... its one of the only things i can rewatch lol. i'd known about the yt videos for a while but then a year and a half-two years ish ago, i think i found a clip of the tv show uploaded to youtube and thought it was great so i made an all 4 account (the app version for channel 4, since im british - one of the best days to live in england for once) and watched it; it was an experience. the three main characters were actually some of the first characters i've ever been able to go 'woah, they're actually just like me!' which.. idk what that says about me. just something about red guy's monotone, unexpressive voice and face, yellow guy speaking slowly and being seen as the 'stupid' one, and everything around them feeling eerie and wrong, not ever fully being able to understand it. also, i LOVE the amount of detail that goes into the set and everything! since everything's made out of felt, there's just so much thought put into each tiny detail, and so many easter eggs/references to other episodes in the background. not to mention the songs actually being pretty good sometimes, i still know the entire time song off by heart and i used to sing/talk it to my friends all the time (they got sick of it extremely quickly), it just calms me down for some reason?? bit weird but oh well. its one of my favourite things, joins my list of obsessive interests right up there with doctor who, my chemical romance, crocheting and sudoku. im so happy to see someone mentioning it, especially the tv show since idk if a lot of people know about it!! edit: the song at the end is beautiful, also is your intro song thing to each section from dhmis too? like the bit in the first episode when they all become actual people in suits instead of puppets and start dancing around

12:09 I really liked this video as a middle schooler because the dog looks like my childhood dog Penny (RIP legend)

This makes me very nostalgic ❤

i loved llamas with hats when i was 12 oml i just got MAJOR flashbacks :000

My childhood brain rot were those traumatizing Brony fan animations. I had no business watching MLP.mov at 9 years old. I loved those mlp tribute videos where it would just be a slide show of fanart while a song played in the background (I remember genuinely shedding a tear at “Sad my little pony”) Also the warrior cats multi animator projects were top tier.

I consider all this stuff to be healthy enough for kids to have grown up watching. Actual brainrot would probably be closer to stuff like Breadwinners or Teletubbies.

I’m with you, fam. The generation war between gen Z and gen alpha is so goddamn stupid. We all consumed brainrot content as well as watching things we… honestly shouldn’t have. So while I do miss 2013-2019 memes and videos, I think gen alpha should have their goofy shit.

Young Gen-Zer here! Though I was born later in the generation, I still have seen and watched many of these, and remember enjoying them. (Still do). There are definitely obvious differences from Gen Z brainrot compared to gen Alpha brainrot, but I still think it’s so funny how we would watch shows that would show guts and gore, and make pretty adult jokes at times, and we’re making fun of kids who watch toilet guys. 💀🙏

it's very interesting to see someone have fond and nostalgic memories for mid to late 2010's meme culture, especially considering that I'm not as fond over that era personally aside from a few memes I still do like, and that I just have more fond memories of 2009-2012 youtube, but that may have to do with me being a bit older, for me, my internet brainrot as a kid was RU-vid Poops, especially the classic sources like the zedla cdi games and hotel mario, and adventures of sonic the hedgehog. My brainrot for ytps was so big that when I was in music class in middle school and we were all fiddling around with garage band, I used the record feature to recreate the hotel mario intro and would also just constantly repeat various well known phrases from youtube poops, regardless if other people or other family members would get it or not. more examples of peak internet brain rot for me would include: really crusty kirby and sonic amvs, Carameldansen videos, peanut butter jelly time, weebl songs like badgers and narwhals for example, nyan cat, parry grip songs, rage comics, and just anything from flipnote hatena. like that is peak internet nostalgia for me personally. Like yeah I would eventually have extreme fnaf and undertale brainrot when both of those games fanbases were at their infancy and I have very fond memories of those times but for me, those days of browsing early 2010's youtube and flipnote hatena were one of the things that absolutely shaped me into the person I am today.

I WANT A LAZY TOWN VIDEO

I USED TO WATCH SO MANY WEIRD CRAP AT 8 IN 2016

PLEASE make a Lazytown video! I watched the show as a kid and was a senior in highschool when it became a meme again. So nostalgic.

THOSE fnaf compilation videos with the guns and faces and the royalty free music/sounds>>

So this is really interesting because my experience of Llamas With Hats was very different. I was of the generation where we had the original three, but that was it. And we were pretty satisfied with "yeah it's a one note gag that escalated as far as it could", with comments begging for more. And then several years later my sister and I went to re-watch and learned that there were now a billion of them, and watching them from that perspective is a very different experience. Our experience was one of "they had a logical end point and then dropped a billion in a short time that escalated it to absurdity as if to say 'is this what you wanted???' " and we were very much viewing it as a mockery of the constant requests for excessive sequels of standalone flash animations (which was a common thing of the era). I'm not sure if that was the intention but hearing your perspective of only knowing it as the full set was surreal.

11:38 yes please please make a lazytown meme era video 🙏🙏this video was great I really enjoy your videos and I would love to see you cover that era. I remember that era just barely and now that lazytown is one of my special interests I would like to remember what that time was like

I remember What Does the Fox Say with very fond memories. I remember my step brother introducing it to me when he played it while he was playing Minecraft in his room. I think I got into it due to the fact that I loved foxes and had a plush of one. The good old days.

I don’t know if LazyTown as a show and Meme could be two different videos. I’d personally love it if if were but I don’t want to throw that much on your plate if you’re not up to it. The memes really are a testament to the writing of both the characters and the music so you can see why I think the show itself could use a video.

my brainrot was asdf movie, youtube poops, mmd and sfm animations, and [insert fandom here] character theme songs videos (as well as just like, fanart slideshows in general)

I have to wrestle with the fact that I am technically millennial but most of my experiences are firmly gen Z. Who am I?!