A Guide to Children’s Culture for Out-of-Touch Adults: the Creator of “Brain Rot”
This week I’m talking about brain rot creator Cookie King, whose constant brain rot videos shape the inner lives of millions of kids under 15. I’m also looking at what people think ChatGPT would be like if he were the person introducing ignorant people to Beabadoobee and gobbling up “millennial burgers.”
Meet Cookie King, the brain behind brain rot
I believe internet brain rot memes formed entirely from the internet’s collective unconscious, just as Athena emerged from the head of Zeus, but the culture vultures at KnowYourMeme have tracked down the real person who is likely most responsible for brain rot .
Demir Baseri, known to his millions of followers as the Cookie King, has probably done more to create and define the brain-rotting aesthetic than anyone else. Cookie was the first to ironically apply the flashy transitions, effects and filters from video editing software Capcut to virtually meaningless footage. He started with “fan edits” to The Walking Dead like this:
— then grew to create such videos:
He then began making videos that combined unrelated memes in ways that contradicted their meaning. Watch this video:
Here’s Cookie King’s explanation: “There’s a new meme on Instagram. It was about a chopped chin and property in Egypt, and people fought battles between them. I thought, “Wait, what if I just combined them together with the Johnny Walker thing and the damn Yo pack?” I just thought, “I’m going to combine them all.”
Cookie King says he’s been posting videos since he was seven, first on YouTube and then everywhere, and the key to his brain-rotting dominance is his work ethic: Dude says his senior year of high school he spammed “20, 30, 40, 50 videos a day.” Eventually, some of them caught on, such as the currently popular Eye of Rah memes and the creation of copies of existing videos with 99% accuracy. He doesn’t seem to think about what he posts at all: the brain rot is a pure expression of his inner life, and it resonates with his audience of millions of followers who “grew up in the digital world.”
So what’s going on with all this crap?
In the 1920s, partly in response to the mechanized massacres of World War I, avant-garde artists created Dada, a movement whose goal was to replace meaning in art with chaos and nonsense. The Dada movement didn’t really catch on—it was elitist, self-conscious, and mired in a central contradiction: Dadaists said they didn’t care about the meaning of art, but they certainly liked to publish manifestos explaining what their work meant. Perhaps brain rot is true Dadaism – chaos that completely destroys the mind. Unlike Dada art, there really aren’t any discernible ideas or thoughts behind the brain rot: it’s nonsense, really. Brain Busters just spam 50 videos a day without attempting to comment on the horrific alienation of modernity or anything like that, even if that’s what I’m getting out of it. I don’t think it’s good, but that’s what happens.
“How I Introduce ChatGPT:” Young Women Embodying AI
Speaking of the unspeakable horror of the modern world, young people, especially young women, have been asking and answering an interesting question this week: If the large language model AI program ChatGPT were a person, what would it look like? The first message came from TikToker @mymetaldiary. According to them, ChatGPT is a brown-haired, handsome young white dude with glasses, as you can see in this video:
While many commenters responded with a variation of “nailed it”, others reported their own perspective on ChatGPT-as-a-person. These answers range from “old lady who’s like Mother Nature” to “mob boss” to “golden retriever.”
When I think of ChatGPT, I don’t think of anything physical, but the unfailing politeness and literally endless patience of the AI brings to mind human personality. I think of ChatGPT as the person I regret starting a conversation with at a party. They seem like strangers to me who are trying to make me fall in love with them, and I can’t understand why. ChatGPT is a combination of boring and desperate, as if someone is searching for the most non-offensive words at any given time. This is someone I don’t trust, although I have no reason not to trust them.
Famous people you’ve never heard of: Who is Beabadoobee?
If you’ve heard people talk (or read) about “Beabadoobee” lately, here’s a look at the man behind that unique name: Beabadoobee is a 24-year-old singer-songwriter born in the Philippines. Her parents named her “Beatrice Christie Ilejai Laus”. At the age of three, her family moved to London. When she was 17, she learned to play guitar, began writing songs, and began calling herself Beabadoobee. It was a joke at first, but it stuck. A generation ago, her music might have been called “twee”; he’s thoughtful and soft, influenced by artists like Elliott Smith and Muzzy Star. It sounds like this:
She released her first single in 2017 and has been growing in popularity ever since, fueled by the many uses of her songs in TikTok videos. As of 2025, Beabadoobee will have three full-length albums and six EPs released on indie labels. In a nutshell: Beabadoobee is an iconic pop singer beloved by young women who make their own clothes.
What is SIBAU?
The acronym SYBAU isn’t exactly new— it was first defined in Urban Dictionary in 2008 —but it’s been growing in popularity in the TikTok and Instagram comment sections lately. It means “shut your bitch ass.” (Rude.)
What does “kidnapped” mean?
In youth slang, “stolen” means very attractive and/or impeccably stylish. Example: “That new dress makes you look stolen.”
(For more definitions of slang words, see Mewing, Sigma, and Other Gen Z and Alpha Slang You May Need Help Decoding. )
Viral Video of the Week: Millennial Burgers
Tim Marcin over at our sister site Mashable has spotted a fun new trend on TikTok: Gen Z and A are making fun of millennial burger joints by pointing out the clichés and cliches of a restaurant you’ve probably eaten at dozens of times, especially if you’ve spent any time in a “mid-sized city near a major metropolitan area” but have never given it much thought.
This week’s viral video from Tiktoker @user2521208780374 reveals this:
Here are some hallmarks of the millennial burger scene:
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Founded by “two dream friends”
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Burgers cost $19.
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Metal bar stools
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Reclaimed wood table
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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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A special sauce described with mild expletives such as “kicking ass” or “getting kicked.”
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Local “craft” beer, always IPA.
Some millennial burger joints are really looking to differentiate themselves by serving food on something other than plates, usually on slabs of wood, a phenomenon detailed onthe Reddit board “We Want Plates.”