You must log in or # to comment.
You kids today don’t even know the meaning of the phrase “Generational media hit piece written by a bitter Gen X who is mad no one talks about them anymore”
Me and my partner debated a lot about this because they hate skibidi toilet. I had never watched it and do not care to but I tried to tell them that skibidi toilet is no different than shit we grew up with, they just werent on that side of the internet. It is literally just a SFM video. Its no different than the shitpost tf2 sfm videos a lot of us were watching back around the 2010 and that are still being made today. Is it Pootis Enage levels of SFM cinema? No, more akin to We Like To Party. But to pretend like the brainrot we grew up with is any better than the brainrot late gen z or gen alpha are growing up with is just delusional imho. I mean look at the shit we had, like Badgers, What Does The Fox Say, and plenty more. We always had brainrot on the internet, you’re just not a child anymore. Honestly I feel like the brainrot has gotten a bit better in a certain way. Its not as bigoted as it used to be. I remember a lot of internet humor being just saying slurs, racism, ableism, and queerphobia (not to say it doesn’t exist now, but I feel it is less common). I grew up with it, I still find it funny even if I also find it distasteful, but if skibidi toilet is the worst of your concerns then I think we are gonna be fine.
Skibidi Toilet is also objectively fucking amazing.
If you dont look at it as “Stupid stuff on the internet” and instead reframe it as “Indie Scifi movie made by 1 person on a home pc using free tools” its a hell of an accomplishment. I’ve watched big budget movies from established studios that got less of an emotional response out of me.
I think Skibidi Toilet is way healthier than mainstream comedic tropes like “fat guy funny” or “gay guy effemminate” that were soooo common in mainstream TV and now are (luckily) fading out.
Brainrot is equally stupid but more self-concious and more honest.
And to be honest, the first time I stumbled upon Skibidi Toilet, I thought it was a 2012 Garry’s mod stupid video, game me the same vibe.
However, Ai-slop brainrot (brainslop? Sloprot?), that feels worse. I know I’m pulling out the “kids these days card”, but what really changed is the media: TikTok and all the Tok-likes+AI are becoming better and better at rotting your brain. I don’t know if they really worsen the attention span, even temporarily, but I’m convinced it reduces people’s happiness and is the closest we can get to mind control as the consiracists intend it to be
I do want to specify that I am not counting AI in what I am talking about. I agree AI is worse and I consider it a whole different beast than the regular brainrot any generation consumes. I love shitposts, I love stupid and surreal memes, I love the stupid cringey internet shit like Homestuck, or Skibidi Toilet, whatever. Even if I don’t actually interact with it, I love that it exists and that people are enjoying it. Its real, its human, and like it or not it is art.
AI is the antithesis of art. It is not creation for the sake of creation or expression, it is creation for the sake of consuming. It is what art has struggled and failed to escape from, and that is becoming a product to be consumed. There is no expression or soul. I admire art in all its forms when it is made by a person because they wanted to put effort into making something. Not for profit, not forfame, but because they find the process to be intrinsically valuable to them. It is something I wish to see expand to the rest of life.
AI art is shrinking that glimpse and plunging the light and hope art gives for a better world, and confines us in a dark world of consuming and producing like a sick human centipede ouroboros.
creation for the sake of creation or expression
This is essentially what’s been missing from the modern Internet. I know ive grown up and my sensibilities have changed, but in the “good old days” before content was monetised, and before influencer content creator we’re actual careers, people made stuff because they enjoyed doing it. Nowadays everything feels forced.
Its not a hobby its a hustle. Its not fun its a grind. You dont create for creations sake, you trendhop to pay rent. You dont express yourself, you try to appease the algorithm.
AI is truly cranking the dial past 11 and ripping the knob off, but it went way past fun years ago.
Skibidi toilet is this generations “badger badger badger.”
Yes, some of the memes kids are absorbing is absolute brainrot. So were some of the memes I absorbed growing up.
Good on you.
frowning up
I think it’s called ‘smiling’. (8
Lmfao, valid. Ty for noting the autocorrect typo.
