User:OPOSSUM/Proto-brainrot
 | WARNING! This article is not intended to be funny. It is (for now) designed to read like a more casual version of a Wikipedia article, although it may be funnier than the brainrot or proto-brainrot itself. Read at your own risk. |
I deeply regret writing this.
Proto-brainrot refers to nonsensical, mindless and (mostly) unfunny content and memes that were popular approximately between 2019 and 2022, just before the modern era of “Brain Rot.” While memes akin to modern “brain rot” have existed for a long time (see YouTube poops, surreal memes, and MLG compilations), “proto-brainrot” refers solely to the shit that directly led to what we now have. Examples of proto-brain rot include Among Us, Quandale Dingle, and the early Ohio memes (in which Ohio takes over the world, etc.)
Before the term “brain rot” was in common use, terms such as “Gen Z/Alpha humor”, “21st century humor”, and so on were used. “Brain rot” is here defined solely as brain-rotting memes popular among the youngest generations, such as rizz, Skibidi Toilet, the Fanum Tax, Smurf Cat, whatever the fuck that chicken nugget thing is called, and yes, Ohio.
Pre-proto-brain rot[edit | edit source]
YTP[edit | edit source]
While millennial memes and most Generation Z memes are not modern brain rot or even proto-brain rot, IQ-lowering cancer has existed since perhaps the very earliest days of the Internet. YouTube Poops, and their memes such as Weegee, “lotsa spaghetti”, and Morshu contained many characteristics of brain rot, such as repetitiveness, incoherence, and lack of proper jokes, although they predate the term “brain rot” by over a decade. An important difference is that in the 2000’s and early 2010’s when YTPs were at their peak, literal toddlers weren’t able to use the internet, At the age of three, shit like this can probably give your kids fucking mental disorders. Nowadays toddlers are often being given IPads when they can barely even walk and talk, and judging from what today’s elementary school teachers are saying, it really shows.
MLG Montage Parodies, the “MLG Era”[edit | edit source]
As with YTPs, many of Generation Z (myself included) remembers this era of meme culture fondly. In the future, Generation Alpha will likely be nostalgic for modern brain rot, just as some of them already are for Among Us. The overstimulation and overuse of sound effects in MLG videos is characteristic of brainrot, but as parodies, these videos referenced the absurd amounts of editing often seen in 2000’s and 2010’s FPS montages. 2020’s brain rot is, however, generally shared completely unironically.
Surreal/2018-era Ironic Memes[edit | edit source]
Many memes that were popular late 2016 to early 2020 are outright meaningless, see deep-fried memes, “E”, Zalgo Text, Meme Man, Orang, and so on. Some of these memes are, I must say, even stranger than post-2022 brainrot, although their target audience was 10-20 year olds rather than 4-12 year olds or so.
ElsaGate[edit | edit source]
ElsaGate is a word coined around 2017 to the initial trend of small children being introduced to surreal, mindless and sometimes vaguely sexual content on YouTube. (Sound familiar?) One could argue that Skibidi is “the new face of ElsaGate”: while it has an actual plot and is far from the most brain-rotting content on modern YouTube, it is likely the most famous example of brain rot.
The birth of Brain Rot[edit | edit source]
The following memes are true examples of proto-brain rot, in that they mostly died off before the term “brain rot” came into use, but they are identical in structure to 2023-24 brain rot, as well as setting us up for the brain rot that was to come.
Among Us/Amogus[edit | edit source]
This early and “nostalgic” (to 10-year-olds) game/meme is a great example of “proto-brain rot”. At first, it was just a simple party game, “Mafia” in space. However, the ironic memes came in, bringing phrases into the “zoomer” vocabulary such as “sus” and “sussy baka”. More importantly, there were those memes about things that look like “Among Us” crewmates, a.k.a. Amogus memes. These drove us to insanity, destroying multiple generations’ senses of humor (including mine), thus leaving us all open to what was to follow.
Goofy Ahh[edit | edit source]
”Goofy ahh” is another set of related 2020’s memes that has (fortunately) (mostly) fallen from its height. Such memes include Quandale Dingle, DaBaby, large amounts of stock cartoon sound effects, and the still-surviving Ohio and skull emoji (💀). Both of the latter two have earlier origins, with “Ohio will be eliminated” and “I forgor”.