If we’re lucky in the Opinion section, we work through our beliefs completely and support them with great arguments. But sometimes, we don’t need a deeper reason to hold our convictions. A Roundtable is for those short takes that can be explained in just a few sentences — no more justification needed.
In today’s roundtable, we ask our writers to look at one of the weirdest areas of internet pop culture right now: Italian Brainrot memes. These memes have gone absolutely viral since January 2025, with phrases like “Tralalero Tralala” and “Bombardiro Crocodilo” being popular from the United States to Indonesia. So, what’s your favorite character and what do you think about this absolutely inane humor?
Tomas Hinckley, Opinion Editor: What I think is truly interesting about this meme, as described by my favorite meme etymology academic Adam Aleksic, is that the origins of the “bombardiro crocodilo” joke are actually in satirizing Israel. Yeah, bet you didn’t think I’d take it there, right? Well, the original audio from that meme says “Bombardiro Crocodilo, an alligator that bombs kids in Gaza and Palestine and doesn’t believe in Allah and loves bombs.” So yeah, never let anyone tell you humor isn’t political, because even AI slop can make a statement sometimes. *Wokeness mic drop*
Evelyn Pazan, Associate Opinion Editor: Lucky for me, I am on French, German and Italian brainrot TikTok, so I get the best of all the European Union. If I only have Italy to choose from, I have to go with Tung Tung Tung Sahur. His “uncanny valley” face makes me giggle, and his name is simply audibly satisfying. If I can pick from any country, I definitely have to pick the “horizontal rotierender Fisch.” I don’t know why he is spinning, and I don’t know why I am supposed to care, but I think that’s the whole point of brainrot anyway.
Patrick Minnerly, Weekly Columnist: In truth, I hate how this trend has wormed its way into my brain. It is absolutely nonsensical, and I can feel myself losing brain cells every time I see another Italian brainrot character. It also spreads astonishingly fast; I saw one Italian brainrot video on Instagram and a couple hours later all I saw were images of “Tralalero Tralala” and “Bombini Gussini” swirling around my feed. If anything, this is the clearest indication yet of humanity’s decline. What does it say about society that we now derive a stale kind of entertainment from a stream of nothingness pushed into our brains? Italian brainrot is a symptom of all the dead time we spend on watching useless videos. Anyway, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
Dianna Palacios: I think one of my favorite characters is “Tralalero Tralala”, the shark dude with blue sneakers walking along the beach. He’s part of the OG Italian Brainrot memes. However, now it seems like anyone can use some AI images and Italian text-to-speech and create new ones. I honestly find this humor to be hilarious. To me it truly has no meaning unless you speak Italian. It has an overall goofy vibe. It’s only purpose to serve is if you actually know about it. Going up to my friends and saying, “You don’t know Tung Tung Tung Sahur?!?”, is always a blast. I heard from somewhere, the source likely being TikTok, that they are Italian sayings/slang. Maybe that’s why I like Tralalero Tralala, which translated means ‘to pass it on’.