By – K.S. Prathignya

Abstract

This article examines how humour is used as an apparatus to influence and control individuals using critical frameworks to specifically dissect brainrot humour, ultimately arguing that brainrot humour is used as a method to progress anti-intellectualism to maintain hegemonic standards.

Introduction

Brainrot is a genre of humour that originated during the COVID-19 pandemic’s quarantine period. 

As the name brainrot suggests, this form of humour refers to jokes that contribute to the decline of one’s mental quality due to consuming structureless content. 

Brainrot humour became significant in 2023 after the growing popularity of the meme known as ‘Skibidi Toilet’. The plot of the Skibidi Toilet meme explores a virus outbreak that causes those who are infected to become toilets with a strong urge to spread this virus and build the ‘Skibidi Army’. 

Aside from this, a TikTok remix of this parody titled ‘Give it to me x Skibidi Bop Bop Yes Yes’, has no cohesive lyrics yet seems to be crucial to the meme and overall brainrot genre. Firstly, aside from this storyline, what is to be pointed out are other qualities such as the low budget animation as well as the addictiveness of the soundtrack used

Another important subgenre of brainrot humour known as ‘hood irony language which has a pattern of ‘slang overload’. This refers to the over use of slang, imagery and abbreviations from African American culture. For example, “TS PMO ICL GNG” is a hood irony phrase which translates into “This shit pisses me off, I can’t lie gang”. Secondly, this infers that the English language has undergone a certain form of degeneration. 

Finally, a meme that ties in all components mentioned previously, is the ‘Oiia cat’. This character is arguably one of the most recognizable figures in brainrot meme culture. The tune and phrase that this cat sings repeatedly, paired with its low visual quality, makes this a prime form of representation of brainrot humour. The ‘Oiia cat’ meme has existed since 2023 and makes its appearance with new memes. For instance, this cat has been featured with another meme known as the ‘Rat dance’ where a rat dances while this cat hums to the tune of ‘Chess type beat’. 

Critical Analysis 

Brainrot humour has contributed to the deterioration of society in a multitude of ways. Firstly, brainrot culture has contributed to the deterioration of the psychological state of current generations, and this can possibly impact the future political climate, simply because of lowered attention spans causing less critical thinking and more vulnerability. Overall, they all show how humour is used as a state apparatus to control the literacy and perspectives of individuals that consume.

The three qualities which constantly materialize in brainrot humour are low visual appeal, addictive sounds, and the degeneration of language. These qualities set the theme of brainrot, hence explaining  why this genre of humour is formally termed as psychological deterioration. What is also to be noted is the recyclability of these memes, meaning this promotes a pattern of fast trends, such as the ‘Oiia Cat’. This means that the individual mindlessly consumes the same thing but in different forms.

There is a line of reasoning which could show how this degeneration leads up to a group of people that have lower attention spans, constant consumption habits, and simplified linguistic depth. The cognitive enslavement of these netizens can be compared to the industrial revolution and the working class. The collective lie that was sold to the working class was profit and individualism through capitalism, which degenerated the working class through gradual alienation resulting in false consciousness. The working class created a new subculture of English, fell into consumerism, and lowered their attention spans to work. In comparison, brainrot as a genre and humour as a state apparatus is used to psychologically limit these netizens, therefore maintaining some form of control over these individuals. If these chronically online individuals are bought through trends due to relatability and humour, they also become extremely vulnerable as a group of citizens who have low (political) literacy. 

Brainrot Humour and Anti-intellectualism: Hand in Hand 

Anti-intellectualism refers to cultural attitudes and beliefs that dismiss, distrust, and devalue intellectual pursuits and scholars. From a capitalistic standard, this would refer to heterodox schools of thought, as they empower individuals to think critically. In Marxism and the Intellectuals, the concept of anti-intellectualism is observed when the state apparatus is successfully applied. 

Anti-intellectualism makes sure that capitalistic society grows more complex, by rendering the working class as a passive agent to be mentally controlled. In reference to the industrial revolution, this epoch was mainly for economic control through cognitive enslavement (such as profit), therefore normalizing wage labour. Whereas, brainrot humour as an apparatus is a middleman that creates multi-sphered control through suppressing critical thinking. 

When visualizing how the individual becomes a passive agent, the process begins at a starting line. The individual is shown a finish line, promised to hold a prize. They begin walking toward it, alone, believing there is something waiting at the end. As the walk continues, it feels endless. Yet the individual, though weary, is not naïve enough to believe it is a race, they understand, on some level, that the promised reward may never arrive. Despite this, they keep walking. 

This is where anti-intellectualism comes in as a method of control and as an endpoint of reason. When the individual is fed lies to believe that there is an imaginary ribbon with imaginary competitors, they move faster. Eventually, this becomes a collective conscious lie as multiple individuals are told the same thing. As the individual becomes more psychologically vulnerable and cannot think well for themselves, the authority that controls the individual presents the individual with goods or actions they claim would help the individual reach the finish line faster, and therefore they would take it. There is degeneration of this individual as they consume more and lose sight of the truth and ability to reason. 

Similarly, during the quarantine, people began to question the government and the global system, prompting the system to render them as passive agents in order to avoid dissent over hegemonic standards. At the time, people felt that they lacked connection and one of the ways it was achieved was through humour. However, in the perspective of the global system, this humour must hold components to spark psychological limitation and degeneration so that the individual is easier to control, through anti-intellectualism (brainrot humour). Once that state of anti-intellectual behaviour has been achieved within the person, they become vulnerable to any form of control imposed.

However, anti-intellectualism is also used as a tool to push other propagative material (hypothetically to consume political messages through brainrot). Anti-intellectualism serves as a concept that is, in itself a goal; but also a method to reach a goal.

Humour as a state apparatus

When analyzing from a Gramscian framework, media is an apparatus of civil society. However, brainrot humour is an exemplary apparatus because it hides in plain sight but has the most ability to influence. When hegemony is discussed, often it is the state or more obvious forms of system-adhering that are addressed. The point of civil society is to allow individuals to ‘protest’ but within a certain agenda set by the state, and therefore not actual dissent over the state. This limitation, however, would fall short if individuals are actually intellectual. Therefore, the civil society would have individuals consume more brainrot humour to limit literacy and conform to hegemonic norms. In fact, within the media apparatus, it is usually politically inclined messages that are used as examples. Brainrot humour serves as a more subtle version of an ideological state apparatus. An  ISA is how propagative material works for and against the state through civil society to maintain the state’s hegemonic values. However, since it does not clearly promote any idea, it brings the individual down to a mental level where they are psychologically limited enough to accept any propaganda the state wishes to push.

Conclusion

In conclusion, brainrot humour is a state apparatus weaponised by elites to promote anti-intellectualism. Firstly, this means humour serves as an indicator of how the global system controls its individuals. Secondly, this means that humour sometimes is manufactured by these global frameworks for a variety of reasons. In this context, brainrot humour is used to help psychologically limit individuals into anti-intellectuals, causing them to conform to hegemonic norms through reducing attention spans and reasoning by over-consumption. The hegemony wants individuals to believe they are coping with a lack of social connection, when actually the aim is to limit individuals to being incapable of critiquing the global system. 

Author’s Bio

Prathignya Komandur Sriram is a second-year student majoring in Political Science (Hons.) as well as a minor in Economics. Her interests include applying critical heterodox theory to dissect how ideological apparatuses, contextual climates, and capitalism shape public discourse in the 21st century.

Image Source : «The Hollywood Reporter» magazine :: Behance