As always, this week’s collection of youth culture flotsam is all over the map. We get a surprise appearance from ancient Greek philosopher Socrates in an AI-generated BrainRot video; A meme about winning at gambling that is becoming a meme about hypocrisy; An emoji that probably means something different than you think; And really creative videos, that don’t use AI.
Viral Video of the Week: Socrates and the Skeleton
The breakout star of this week’s viral video is the founding Athenian philosopher Socrates, accompanied by his co-star, a living skeleton. In these AI-generated videos, the skeleton represents the viewer, and the idea is “What if you and Socrates opened Chick-fil-A in ancient Greece?” Like imaginary scenarios have been depicted.
or “What if you ended up dating Socrates in ancient Rome?”
The trend started with this Instagram video:
They then spread to TikTok, where anyone can create one by posting a silly prompt on the AI ​​video generation app.
Maybe it’s good that kids are including Socrates in their internal hierarchy of meme characters, but Socrates is most likely portrayed as an annoying person who keeps pestering strangers with pseudo-philosophical questions. this is not He A far cry from the actual description of the philosopher, who was so confrontational and condescending that his fellow Athenians voted to have him poisoned. But it wasn’t because his questions were annoying; This was because they revealed unpleasant contradictions at the heart of people’s existence. The Socratic method is about arriving at the truth through fearless self-evaluation, not about being fooled.
Where was Socrates also from? GreeceNo Rome. socratic irony is using feigned ignorance to expose the truth, while Internet Irony is using AI to imagine that modern people are better than ancient philosophers, while they don’t even know the difference between Greece and Rome.
The story behind the “I just hit the jackpot” meme
it may be impossible In fact To know why Socrates has become popular now, let’s take a look at an easy-to-explain trend. “I Just Hit the Jackpot” is a meme format where a clip of a rapper gameboyjones The chorus of their song “Hit the Jackpot! (Hakari Dance)” is overlaid with text about a situation in which someone has hit the metaphorical jackpot. Like when there is a substitute teacher:
Or when an exam you didn’t study for is delayed:
Gameboyjones originally posted the song with edits from the anime series Jujutsu Kaisen. The song and meme are related to the character Kinji Hakari, whose superpower is based on gambling and “hitting the jackpot”.
The anime connection means that many of the memes created from the clip delve deep into corners of the anime world that only the toughest people can understand. Your guess is as good as mine with clips like this:
What do you think so far?
Plus, many of these memes mention “love over lust,” so let’s join in, shall we?
What does “love over lust” mean?
The mffers part means “motherfuckers”, but “love over lust” is a little harder to explain. On the surface, it is self-explanatory and refers to people who say they are in love rather than lust. Videos like this have been surfacing on TikTok recently:
The self-aware, performative honesty in these videos is so dense that a reaction is inevitable. This comes in the form of a video where the joke is that anyone who says they’re in love instead of lust is secretly a big freak, a joke that matches perfectly with the “I just hit the jackpot” meme:
🪫, What does the low battery emoji mean?
Among young people, 🪫, the low battery emoji, is not saying “I need to find a charger immediately.” It means something like “I am experiencing emotional depletion, heartbreak, or a general feeling of ‘I can’t do it anymore’.” This is the more common version of 🥀, the withered rose emoji, but unlike the rose, it doesn’t just refer to heartbreak.
(If you can’t get enough of the definitions of Gen Z and Gen A slang, check out Lifehacker’s glossary.)
These cartoon chase videos inspired
Here is something that young people are doing that is original, creative, clever and does not use AI. Cartoon Chase videos use old-fashioned sound effects, video editing, and trickery to recreate iconic cartoon moments, such as:
I’m sure Socrates has some serious questions about reenacting old Looney Tunes cartoons, like “When a coyote runs off a cliff, does he fall because of gravity or because he looks down and catches a sign that says, ‘Yips’?” and “When Bugs Bunny dresses up as a sexy female rabbit to deceive his enemy, is Bugs or Elmer deceived?” But that annoying prick has been dead since 399 BC, so screw him. six seven!
