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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →After a social-media purge, Scroll’s Divya Aslesha found herself turning to YouTube and Shorts for a different kind of scrolling: absurd comedy with a satirical edge. Her January 1, 2025 essay, “How I got brain rot: Satires of our nonsensical present,” asks whether that sort of viewing deserves the label at all: “Is it really brain rot if it’s subversive?”
What the essay means by “brain rot”
Aslesha uses “brain rot” playfully to describe a habit of watching silly online videos, not as a medical claim about what those videos do to the brain. The distinction matters: the essay is personal cultural commentary, not a study of attention, intelligence, or mental health.
Oxford University Press defines “brain rot” as “a perceived loss of intelligence or critical thinking skills, esp. (in later use) as attributed to the overconsumption of unchallenging or inane content or material. Now also: content or material that is perceived to have this effect.” The definition itself uses the word “perceived”; it does not establish that any particular video causes harm. Oxford chose “brain rot” as its 2024 Word of the Year after a public vote involving more than 37,000 people, and said on June 26, 2025, that the term had been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press’s announcement.
Why satire becomes the author’s version of a scroll
After clearing out other social media, Aslesha describes YouTube as a remaining refuge for casual viewing. The attraction is not that every clip offers a serious argument; it is that the absurdity can turn into a joke about the culture around it. A gangster orca or a tyrannosaurus-rex interviewing Noah signals the essay’s comic register: familiar subjects made strange enough to expose how nonsensical the present can feel.
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That is the essay’s central tension. Short, trivial videos can fit the everyday use of “brain rot,” while satire can still invite recognition and interpretation. Aslesha does not resolve that tension with a claim about cognitive benefits. She treats the question as part of the joke—and of the pleasure of watching comedy that pokes at the world it inhabits. Read the essay on Scroll.
Four creators in Aslesha’s satirical mix
The examples below are the creators and videos Aslesha highlights to explain her own taste. They are not an exhaustive list or a ranking.
Rank #2
| Creator | Example in the essay | Satirical angle |
|---|---|---|
| Ryan George | “90s time traveller” videos | Comedy built around the collision between a past era and the present. |
| Adrian Bliss | Christmas-themed shorts | Absurdity applied to familiar seasonal material. |
| Steven He | Videos satirizing online culture and phone-company rivalries | Internet habits and corporate competition turned into comic targets. |
| Stanzi Potenza | A short about yacht-sinking orcas | A strange, topical-seeming premise played for satire. |
The examples vary in subject and format, but they share a willingness to make ordinary reference points feel ridiculous. That is a reading aid, not a test of which creator is funniest or most worthwhile.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is satirical short-form video still brain rot?
It can still be called “brain rot” in the casual, self-mocking sense Aslesha uses: it is online content watched for amusement and often built around an intentionally silly premise. But the label alone cannot tell you whether a viewer is harmed, distracted, or simply entertained. Neither the essay nor Oxford’s definition supplies evidence about the cognitive effects of these particular creators’ videos.
Aslesha’s answer is less a verdict than a wink: perhaps absurdity that also satirizes online life can count as “quality brain rot.” The point is not that satire is automatically beneficial, but that a goofy scroll can contain more than empty nonsense—and that the distinction is worth laughing about.
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