Current Trends Explained: ‘Le Snack Demon,’ Educational Brainrot Videos

This week, a meme-based generational civil war erupts on TikTok, and only one side knows it’s happening; a throwaway tweet from rapper Young Thug leads me to understand why so many rappers put “ASAP” in front of their name, and we travel back in time to 2012, when prank videos dominated the internet.

TikTok’s Snack Demon and Why It Signals a Generation Gap

TikTok has been around since 2016; Instagram, since 2010. Both have lived long enough to see longtime users clash with newcomers, and generational battle lines are being drawn around a little AI cartoon character called Snack Demon. It started on Instagram (older code), where this video from an AI slop account went viral:

You don’t have to be 17 to see that this meme is stupid and bad. This brings up something that most young people don’t worry about: wanting to avoid eating snacks because you’re on a diet. This is exactly the kind of meme someone’s mom would post. This fact hasn’t been lost on TikTok, as @nataliethebrownie illustrates in this video:

The stage was therefore set for Snack Demon to operate on both a sincere and ironic level. TikTok moms and mom-adjacent moms are taking the meme literally and posting videos like these.

The younger generation responds with similar videos meant to mock the lameness of the original messages. Tongue-in-cheek versions of Snack Demon videos tend to feature a different AI-generated main character – a gray Snack Demon – and often mention Arby’s, the current target of memes, but the dancing, annoying song and cutesy vibe remain the same.

I especially like that they call it “THE Snack Demon,” a tongue-in-cheek dig at how older generations of internet users used “rage comics” titled “the me.” It’s a double dose of irony!

Ultimately, younger generations don’t understand that they can’t actually win this war. First, because the number of people who appreciate irony has never been huge and it seems to be declining rapidly in 2026, and second, because it doesn’t matter how cool you are when you’re young. Everyone who lives long enough will eventually be mocked online for releasing their own version of Snack Demon.

Why Rappers Use “ASAP” in Their Names

Rapper Young Thug recently tweeted that he was changing his name. His real first name is “Jeffery” and he wants no connection to Epstein. I’m only writing about this because the tweet says “I’m changing my fucking name ASAP bro”, and at first I thought he said he was changing his name. has “ASAP Bro,” joining A$AP Rocky, ASAP Lou, A$AP Ferg, ASAP Twelvyy, A$AP NAST and a hundred other rappers and producers who have chosen “ASAP” or “A$AP” as their stage name.

Classically, “ASAP” means “as soon as possible,” and that’s how Young Thug meant it in his tweet. As much as I wish it were, A$AP Rocky’s stage name is not “As Soon As Possible, Rocky.” “A$AP” or “ASAP” indicates an affiliation with ASAP Mob, a New York hip-hop collective founded by ASAP Yams, ASAP Bari and ASAP Illz in 2006.

As for what the letters actually represent in terms of rap names, that depends on who you ask. Some say ASAP is short for “Always Strive And Prosper”. Some say it means “Murdering Snitches and Cops.” If you work at NASA, ASAP stands for “Aerospace Safety Advisory Committee” and “Always Say a Prayer” if you’re religious, but I prefer A$AP Rocky’s favorite definition: “Acronym Symbolizing Any Purpose.”

Viral Video of the Week: Shouting Food Orders

More than 50 million people have watched the video below, in which TikToker @pablopyee pretends to be hard of hearing so he can shout his orders to the beleaguered worker behind the counter at a fast food restaurant.

There’s more where that came from. This TikToker has a small cottage industry of prank-style videos in which he yells at fast food workers, pronounces words incorrectly, aggressively compliments strangers, and otherwise causes mild chaos.

Yes, it sucks to make people uncomfortable in public, especially if they work, but most of his subjects seem at least amused, and no one gets hurt, unlike previous generations of prank videos that were sometimes as simple as “walk up to a stranger and slap them” or “drive a car blindfolded.” And I like the fact that this TikToker is bucking the trend of his peers, whose defining trait of a generation is being afraid to do Nothing (socialize, have a drink, take risks, make love, make friends) for fear of appearing “cringe” on social media. And at least it’s not AI. He’s out there, loud and embarrassing in the flesh.

Brainrot Educational Videos Take Over TikTok

If the kid in your life watches AI-generated slop videos on TikTok all day, don’t assume they’re watching mindless content. Of course, most Online videos created by AI are more than worthy of the name “brainrot,” but there is a growing oxymoronic trend online: educational brain videos. The format seems to have started with the Skeleton and Socrates videos I discussed a few weeks ago, and has since expanded beyond Greek history. Here are some channels that make for (semi) interesting brainrot.

• MoggyBoi: This channel offers videos explaining hygiene and toileting, with skeletons.

• Law by Skele: This channel uses skeletons to explain basic legal concepts.

• jessicaer45: There are no skeletons here. This channel is a strange combination of sea shanties and grotesque scientific and medical situations that answers questions like “what would happen if you were trapped inside a giant oyster?” »

These videos all appear to be entirely AI-generated, so I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the facts in them, but they at least seem to aim for the truth, which beats most brains.