When Brainrot Beats the Garden : Storytelling in a Meme-Led Metaverse
By Alison Norrington & Eliza Jäppinen
Okay. So. What do you do when your, serene, plant-watering game gets absolutely body-slammed by… a dancing AI spaghetti animal named Ballerina Cappuccina?
You take a seat, pour some tea, and realise: the memes have won.
Welcome to Train of Thought. We’re Eliza and Alison, and today, we’re unpacking how one of Roblox’s biggest games, ‘Grow a Garden’ is being outpaced by a full-on meme apocalypse. Or, to give it its proper name: Italian Brainrot.
And as someone who’s built choose-your-own-adventure systems and shared storyworlds, I’ve seen this player behaviour bubbling for years. It was only a matter of time before the disrupters; those players who rewrite the rules just by showing up and playing how ‘they’ want grabbed the mic.
The first time I heard the term brainrot I was like that a 100% describes the way we instinctively feel about social content and especially social content made with AI so, if you haven’t seen it yet, this is what Italian Brainrot is: garbled AI voices, absurd generated characters with names like Tralalero Tralala, bizarre backstories, and the kind of chaotic charm that has always worked in youth culture. I remember waiting up till late at night watching MTV to catch a glimpse of liquid television for the same vibe.
It started on TikTok using AI tools to churn out surreal mini-movies. Think: MS Paint visuals meets Italian gibberish meets emotionally unhinged soundtracks. And somehow… it worked. The lore stuck. People started remixing it, roleplaying it, and stitching it. This is play theory in action. Chaos doesn’t have to be the opposite of design; it is design, when you make room for it. And for creators who’ve long pushed for non-linear, player-led narratives… this is both thrilling and a little bit maddening.
This whole thing is one to watch because now there is a Roblox game of it, that is aptly called Steal A Brainrot. The owner and origin of Italian Brainrot is at this point is indecipherable as there are several AI generators that are catering to the community at large being able to create this content. What I gathered online is that its origins is attributed to TikTok user @eZburger401 . This is a meme, these are meme characters. And it’s blowing up. Make no mistake, people ARE making money off it on Roblox, even if they don’t own it, which is why it is aptly called ‘Steal’ A brainrot, I see what you did there Roblox community. It’s even on UEFN the Fortnite UGC gaming platform and is killing it in the charts.
But the big story here is that Grow a Garden; our king of Roblox record breaking, is getting meme-dunked by this chaos. It’s rapidly usurping its number outpacing its ridiculous rise to fame. So let’s talk about why.
What does it mean for this industry that this AI-generated nonsense is winning the internet? What does that mean for storytelling in games, in fandoms, in whatever the metaverse is turning into? I’ve spent two decades saying: ditch the broadcast model. Stop delivering stories at audiences and start building with them. But the truth is, that’s hard. It asks you to give up control. To lean into improvisation. And not everyone’s comfortable with that. And I GET that.
First of all I was a 100% expecting this moment, a moment when creative with AI, would in the hands of the masses hit peak popularity. I am surprised at how soon we’re here and about the structure and format of this AI creative moment. So let’s start with: meme virulence. This is a living, mutating story. Can it ever be created ‘consciously’? Brainrot is doing what myths have always done; being retold, reshaped, repeated by the community, it’s folklore made digital. It’s weirdly sincere beneath all the noise. It’s authentic in its complete and utter inauthenticity. And yes that was kind of a cringe thing to say, but everyone always talks about authenticity as the key to success, yet cannot seem to identify it when it is staring them right in the face. If there is a singular problem we all have is that we do not know what authenticity really means.
But one key take away that we can glean is that Kids aren’t asking for polished animation, they’re hungry for co-ownership. They want to build the world with you.
Roblox is the perfect platform for this. No gatekeepers. No “lore bibles.” Just pure narrative entropy. And in playology, yes, that’s a real thing, we know that freedom is the hook. When players shape the outcome, they shape the meaning. And meaning drives engagement deeper than polish ever could.
Which makes it really interesting for a new breed of creator developers. The studio mentality where everything is designed, carefully crafted, and ultimately controlled, is comforting but not applicable..Italian Brainrot is unfinished by design. It’s a constant “yes, and…” improv from the entire internet. The creators and small studios that survive and thrive are performance artists. I remember trying to explain this in a pitch deck some time ago, and got basically cricket chirps back. It’s really hard to comprehend that you bet on creatives in this field who can hop into a moment and create value from it.
Exactly. And here’s where it gets juicy for us story nerds:
Storytelling isn’t just supporting gameplay.
It is the gameplay. Whether it’s branching paths, sandbox lore, or chaotic remix culture, if you’re not thinking about how players want to shape the experience, you’re building for an audience that doesn’t exist anymore.
100%. Which brings us to the big question: what does it mean for studios? Because for them and investors the issue is trust, is there any structure to the madness that is bankable? That’s a question, because some of the real fun is being made by kids with TikTok filters and a laptop mic.
This is low-fidelity, high-creativity content.
It’s collaborative, emergent, and a little bit broken. And that’s the magic. Italian Brainrot doesn’t work in the traditional sense, but it spreads. And in a post-platform world, spreadability matters more than structure. And for those in tune with this market it’s making money.
We’re not saying ditch all design principles. But we are saying: if your story can’t be memed, it might not live long in this ecosystem. I’ve seen this again and again in shared worlds and worldbuilding, where rigid canon gets in the way of real connection.
Let people bend the rules, and they’ll show you where the magic really is.
What I have been saying a lot lately is get rid of your ‘broadcasting’ mentality, the one which has you thinking you’re on a soap box about to drop something so earth shatteringly cool that everyone will love you. Instead realise it’s a conversation, and your participation and others matter. So what concretely can we learn here?
Let go of perfection.Design for participation, not just consumption.Create lore that people can steal, break, remix — and still feel something.And for business: build your deals with the explicit understanding that things will not go to plan. Instead build processes to foster trust and communication.
User-generated mythology. It’s weird. It’s glitchy.
And you know what?
Stop treating memes like marketing, and start treating them like modern mythology.
That’s our train of thought for today.
Come yell about Bananini and Cappuccina with us on X, Insta, and Medium. Or tell us what game you think memes will crash next.
And if you’re building something big… maybe let a little brainrot in.
We’ll see you next time.
When Brainrot Beats the Garden : Storytelling in a Meme-Led Metaverse was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.