TikTok Rizz Party: the increase of brain-rotting humor
By Reagan Rozzi
Photo of Dominic Leading Fox and Averie Grace-Hayes watching the original TikTok Rizz Party video taken by Reagan Rozzi
TikTok Rizz Party: three words I never thought I would see consecutively, two of which I learned only within the past few years. Nonetheless, I have found myself intrigued by this phrase and have even further discovered that the ‘party’ is much more than a combination of delinquent slang terms. In reality, this fabricated event is a real-time demonstration of our generation’s ever-worsening infantilism.
TikTok, where this fan-made event first came to fruition, is a popular social media app among teenagers and young adults where users can post their own videos and view various videos from their peers. ‘Rizz,’ a term created by Generation Z that is short for the word ‘charisma,’ is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “the ability to confidently approach people and talk to them, in a more romantic or flirty way.” While the word, both a noun and a verb, was once used in an un-ironic sense, many now view it with immature connotations and use it satirically.
This is what the TikTok Rizz Party was supposed to be: a satirical take on the immaturity of Generation Z. Beginning as a montage of a formal Sweet 16 party, featuring several clips of a specific group of boys dancing to popular rap songs, the video has now grown into a full-blown fictional event. With fan-made character names and intricate backstories, many have now uploaded their own analysis of the assumed hierarchy among the boys’ group, the love interests within the party and other adolescent aspects.
At the beginning of the video’s circulation in March of 2024, viewers commented on the stupidity of the joke, but their self-awareness of the idiocy enhanced the hilarity of the video. However, almost two months later, the video has made its way onto multiple social platforms, and with it has gained a following of users who have written fanfictions, created video edits and deeply analyzed the clips within the montage.
But this online meme is heavier than a childish joke. It is a demonstration of society’s tendency to blend the lines that separate fiction from reality and how consumption of such halfwitted humor only contributes to further deterioration of our brains—often referred to as ‘brainrot.’
The lowering of societal expectations in regards to what is deemed funny or not has become significantly more apparent throughout the progressing 2020s. Some of the memes considered ‘most hilarious’ this month include a photoshopped picture of basketball player LeBron James fading into the sun as the song “You are My Sunshine,” sung by Christina Perri, plays in the background, as well as brief clips of brutal car wrecks which can be streamed through Instagram’s “IG Reels” platform.
It is clear that the reality of these online jokes is either jaw-droppingly stupid and brainrot-inducing or simply horrific and gruesome, yet we have collectively reached a point of (almost) no return to our standards and remain rather complacent. With the rapid advancement of technology, humans have begun to lose their basic ability to comprehend content, which might challenge them to experience a complex thinking and understanding process. Instead, we see a picture of a cartoon toilet with a silly face protruding from it and roll on the floor with laughter.
In other, more blunt words, our society is growing increasingly dumber by the day.
Until we push ourselves and our peers to engage in hands-on, thought-provoking activities and limit our time inside on blue-light screens, this deterioration cannot be stopped.