About

German Brainrot or German Brain Rot, also known as Germanrot, refers to a series of brainrot parody videos and memes captioned in German that often feature a rendered pigeon character interacting with famous characters, like the Penguins Of Madagascar. The Germanrot genre was started in mid-November 2024 by TikTok user schnecke_123, inspiring other types of parody content usually featuring rendered animals being voiceover in German. The German brainrot memes also gained significant virality in mid-January 2025 amid the United States TikTok ban as users commented on how they couldn't understand the memes but still found them hilarious to watch.

Origin

On November 11th, 2024, TikTok^[1] user @schnecke_123 posted the earliest known German brain rot meme, in a video titled "einkaufen gehen," which translates as "going shopping" in English. The video features a rendered pigeon inside a supermarket buying daily items (seen below) while being narrated by an AI-generated German voice. The video received roughly 8 million plays and 1 million likes in two months.

Spread

The German brainrot memes gained significant traction after TikToker @schnecke_123^[2] released another video, titled "schlafen gehen," meaning "going to sleep" in German, in which the pigeon’s bedroom is invaded by characters from Penguins of Madagascar Dreamworks animation. This video received over 21 million views and 2.6 million likes in a month.

On January 15th, 2025, TikTok user @watchingf1^[3] referenced German brainrot memes amid the TikTok ban in the U.S., receiving more than 142,000 plays and 43,000 likes within a day (seen below).

Various Examples

Related Memes

Oha Eine Schlafparalyse

Oha Eine Schlafparalyse, which translates to, "Oh, a sleep paralysis," refers to a series of memes based on a German brainrot animation in which a pigeon in a Santa hat goes to bed and is struck by an episode of sleep paralysis. The video was uploaded to TikTok in late November 2024 and became the subject of lip dub memes both inside and outside of Germany in January 2025, many of which recreate the video or strive to make videos equally as absurd as the original.

Search Interest

External References