The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: Who Is Nikocado Avocado?

Credit: Nikocado Avocado/YouTube

This week, I'm examining Nikocado Avocado, the YouTuber who fooled the entire world. I'm also taking a look at what happens when brain-rot slang ends up in the Senate, and defining "stress core" and "British core." So cook up 17 pounds of pasta and let's go!

Viral video of the week: Two Steps Ahead

This week, YouTuber Nikocado Avocado went viral by pulling off the greatest plot twist in internet history. To give you an idea of why a video of Avocado basically saying “tricked you” was streamed over 40 million times in less than a week, you'll need his backstory.

Avocado’s began his strange career eight years ago as a militant vegan, but after a few months on YouTube, he decided to ditch that and start eating everything. The skinny kid became a pioneer of “mukbang videos,” where the subject gorges on as much food as they can. He soon became the undisputed king of the space, not just by chowing down on ungodly amounts of chicken nuggets and fire noodles, but also for his manic, unhinged energy and emotional problems. Avocado was internet-dramatic on a historic scale, with millions of fans, haters, and trolls watching the slow-motion car wreck of his life.

All that mukbanging will put weight on you, and over the course of his YouTube run, Avocado blew up to 411 pounds. As he got heavier, his videos were often about his health problems, but he never stopped eating. He did things like mukbanging right before getting surgery. As he got heavier, he seemed to deteriorate mentally, getting more and more unhinged with each video.

About four months ago, Avocado stopped posting videos online. Leading many to speculate that he’d died or was having such serious health problems that he couldn’t post anymore. But this week, Avocado reappeared. And he’s skinny.

Avocado says he dropped 250 pounds. He had banked two years worth of content and gotten skinny in that time secretly, without being discovered by anyone. He also seems to have lost the out-of-control energy of his earlier videos. It was, it seems, all an act.

"While everybody pointed and laughed at me for over-consuming food, I was in total control the entire time,” he explained to NBC News. "In reality, people are completely absorbed with Internet personalities and obsessively watch their content. That is where a deeper level of over-consumption lies."

So was the whole thing really a “social experiment?” It’s hard to say. Avocado’s pre-reveal persona always seemed fake, but he really was fat. The rap on him was that he'd do literally anything to get views, and an elaborate two-year hoax seems to reinforce that even more than eating himself to death would have. And maybe he's not unhinged in the way his old persona was, but this isn't the sanest way to live your life either. But props for pulling it off: Dude tricked everyone.

Brain rot in the Australian Senate

Brain rot slang made its debut in the Australian senate recently when 29-year-old Senator Fatima Payman delivered a speech she said was aimed at Generation Z and Generation Alpha. Her words were so heavy on teen and tween slang, it’s hard to believe any other Australian senator understood a word. 

"Sigmas of Australia,” she began, “'I say that this goofy ahh government have been capping. Not just now, but for a long time. A few of you may remember when they said 'there will be no Fanum Tax under a government I Iead.' They're capaholics, they're also yapaholics. They yap non-stop about how their cost of living measures are changing lives for all Australians, just put the fries in the bag lil' bro.”

“Though some of you cannot yet vote, I hope when you do, it will be in a more goated Australia, for a government with more aura. Skibidi,” she concluded.

Whether the speech will resulted in a more goated Australia remains to be seen, but it did get a lot of attention from people who don’t usually think about Australian politics (like me). It also serves as a reminder that older people (at 29, Payman is a Millennial) should not speak young-people slang.

If you want to translate the whole speech, my guide to Gen Z and Gen slang covers just about every non-traditional word the Senator used.

Beetlejuice lip trend causing controversy on makeup Tok

Makeup-influencer drama usually stays contained, but a beef over lipstick influenced by Beetlejuice is escaping makeup Tok. It started with popular beauty influencer Luara Reisinger who posted a TikTok vid demonstrating how to get your lips to have vertical stripes, kind of like Beetlejuice’s suit. First you coat your lips in a bright color. Then you scrunch them up and brush on some black eyeliner. Bam, instant striped lips for everyone. Except the technique doesn’t work on everyone.

Apparently, if you are using lip filler, your lips don't wrinkle enough for the Beetlejuice, and if you have had lip surgery, you’re even more out of luck. This is a problem for some beauty influencers, who often get static for not revealing that they’ve had work done that most people wouldn’t be able to afford. Influencers who sell products based on the premise that anyone can look like they look are in the crosshairs of the Beetlejuice lip trend. 

The situation is “an influencers’ nightmare,” according to Sarcasm Generator. Because now beauty influencers who have had work done either have to not make a video of Beetlejuice lips and have everyone suspect them, or come clean about their lip filler.

What is "stress core"?

Stress core or "stresscore" videos are blowing up on TikTok this week. Like the name suggests, the idea is to create videos that are as stressful to watch as possible. The first video to be tagged #stresscore was created by huguebas and it consists of an unbalanced washing machine with precariously placed detergent containers on top, accompanied by loud, frantic music. The stress-core videos that are the most popular, though are the ones featuring sped-up footage of SpongeBob Squarepants and a soundtrack from 21 Pilots. They really are stressful to watch. 

What is "British core"?

Since we’re doing -cores, let’s talk about British core. For whatever reason, British things have been popping up more and more recently—UK pop singer Charli XCX defined the summer with the word “brat”; influencers are having emotional reactions to Big Ben; hell, Oasis is getting back together. So people online are paying attention and adding the hashtag to very British things like this collection of British memes, and these blokes.