This week, a meme-based generational civil war is breaking out on TikTok, and only one side knows it’s even happening; a throwaway tweet from rapper Young Thug has me looking into why so many rappers put “ASAP” in front of their names, and we’re going back in time to 2012, when prank videos ruled the internet.
TikTok’s Le Snack Demon and why it signals a generational rift
TikTok has been around since 2016; Instagram, since 2010. Both have lived long enough to see long-time users butting heads with newcomers, and generational battle lines are being drawn around a little AI cartoon character called Snack Demon. It started on (older-coded) Instagram, where this video from an AI slop account went viral:
You don’t have to be 17 years old to see that this meme is dumb and bad. It speaks to something most younger people don’t care about: wanting to avoid eating snacks because you’re on a diet. It is exactly the kind of meme someone’s mom would post. This fact was not lost on TikTok, as illustrated by @nataliethebrownie in this video:
So the stage was set for Snack Demon to operate on both a sincere level and an ironic one. TikTok moms and the mom-adjacent are taking the meme at face value and posting videos like these.
The younger generation are responding with similar videos meant to mock how lame the original posts are. The ironic versions of Snack Demon videos tend to feature a different AI-generated main character—a gray Snack Demon—and often mention current meme-target Arby’s, but the dance, annoying song, and cutesy-slop vibe remain the same.
I especially love that they refer to it as “Le Snack Demon,” an ironic dig at the way older generations of online people used to dunk on lame internet “rage comics” headed “le me.” That’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 shrinking rapidly in 2026, and secondly, because it doesn’t matter how cool you are when you’re young. Everyone who lives long enough will be eventually be mocked online for posting their own version of Snack Demon.
Why rappers are using “ASAP” in their names
Rapper Young Thug recently tweeted that he was changing his name. His real first name is “Jeffery” and he doesn’t want a connection to Epstein. I’m only writing about this because the tweet says “I’m changing my f**king name asap bro,” and at first I thought he said he was changing his name to “ASAP Bro,” joining A$AP Rocky, ASAP Lou, A$AP Ferg, ASAP Twelvyy, A$AP NAST, and about a hundred other rappers and producers who have chosen “ASAP” or “A$AP” as part of 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’d like it to be, A$AP Rocky’s stage name is not “As Soon As Possible, Rocky.” “A$AP” or “ASAP” indicates an affiliation with the ASAP Mob, a New York hip-hop collective started by ASAP Yams, ASAP Bari, and ASAP Illz way back in 2006.
As for what the letters actually stand for in terms of rap names, it depends on who you ask. Some say ASAP is short for “Always Strive And Prosper.” Some say it means, “Assassinating Snitches and Police.” If you work at NASA, ASAP means “Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel,” and it’s “Always Say a Prayer” if you’re religious, but I like A$AP Rocky’s preferred definition best: “Acronym Symbolizing Any Purpose.”
What do you think so far?
Viral video of the week: yelling food orders
Over 50 million people have watched the video below, in which TikToker @pablopyee pretends to be hearing-impaired so they can yell their orders at the beleaguered worker behind the counter at a fast food place.
There’s more where that came from. This TikToker has a little cottage industry of prank-style videos in which he bellows at fast food workers, pronounces words incorrectly, aggressively compliments strangers, and otherwise causes mild mayhem.
Yeah, it sucks to make people uncomfortable in public, especially if they’re working, but most of his subjects seem like they’re at least amused, and no one is getting hurt—unlike past generations of prank videos that were sometimes as simple as “walk up to a stranger and slap them across the face” or “drive a car while blindfolded.” And I like that this TikToker is bucking the trend of his peers, whose generation-defining trait is being afraid to do anything (socialize, have a drink, take risks, have sex, make friends) for fear of appearing “cringe” on social media. And at least it isn’t AI. He’s out there being loud and embarrassing in the flesh.
Educational brainrot videos take over TikTok
If the young person in your life is watching AI-generated slop videos on TikTok all day, don’t assume that they’re watching mindless content. Sure, most AI-made videos online richly deserve the “brainrot” name, but there’s a growing, oxymoronic trend online of educational brainrot videos. The format seems to have begun with the Skeleton and Socrates videos I discussed a few weeks ago, and has since expanded beyond Greek history. Here are a few channels that are making (semi) worthwhile brainrot.
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MoggyBoi: This channel features videos explaining hygiene and grooming, with skeletons.
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Law by Skele: This channel uses skeletons to explain basic legal concepts.
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jessicaer45: There are no skeletons here. This channel is a weird combination of sea shanties and grotesque scientific and medical situations that answers questions like, “what would happen if you were trapped inside a giant oyseter?”
These videos all seem wholly AI-generated, so I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the facts contained within them, but they seem to be at least aiming at truth, which beats most brainrot.
