New Delhi, Oct. 23 -- What started as a chaotic internet joke has leapt from TikTok feeds to toy aisles. "Italian brain rot", a meme trend built around absurd, AI-generated images of mashup creatures with faux-Italian names, has become the latest obsession among Gen Alpha.

Toys modelled after viral creations, such as a jet-powered crocodile named "bombardino crocodilo" and a wooden log with a baseball bat dubbed "tung tung tung sahur" from an Indonesian folklore, are flying off toy shelves, following in the footsteps of the viral Labubu doll craze.

"Brain rot", Oxford's word of the year for 2024, refers to a category of memes defined by low-grade internet humour-addictive, chaotic, and often symbolic of mental burnout from excessive scr...