As TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms grow, different types of short-form content emerge. This is good (and bad) as some new types of media put out these days are either funny, educational, or just enjoyable.

However, it’s a two-sided coin. A lot of content that some users would call “brain rot” has been surfacing a lot more recently. Of this “brain rot” content, interviews conducted on random people on the street by overly enthusiastic influencers are among the worst of it. 

I’m sure many of you know what I’m talking about. TikTokers will go up to strangers, ask them idiotic questions, and get idiotic answers. 

The vast majority of these are fake and are made for either comedic value (to no avail for me) or to serve the influencer’s agenda. Some channels make content where they walk up to strangers and ask them questions like “trans rights or low gas prices?” or other questions with a conservative answer and a liberal answer (so no matter what answer they pick will incite conflict in the comment section). Always, on these channels, the interviewees either choose the option the influencer wants them to or choose the other option and make a fool out of themselves when asked to explain the choice. 

A specific example is the most popular reel on the Instagram channel I S A B O K O ✰ (@isaboko_). A woman is asked questions about history, obviously approached because of her green hair and stereotypical “liberal” appearance. She answered the majority of the questions correctly, but the show cut out all the ones she answered correctly just to put the wrong answer, presumably to create the idea that she, and all liberals by proxy, lack basic intelligence. 

I’m not saying this doesn’t go both ways either. Plenty of either side makes videos like this. It’s just an easy way to spread misinformation and “influence” the masses. 

Unfortunately, there are many different types of influencers like this. Others disturb strangers and ask them pretty useless questions like “How tall do you think you are?” I’d say around half of these are goodhearted questions (like the questions asked by our very own Oarsman), while the other half either have blatantly fake, obnoxious content or just ask the absolute stupidest questions possible. This qualifies as “brain rot” content because it provides no value whatsoever and is complete fluff with no substance behind it (or even humor, which seems to be the purpose of some of these). 

A creator I like who makes fun of this type of content is Scumbagdad. He makes skits that portray content like this in an idiotic light, and the influencers as goalless content machines, which I think is accurate for the most part. 

Although I think interviews on the street work as a good way to get the opinions of the average citizen on a subject, the interviews that branch into misinformation and “brain rot” are simply too frequent to ignore.