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Why the “tung tung tung sahur” Meme Went Viral: The Rules of ‘Brainrot’

The repetitive sound of a traditional Ramadan drum has become a social media phenomenon, one that people of all ages interact with even if they don’t know its meaning

The screen lights up, revealing a wooden cartoon character created with AI, holding a baseball bat. In the background, a voiceover repeats: “Tung, tung, tung sahur”. Over the past few months, this phrase has gone viral worldwide, recognized and mimicked by both young and old. Yet, few truly understand its meaning. In today’s digitally dominated world, social media has become the window through which an endless stream of information circulates daily biased, official, false, and often superficial. Memes and viral trends fit squarely into this last category.

Defining Memes

To understand memes, we need to define what they are. Essentially, they are cultural content massively spread through social media, which evolves into repetitive, decontextualized trends centered on humor. This is where the psychological concept of ‘brainrot’ comes in a term that literally means “ rotten brain”. Like many digital phenomena, it carries a double meaning. Understanding brainrot helps explain why the “tung, tung, tung sahur” meme became so popular.

The Origin of “tung, tung, tung sahur”

In February 2025, a TikTok user created and posted a ten-second video in which an AI-generated character repeated “tung, tung, tung sahur.” The term sahur, of Indonesian origin, refers to the pre-dawn meal Muslims eat during Ramadan. This meme belongs to a category called Italian ‘brainrots,’ which have also recently gone viral. One of the most famous examples is “Tralalero Tralala”, featuring a shark wearing a cap, glasses, and sneakers.

From Cultural Sound to Meme

The “tung, tung” itself is an onomatopoeia mimicking the sound of a drum. Traditionally, in Muslim-majority countries, especially during Ramadan, a person would walk through the streets beating a drum to wake people before dawn for the pre-fast meal. Its purpose was essentially to serve as a call to attention. In the meme, these elements are transformed into an absurd, AI-generated creation, characterized by strange, repetitive, and disjointed animations.

From “tung, tung, tung sahur” to Brainrot

While the meme retains clear cultural references, it is not intended to mock Islam. As mentioned, the meme appropriates a theme, strips it of context, and becomes viral. Digital “jokes” like this succeed precisely because they are unexpected, illogical, and utterly absurd.

So, what exactly is ‘brainrot’? It refers to viral social media content that explains nothing, lacks logical information, and deliberately removes context. It aligns with the dominant style of online humor—repetitive, absurd, and often nonsensical. Visually chaotic, these memes frequently feature sharp, jarring sounds, seemingly made with little effort. A prime example is the “tung, tung, tung sahur” meme, which was generated with AI. The reaction it provokes is immediate and inexplicable laughter, an almost automatic response, a subconscious stimulus that travels through the brain as we endlessly consume social media content.