theSkimm - Weekend: RIP Brat ⚰️

We are gathered here today to mourn the demise of “brat” — aka, the unavoidable aesthetic of summer 2024. The cause of death? Going too viral. Because, as everyone knows, nothing kills a joke faster than having to explain it to your parents or a TV roundtable, which is exactly what happened once Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign got the official endorsement last Sunday from the brat queen herself, Charli XCX. Less than 24 hours later, the Kamala HQ account on X had an updated lime green banner. Meme-ification madness ensued. (For the record, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told us that she is indeed, brat.) And for a delightful — albeit brief — two days, dare we say, the internet was actually fun again. 

Until it wasn’t. In less time than it takes to crack open a coconut, the Brat Chat was inescapable, starting with a slew of celebrities posting videos of themselves doing the “Apple” dance trend, including the likes of Kerry Washington, Jessica Alba, and even Stephen Colbert. All of which was starting to become too much, but that’s before we saw the CNN segment where Jake Tapper declared, “I will aspire to be ‘brat.’” (Respectfully, Jake, you can sit this one out.) And the more bad dad jokes that were made and explainers that were written (do we really need that many?), the more the meme — which was a strategic play to engage with the youth vote — started to, well, sour. As one digital strategist had warned, the only rule was to not “overdo it” and yet, mere days later, we have bratted too close to the sun. So RIP Brat. We hardly knew you.