Watch KATSEYE Get Schooled on ‘Skibidi’ & More Gen Alpha Slang on ‘Celebrity Substitute’
The pop group KATSEYE participated in the 'Celebrity Substitute' digital series at PS17 elementary school in Queens, expecting to teach but instead becoming students themselves. Four members—Yoonchae, Lara, Daniela, and Sophia—received a lesson in Gen Alpha vocabulary including 'skibidi,' 'sigma,' and 'brain rot,' whilst also sharing details about their own creative process, revealing they rehearse between six and seven hours daily.
The episode highlighted a stark generational language divide when students explained that 'brain rot' terminology functions solely as insults rather than compliments. When Lara inquired how to use the term positively, one student named Grayson definitively stated it was not possible. The Celebrity Substitute episode, hosted by Julian Shapiro-Barnum, released on YouTube and arrived as part of KATSEYE's promotional campaign for their WILD EP, which dropped on August 14th.
- KATSEYE visited an elementary school in Queens to appear on 'Celebrity Substitute' but found students teaching them Gen Alpha slang instead of the reverse
- Students explained terms like 'skibidi,' 'sigma,' and 'brain rot,' clarifying that 'brain rot' refers only to insults with no complimentary meaning
- The episode aired days before KATSEYE's WILD EP release on August 14th