The six-seven meme that has taken over the world

“No one is safe” from the viral six-seven phenomenon “taking the younger generation by storm”. Certain page numbers in textbooks, homework questions, and maths answers are all off limits, just to avoid the inevitable parroting that follows.

The TikTok craze has baffled older audiences since the start of the year, but its use has recently exploded online, making it a global feature among young people. Parents and teachers are at a loss: is this yet another “completely meaningless” digital trend, said Fox News, or “so highbrow that it’s beyond comprehension”? Either way Gen Alpha has utterly “confused the masses” with this latest obsession.

‘Repetitive cycles of senselessness’

The ever-present meme is a “prime example of brain rot” among young people, said The Wall Street Journal. When both or either numbers are mentioned, young people make a “palms-up, seesaw hand gesture” which looks like something between “juggling and melon handling”.

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Its meaning is that it has no meaning, which, by a somewhat strained logic, makes it funny because it is unfunny, said the outlet. “Maybe if French philosopher Albert Camus had a TikTok, he could explain it, given how well he understood repetitive cycles of senselessness. But Reddit works, too.”

The exact origin of the meme is disputed, though there is strong consensus that Philadelphia rapper Skrilla’s “Doot Doot” (6 7)” viral song released in December 2024 popularised the phenomenon. Six-seven could either refer to the street he grew up on in the city (67th), or could be a “reference to the 10-67 police code” that is used to report a death, Taylor Jones, a linguist and social scientist, told CNN.

Taylen Kinney, an up-and-coming basketball player, was launched into “internet immortality” after he created the accompanying gesture for the phrase, said The Athletic. Since the meme ballooned, he has amassed over one million followers on social media, alongside receiving prestigious basketball scholarship offers. Aptly mirroring the meaningless meme, “Kinney himself is unclear on why it, and he, have become such a hit”.

‘Destined for the slang graveyard’?

Attempts to unlock some meaning in the phrase have become increasingly desperate, said The Wall Street Journal. In history, references to the summer of love in 1967; in geography, seven continents but only six with countries; in religious circles, belief that God created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh, have all tried to rationalise the “inescapable internet slang”, with little success.

Despite being nonsensical, there may be valid reasons why the meme is so attractive to young people, said CNN. It possesses neither a “set-up” nor a “punchline”, but participation allows young people to share a common in-joke at adults’ expense, feeling like a “member of a bigger, cooler group of their peers”.

It has been around for almost a year, or what feels like a “century” in the fast-paced world of TikTok, but its popularity could be about to end. The 6-7 craze is “likely destined for the slang graveyard soon”, as adults are wrapping their heads around the concept and imitating it. Teachers, rather than fearing the outburst, are “playing defence” by using it themselves: a sure-fire way to deflate even the most prevalent “shibboleth”.