‘Six Seven’: Understanding the latest and viral TikTok slang

Another day, another new and puzzling slang term that makes everyone feel seen by the phrase “Back in my day...” 

Indeed, if you considered yourself au fait with your youthful vernacular and that you were on top of all your aura farming, think again... Unless you already know why Generation Alpha (and younger parts of Generation Z) are randomly shouting out the numbers "6-7".  

It's often written as "67" and usually blurted out as “six SEVEN!”, with an accompanying up-and-down hand movement recalling the motion of celebration in the gaming world.

TikTok is full of it, and increasingly strange-looking memes have been flooding social media.

So, what does it all mean? 

It's not 13, mathematically proficient reader.

It means nothing. Absolutely nothing.

It’s meaningless by design and depending on which pint-sized ragamuffin you ask about it, "6-7" could be a nod to height (6’7’’), a sort of funny playground password, or a term meaning ‘so-so’ or ‘mid’. As in: “The new Taylor Swift album is 6-7.” 

It all stems from a track by rapper Skrilla titled ‘Doot Doot (6 7)’, in which the numbers six and seven appear.

Do yourself a favour and don’t subject your ears / brain / soul to it. Just take it from us – it's punishing and a harbinger of impending doom.

The trend has been to clip the sound, loop it ad nauseam, and post it online in NBA edits – most notably ones featuring the 6-foot-7 tall LaMelo Ball.

The most viral iteration has been an excitable scamp at a basketball game who became the instant face associated with the meme.  

As to be expected, his face has been reworked and distorted into increasingly horrifying versions...

From there, it took on a life of its own, with kids adopting it in day-to-day life. Especially in schools, as the phrase is randomly yelled during class. 

Understandably exhausted, teachers from around the globe have taken to social media to share that they’re had enough and are banning the phrase from their classrooms.

As for parents... well, they’re despairing. Can you blame them?  

So, what’s to be done? 

Well, there’s no known cure, so three options are available.

Either you ignore this latest flash-in-the-pan fad and go about your offline business, while understandably bemoaning the fact that the rapid succession of social media trends are mounting evidence of a generation overexposed to shallow and repetitive online content that leads to full-on brain rot.

Another, more charitable avenue could be to dismiss all those who choose to forget that this is only natural for a generation that grew up fully immersed in the internet and ignore people who cast the new generation and their trends as a go-to whipping post to expel modern frustrations. Instead, simply marvel at TikTok’s unique (and growing) ability to reshape language. As Cambridge Dictionary lexical programme manager Colin McIntosh recently stated when words like “skibidi” and “delulu” were added to the dictionary, internet culture is “changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe.” Don’t despair. Be fascinated. 

This could lead to your third option: Consider embracing the nonsense and sleep soundly knowing that while they may not realise it, youngsters are welcoming a level of absurd randomness into their lives which may yield: a) a promising surrealist in the bunch; or b) an enlightened soul that understands that any excuse to just be silly in a world that routinely feels like it’s sinking into hopelessness is an active form of resistance. 

Whatever option you select, just know that at this precise moment in this strange timeline, if you start counting to ten when surrounded by the half-pints in your life, your ears will be assaulted with two yelled numbers past the halfway mark.

Hey, it’s better than when everyone was shouting “YEET!” nearly ten years ago. Count your blessings.