Explaining the meme in the season 28 premiere

For those who found themselves perplexed while watching this week’s season 28 premiere South Park by the strange new trend at the local elementary school, where kids keep saying “six, seven” for their own inscrutable amusement: you’re not alone. Teachers, parents and the writer of recaps for a socio-political animated show in our country were also perplexed by this trend, which featured a fictionalized version of political tech guru Peter Thiel uttering a phrase uttered by a secret sect in South Park elementary school.

Explaining exactly why this particular trend, like so many confusing memes and viral nonsense, will travel incredibly far across the web and elsewhere, is as easy as painting wind. And why was pronouncing “six, seven” with a confused look, which has inflamed so many young people across the country, integrated into the plot of South Park is essentially impossible to understand, because it is unknowable. However, its origins and astronomical growth in recent weeks are much easier to explain.

The phrase “six, seven” originally appeared in a track by rapper Skrilla, titled “Doot Doot,” released in December 2024. Months later, several TikTok videos used the track in clips that went viral on the platform, driving it into the consciousness of America’s youth in an impressive and perhaps deeply disturbing way that TikTok videos can. The montage included a sports clip of Charlotte Hornets basketball player LaMelo Ball, who is 6-foot-7, and another clip featuring a preteen and a few other basketball fans shouting the numbers while waving their palms up and down the court during a game.

By then the meme was out of the hands of the creators and into the hands of internet users, a crowd we now know is falling apart and doing so quickly. And when the question was asked, what exactly does “six, seven” mean? “Nothing,” was the resounding response that was received. Don’t know the answer to a math question? “Six, seven.” People ask you if you prefer chicken or fish, but you can’t decide? It’s a “six, seven,” but be sure to shrug (you Gen Xers probably remember this guy: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). And so on, until teachers and parents start to lose their minds.

Is it, like THE The Wall Street Journal recently described it, much like absurdist-existentialist philosopher Albert Camus had a TikTok, given his firm grasp of absurdity? Or is this a prime example of internet rot – a term used to describe the chaotic, surreal and absurd decadence increasingly found in online culture? The phrase “six, seven” has no fixed meaning but is shorthand for confusion, repetition, and an ironic detachment from logic. It’s a way for younger generations to express feelings of insignificance, anxiety and overstimulation. Fun, but wait until they are assigned to read The stranger in high school.

On the Internet, such a placeholder for nothing will, over time – and in the case of this meme, very little time – take on meaning. Indeed, as this is repeated, the masses will begin to treat the meme as if it is imbued with meaning. Online trends tend to start out of chaos and gain momentum without explanation: for example, “404 Not Found” went from a nonsense phrase found on a dead-end page on the web, to a meme when placed over any image of your choice, to slang for a clueless or ineffective person. And then there’s the “Me when the” meme, which once occupied this space as the ultimate saying when you don’t know what to say.

These memes, of course, seem like ancient history and are from the Internet years – they’re not really heard or used in web communities or in real life anymore. So for those who are driven crazy by “six, seven,” this too shall pass. But it will forever be commemorated in a South Park episode, which can’t be said for any of the aforementioned meaningless Gen Z memes, so good job, or actually, for connecting one letter-based generation to another: “¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 6, 7.”