10/6/25, 12:36 PM
What Does '6-7' Mean? The TikTok Meme, Explained
What Does '6-7' Actually Mean?
There is some debate over the specific meaning of "6-7"-some reckon it's a way to describe
mediocre or "mid" content, but most agree that the numbers don't mean anything at all.
It's not about a specific meaning, or where the meme came from, as the randomness is the
point. In a TikTok video, content creator Philip Lindsay described the meme as purposefully
ambiguous.
"There is no real meaning to it," he said. "It is a number that is fun to say, popularized by a
meme with the hand motions, and it just doesn't mean anything."
In fact, 6-7 could be seen as something of a wholesome replacement for the number 69, a
number that will make a classroom giggle, but with no uncomfortable, adult associations.
The strange humor of younger generations seems a consistent source of fascination for
adults-a Washington Post article from 2017, titled "Why Is Millennial Humor So Weird?"
discusses how widespread internet use led to a domino effect of surrealism, in which a single
meme will spread and become increasingly removed from the original joke, becoming utterly
baffling to outsiders.
We're well past the era of "weird" millennial humor now, and have even moved on from
surreal Gen-Z memes-Gen Alpha's sense of humor is now under the microscope.
Understandably, the generation that grew up immersed in the internet is very much into
absurdism-think of Italian Brainrot or the Grinch's knee surgery. Often Gen Alpha memes
don't mean anything at all, with the humor coming from being in on a joke that adults don't
get.
At this point, 6-7 is likely on its way out, having become increasingly understood by adults
and featured in explainer articles (like this one), its esoteric secrets beginning to leak and
spoil the fun.
Those unsettling edits of the kid at the basketball game, however, are still haunting the
internet.
