\n Not since 69 has a number caused this much disruption.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201c6-7,\u201d pronounced \u201csix-seveeeeen,\u201d is haunting school halls across the country (including South Park Elementary<\/a>), making it the Gen Alpha nonsense phrase of the moment. Kids are shouting it in classrooms when a teacher turns to page 67, when lunchtime is 6 to 7 minutes away or for no reason at all.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s like a plague \u2014 a virus that has taken over these kids\u2019 minds,\u201d said Gabe Dannenbring, a seventh-grade science teacher in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. \u201cYou can\u2019t say any iteration of the numbers 6 or 7 without having at least 15 kids yell, \u20186-7!\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s a joke without a punchline (or a setup, for that matter). 6-7 means nothing, but using it can make a student feel like a member of a bigger, cooler group of their peers.\n <\/p>\n @g_unit24<\/a> <\/p>\n How many times I heard 6 7 today as a teacher #teacherlife<\/a> #sixseven<\/a> #teachersoftiktok<\/a> #teacher<\/a> <\/p>\n \u266c original sound – Gabe Dannenbring<\/a> <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt becomes a language game to them that, it would seem, only folks in their group know how to play,\u201d said Gail Fairhurst, a University of Cincinnati professor who teaches leadership communication (and Gen Alpha speak).\n <\/p>\n \n Skibidi toilets<\/a> and rizzes<\/a> come and go. 6-7 is likely destined for the slang graveyard soon, now that adults are talking about it so much. But there\u2019s something almost profound about its infinite interpretations, its refusal to be defined.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think that\u2019s part of what upsets people about it, and I think that\u2019s part of what people like about it,\u201d said Taylor Jones, a linguist<\/a> and social scientist.\n <\/p>\n \n There may be no coherent explanation for 6-7, but here goes anyway: The number appears in the chorus of \u201cDoot Doot (6 7),\u201d a viral song<\/a> by the Philadelphia rapper Skrilla. (In Skrilla\u2019s case, according to Jones, 6-7 is likely a reference to the 10-67 police code, which is often used to report a death.)\n <\/p>\n \n In December 2024, around the same time \u201cDoot Doot\u201d started taking off, high school basketball phenom Taylen Kinney appeared to create a gesture to accompany the phrase. In a clip<\/a> shared by his Overtime Elite team, Kinney\u2019s teammate asks him to rate a Starbucks drink out of 10.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cLike a 6 \u2026 6 \u2026 6-7,\u201d he says, adding an indecisive gesture, as though he were weighing two options in his palms.\n <\/p>\n \n Shortly thereafter, Kinney started incorporating the song and gesture into his TikToks<\/a>, where he has over 1 million followers.\n <\/p>\n \n The song started appearing in sports highlight reels<\/a>, including those for Charlotte Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball. (He stands at 6 feet, 7 inches<\/a>, natch.) Ball doesn\u2019t seem annoyed<\/a> by the memes yet, but the NBA season hasn\u2019t officially started, so there\u2019s still time.\n <\/p>\n \n A face of 6-7 emerged in March, when a video<\/a> caught a young, overexcited spectator at an amateur basketball game shouting \u201c6-7!\u201d with the accompanying hand gesture. He became the embodiment of that annoying classmate who can\u2019t stop spouting nonsense phrases. Somehow, the internet decided this stereotype\u2019s name was Mason \u2014 and thus, Mason 67 has become another inside joke. (This \u201cMason\u201d character has since become an icon of online analog horror, per<\/a> Know Your Meme, but that\u2019s another story.)\n <\/p>\n \n So, if a kid uses any of the above explanations when you ask what the heck 6-7 is, they\u2019re probably right. But most kids don\u2019t even know where it came from, Dannenbring said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cNobody knows what it means,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s kind of the funny thing about it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Its meaninglessness is partly due to what Jones calls \u201csemantic bleaching,\u201d where a phrase is divorced from its original context and comes to mean something entirely different (or, in this case, nothing).\n <\/p>\n \n Using 6-7 comes down to a willingness to have fun, Jones said: \u201cDo you have a little bit of whimsy? Or are you a party pooper?\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Sure, it\u2019s nonsense, but 6-7 serves a critical social function. It\u2019s a shibboleth, or a phrase that signifies that one belongs to an \u201cin\u201d group, Jones said. People who don\u2019t say it or get it are on the outs. And what kid doesn\u2019t want to belong?\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cLanguage is a way for people to form community,\u201d said Fairhurst. \u201cEven if it\u2019s a nonsense term, if they seem to know what it means, that can be a unifying force. And if somebody isn\u2019t understanding the term, it can exclude people from that community, as well.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n 6-7 has also survived longer than other internet nonsense words \u2014 even that pesky \u201cskibidi\u201d \u2014 likely because \u201cgrown-ups are so angry about it,\u201d Jones said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe fact that you can get a big reaction from somebody for something just totally meaningless \u2014 that might give it longer longevity than it might otherwise have,\u201d Jones said.\n <\/p>\n @mr_lindsay_sped<\/a> <\/p>\n What a time to be alive. \ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude05 #teach<\/a> #teachersoftiktok<\/a> #67<\/a> #genalpha<\/a> <\/p>\n \u266c original sound – Mr. Lindsay<\/a> <\/p>\n \n Fed-up teachers are banning it from their classrooms or making exasperated TikToks about the number of times they\u2019ve heard it in a single school day (for Dannenbring, the record is 75<\/a>). Shouting \u201c6-7!\u201d after it\u2019s forbidden becomes a \u201cway to show resistance,\u201d said Fairhurst.\n <\/p>\n \n Teachers are now playing defense by using 6-7 themselves. A Michigan middle school choir teacher successfully staved away cries of \u201c6-7\u201d by incorporating<\/a> it into a warmup song that also includes \u201cslay,\u201d \u201cOhio\u201d and \u201crizz<\/a>.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cDon\u2019t scream at me \u2026 even though you get excited,\u201d the teacher begs her class before they begin chanting \u201c6-7, 6-7, 6-7, skibidi,\u201d a chorus of little cringe cherubs.\n <\/p>\n @thatweirdchoirteacher<\/a> <\/p>\n You can\u2019t take the 6-7 out of the 6th graders so embracing it is the only way. IT WORKS, PAL. \ud83e\udd23#choir<\/a> #middleschool<\/a> <\/p>\n \u266c original sound – Mrs. Gontjes<\/a> <\/p>\n \n When instructing his students to open their textbooks to page 67, Dannenbring will suddenly adopt the timbre of his enthusiastic seventh graders, who immediately protest their teacher using a phrase that does not belong to him. (At 27, Dannenbring is an elder member of Gen Z. But a young teacher is still a teacher, and, therefore, too old to play.)\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIf you don\u2019t play into it, yeah, it\u2019s super disruptive,\u201d Dannenbring said. \u201cIf you acknowledge it, then it gets over with in about 15 seconds.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n And if that doesn\u2019t shut down the conversation, he said he uses it incorrectly on purpose: \u201c\u2018That\u2019s so 6-7 of you.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe easiest way to kill it is for teachers to say that it\u2019s cool,\u201d Jones said.\n <\/p>\n \n Comedian Josh Pray has started using it in front of his kids, working it into his videos<\/a>, desperate to reclaim a formerly innocuous number.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019m trying to take our numbers back!\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll be 67 before they know it, and I don\u2019t want to hear that specific tone all around me as a taunt to my age!\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Fear not, parents \u2014 incessantly screaming \u201c6-7!\u201d is not enough to prove that your children are \u201cbrainrotting<\/a>.\u201d Concerns about literacy falling and critical thinking skills diminishing are legitimate, but they\u2019re being \u201cprojected onto normal, youthful behavior,\u201d Jones said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019re rewriting our own history,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThis is not anywhere near being a new phenomenon.\u201d\n <\/p>\n