OK Boomer
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About
"OK Boomer" is a dismissive retort often used to disregard or mock Baby Boomers and those who are perceived as old-fashioned and being out-of-touch.
Origin
The exact origin of the phrase is currently unknown. On 4chan, the retort was first used by an anonymous /r9k/ user on September 3rd, 2015 (shown below, top).[8] On Reddit, the phrase was first used as a retort on October 26th, 2017 (shown below, bottom left).[9][10][11] On Twitter, the phrase was first used on April 12th, 2018 (shown below, bottom right).[1]
Starting in April 2018, the catchphrase was used to respond to tweets written by politicians and to tweets criticizing Gen Z generation and Millennials (examples shown below).[2]
While usage of the phrase saw a limited increase in the starting in October 2018, the catchphrase did not see significant spread until January 2019.[9] On January 14th, 2019, a Memecreator user created an Ironic Doge meme captioned with the phrase, referencing the influential Ok Retard Doge image (shown below, left).[3] It's currently unconfirmed whether this upload is the first instance of the image.
Spread
Starting in mid-January 2019, the image received spread on Twitter as a reaction and has been reposted by multiple Instagram accounts (examples shown below).[4][5][6]
Through 2019, the catchphrase saw extensive use in memes on Instagram, iFunny, Reddit and other social networks and maintained popularity as a reaction, primarily used to mock and debase opinions offered by baby boomers and older people in general.
Starting on October 15th, 2019, "OK Boomer" remix by Peter Kuli gained popularity in TikTok memes.[17][19][20]
On October 29th, The New York Times published an article "'OK boomer' Marks End of Friendly Generational Relations",[7] reporting about the meme.
Song, Remixes and TikTok Spread
On June 23rd, 2019, Twitter user @jedwill1999 posted a video in which he repeatedly rapped "ok boomer."[12][13] The tweet was later deleted by @jedwill1999, with the original song no longer available.
On October 4th, 2019, Soundcloud users pooldad[14] and umru[15] posted remixes of @jedwill1999's rap to the streaming platform, gaining over 1,400 and over 13,300 listens in one month. On October 5th, Soundcloud users nukumachi[16][31] and peter kuli[17] posted more remixes of the song, receiving over 4,200 and 294,000 listens in one month (peter kuli's version available below). On the same day, Kuli Posted uploaded the song to Spotify, where it was streamed over 797,000 times in one month.[18]
On October 15th, 2019, TikTok user @rankel.stank used peter kuli's remix in her TikTok, uploading it as "OK BOOMER – rankel.stank."[19] The post received over 2,300 likes in one month. In the following month, the track became viral on TikTok with over 30,600 posts using the track.[20] For example, an October 23rd post by @mattsau received over 313,700 likes (shown below, center).[21] A November 5th post by @lovey.lump gained over 808,700 likes (shown below, right).[22]
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6748179959250029829
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6755930519411772677
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6751072065840778502
New Zealand Politician
On November 4th, 2019, New Zealand parliament member for the Green Party of Aotearoa Chlöe Swarbrick used the retort in response to another MP who interjected while she was speaking about the average age of the parliament members (video shown below).[23]
My generation and the generations after me do not have that luxury. In the year 2050 I will be 56 years old, yet right now, the average age of this 52nd Parliament is 49 years old.
[inaudible] – That's impossible.
- Okay, boomer.
On the same day, political reporter Jason Walls tweeted about the incident, mentioning that Parilament TV has miscaptioned the phrase. The tweet received over 1,000 retweets and 3,700 likes (shown below, left).[24] In the following day, more users on Twitter made posts about Swarbrick's speech,[25][26] with screenshots of the tweets also circulated on other social media.
On November 8th, 2019, an opinion piece about the retort by Chlöe Swarbrick was published by The Guardian.[27]
Stray Kids' "Gone Days"
On December 26th, 2019, K-pop boy group Stray Kids released the track "Gone Days." The song is about a younger generation telling older generations that it is tired of listening to them and wanting them to "go away." The music video for the song gained over 1.2 million views in 24 hours (shown below).
Following the release of the video, Twitter users and fans of the group were quick to interpret the song as an embodiment of the OK Boomer meme. User @leeknowsine[28] pointed out that the title "Gone Days" could be a play on the Korean word "kkondae," which roughly translates to "Boomer" (shown below, left). User @chanastrophe[29] posted an image of a Stray Kids member holding an "OK Boomer" sign, gaining over 1,600 retweets and 4,300 likes (shown below, right). The responses were covered in a Twitter Event.[30]
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Twitter – @ClickToAddName's Tweet
[2] Twitter – @JacoTheMeh's Tweet
[3] Memecenter via WayBack Machine – OK Boomer
[4] Twitter – @NightOwlStuff's Tweet
[5] Twitter – @SlavAnCom's Tweet
[6] YouTube – Ok, Boomer
[7] The New York Times – 'OK boomer' Marks End of Friendly Generational Relations
[8] 4chan – /r9k/ Post #21979372
[9] Reddit – Writerhaha's Comment
[10] Medium on TowardsDataScience.com – 'OK Boomer' escalated quickly -- a reddit+BigQuery report
[11] While earlier comments containing containing the phrase can be found on Reddit, in all instances prior to October 2017 it had been used to address individuals named or nicknamed "Boomer."
[12] Twitter – @jedwill1999's Tweet
[13] Web Cache – @jedwill1999's Tweet
[14] Soundcloud – OKboomer – pooldad remix
[15] Soundcloud – ok boomer by umru
[16] Soundcloud – jedwill – OK BOOMER
[17] Soundcloud – ok boomer w/ jedwill
[18] Spotify – ok boomer by Peter Kuli
[19] TikTok – @rankel.stank's Post
[20] TikTok – OK BOOMER – rankel.stank
[21] TikTok – @mattsau's Post
[22] TikTok – @lovey.lump's Post
[23] New Zealand Parliament – Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill -- Second Reading
[24] Twitter – @Jasonwalls92's Tweet
[25] Twitter – 2max_tweedie;s Tweet
[26] Twitter – @PrisonPlanet's Tweet
[27] The Guardian – My 'OK boomer' comment in parliament symbolised exhaustion of multiple generations
[28] Twitter – @leeknoswine
[29] Twitter – @chanastrophe
[30] Twitter – Stray Kids release an 'ok, boomer' inspired track
