The start of the school year brought with it many changes and new customs, one of these is the now-famous “six-seven” joke. What seemed like a catchy saying that everyone would stop using after a few weeks, ended up spreading more and more until it became an pandemic.

“I started noticing it when we started summer band in August. At any time, because in the band we’re counting numbers, like counting our steps, so we’ll do one, two, three, four, five. And they would hear like certain people in the band emphasize the six and the seven,” Doug Schunk, a Chemistry teacher, explained.

The “six-seven” joke is a popular saying among Generation Z, although lots of students at State High who use it wouldn’t be able to explain the meaning of the word. It’s essentially a slang term that can be applied in various contexts. Even if it started being a joke for teenagers, people of all ages have started using it, even if they don’t really understand why.

“I don’t know why it’s a thing. I’ve asked kids, like, where did this start? And even they don’t know where it started. So, yeah, I have no idea, like, I don’t know how you explain it,” Schunk said.

Those from other generations are not the only ones puzzled when they hear the joke for the first time. Alessandra Hoover, a senior who nowadays uses the joke a lot, was also befuddled the first time she heard “six-seven.” “I was really confused. I saw it on TikTok for the first time, and I was like, ‘what could this, like, possibly mean,’” Hoover said. 

This was also bewildering for the exchange students at State High. Jip Geurts, who is from the Netherlands, felt perplexed the first time she heard it. “I was so confused. I think my brother said it. I was like, ‘What are you saying? Do you guys understand what you’re saying?‘ I was, like, so confused,” Geurts said. “And he also couldn’t explain it to me, so he was, I think also really confused, but it was just a meme already.”

However, the real origin of the “six-seven” joke came from a song, concretely from the drill rap song “Doot Doot(6 7)” in which the American rapper Skrilla raps “..I know he dyin’ (oh my, oh my God) 6-7, I just bipped right on the highway (Bip, bip).” The video American YouTuber Cam Wilder posted about the “six-seven” kid, in which a kid appeared yelling “six-seven” to the camera while he performed some gestures with his hands, made it even more popular.

It seems that each day the number of people who use this joke keeps increasing, and this might be one of the reasons why it might come to an end.

“I just think it’s funny how as soon as adults started to understand the ‘six-seven‘ joke, like teenagers are no longer finding it funny. It’s so interesting. Like when teachers point out, like, oh, I said ‘six-seven‘ nobody laughs. Nobody laughs. Because it’s like, I think Gen Z wants something for their own, or like our generation at least. Like our age group,” Hoover said.

Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that this joke will completely disappear. The world is currently in a “six-seven” pandemic, and that will be difficult to change in a short period of time. 

“It’s getting used to more … like it’s becoming more widespread,” Hoover said. “So, yeah, I would say we’re in a bit of an epidemic right now.”