On average, roughly 6 or 7 6-7 jokes are made every 6 or 7 seconds. 67% of the high school campus makes 6-7 jokes, and it makes the mood better 67% of the time.
The phrase “6-7” is a popular meme within the newer generation that originated in late 2024 from a line in the song “Doot Doot (67)” by Skilla. The meme didn’t gain much popularity until early 2025 when a kid at a basketball game went viral for saying “6-7” and doing the hand motion that comes with the meme.
“I have to think before I say any number, but especially 6 or 7,” English II teacher Alison Brayton said. “In the past I would say, ‘There are 6 -7 minutes left in class,’ but now I purposefully avoid saying that, even if that amount of time is actually accurate.”
Brayton believes that the meme started with a basketball player’s height, who was 6 feet and 7 inches tall, and it spread from there.
“I don’t have any rules in my classroom [involving 6-7], but I do in my house,” Brayton said. “Taylor, my 6-year-old son, cannot say it at home. Mr. Brayton and I have tried to teach him not to say it at his school.”
Brayton said she doesn’t hear 6-7 as frequently in recent weeks, but at the start of the school year she would hear it many times in one class period alone.
“Last year, this wasn’t really a thing, but this school year it appeared to be super popular,” Brayton said. “I think now that teachers are trying to troll students by saying it, it has stopped a little. Also, since younger students are repeating it more often, it seems to have died down a little at the high school.”
Brayton said the meme has been a bit annoying, but it is a trend that will pass.
“I do think students will look back at it when they are older and see it was silly,” Brayton said.
Algebra II teacher Joseph Johnson said 6-7 was mildly disruptive in the beginning of the school year, but it was manageable.
“Well with the whole ‘brain rot’ mentality I have come to learn that most of these phenomena have no real meanings at all,” Johnson said. “It’s really just a monkey see monkey do situation.”
Johnson said he had “rules” on 6-7 early in the year, but then started leaning in on the term, knowing that the more the adults started trying to use it, the less interesting it would be to the students.
“At the beginning of the year, it was multiple times in a single class, but now it probably comes more from me as I am working on a math problem, and the numbers come up naturally,” Johnson said. “I use the reference because it seems to engage the young minds automatically (like a kind of knee jerk reaction).”
Johnson said the meme was big before the school year even started and was part of the classroom immediately on day one.
“ I don’t really get the hive mind mentality, but every older generation says the same thing about the younger generation being different,” Johnson said. “Certain things just define a generation and this generation coming up has definitely been molded by the digital world. I was a sophomore in High school before my family got its first home computer and the internet in 1997. Most of my childhood was in an analog non-digital world. We’ve made it as a society so far, so I have to believe that the young generation will forge ahead.”
Junior Teagan Reiss said she does not know 6-7’s origins or “what it really means,” but she thinks it is funny.
“But, in the way that it’s so unfunny you can’t help but laugh,” she said.
Reiss said she giggles every single time she sees the numbers 6 and 7 side by side.
“I always say ‘6-7’ when I hear just one of the numbers,” Reiss said. “I feel a little dumb every time, but especially when I’ll have genuine laughing fits over it.”
Reiss said she doesn’t remember the meme being big last year, but she remembers it becoming super popular around the end of summer.
Junior Avalyn Southard said she feels as if the meme has gone on for longer than it needed to but she believes it should’ve never gotten as big as it’s gotten.
“I think it’ll die soon,” Southard said. “There’s already a lot of people who are getting annoyed when people say it. Social media is also a big influence on how big trends get, and even on TikTok it’s dying down, and not as many people find it as funny.”
Southard said she doesn’t remember when the meme got big, but there were times during Flames practice when they would be doing counts for their routines and people would yell out “6-7.”
“I think that the joke started off stupid, and didn’t make sense,” Southard said. “Usually when I hear 6-7 jokes it’s just people doing the hand gesture after hearing someone say 6-7.”
