"OK Boomer," Which Started as Some Lighthearted Inter-Generational Ribbing, Is Now a Viral Meme

From Good Housekeeping

You see the two-word phrase tweeted on social media, hashtagged on photos, scrawled on notebooks, and worn on t-shirts and sweatshirts: OK Boomer. Instagram notes that there are more than 24,000 posts with the hashtag #okboomer, and another 1,000-plus under the variant #okayboomer. But what, exactly, does "OK Boomer" mean?

In The New York Times, writer Taylor Lorenz defines "OK Boomer" as, "Generation Z’s endlessly repeated retort to the problem of older people who just don’t get it, a rallying cry for millions of fed up kids." She writes teenagers use it as a comeback to "basically any person over 30 who says something condescending about young people — and the issues that matter to them."

That means people who are closed-minded or dismissive of young people, treat the up-and-coming generation as inexperienced or naive, or seem out-of-touch with the values of today's youth might have an "OK Boomer" coming at them sometime soon. No one is safe: When Chlöe Swarbrick, a 25-year-old New Zealand lawmaker, was heckled by an older member of Parliament while giving a speech about a climate-crisis bill, she slipped in an "OK Boomer" from the podium.

Then again, the retort is not always meant to be so cutthroat. Shannon O'Connor, who designed an "OK Boomer" line of clothing (a riff on an old takeout bag design), thinks people might be interpreting it the wrong way. "I think some people are beginning to take the phrase a little too seriously," she tells Good Housekeeping. "I’ve seen an article going around saying it's now a 'slur.' The OK Boomer meme really started out as a fun, lighthearted joke and was never intended to harm anyone!"

Then again, it's a phrase that's definitely striking a chord. The website Bonfire, which carries O'Connor's shirt, says that after the New York Times story came out, the "OK Boomer" page was getting five times more traffic than any other campaign on their site. "It's been the top selling campaign each day," says Josh Kelly, Bonfire PR Manager. "It’s also close to breaking into one of our top 10 campaigns for this year." (Another successful clothing line for Bonfire, Kelly notes, is the one with the slogan "Dr. Pepper is a woman.")

"As a young artist, the success is absolutely mind-blowing and more than I could have ever expected," says O'Connor (who goes by @toasterpancakes on the TikTok app, where you can find myriad OK Boomer memes). "The success from these campaigns is helping me to pay my college tuition and loans and is hopefully going to help propel any future plans I have. One of my relatives even sent me a photo of Donald Fagen from Steely Dan in one of my designs!"

O'Conner notes she's sold more than 5,000 "OK Boomer" products since October. That's a lot of Gen Zers who feel the need to give a poke in the ribs to the older folks out there. Maybe, like Donald Fagen, the Boomers should just embrace it.

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