Where did the TikTok trend ‘coffee spelled backwards’ come from?
A corny line about coffee that allegedly started out as a throwaway tweet is finding a new home on TikTok.
The line, which went viral in various mom-centric Facebook meme groups in the late 2010s, is: “Coffee spelled backwards is eeffoc. As in, I don’t give eeffoc about anything until I’ve had my coffee.”
The humor, of course, is that “eeffoc” isn’t actually a word, but it sounds like “a f***” when you read the line out loud.
Where did the ‘coffee spelled backwards’ line come from?
Know Your Meme speculated that the first known usage of the joke is in a tweet from 2017 — although the tweet does not have any engagement.
Coffee spelled backwards is eeffoc.
As in, I don't give eeffoc about any of you until I've had my coffee.— Coffee Love (@CoffeeEndless) July 6, 2017
Instead, “eeffoc” first started gaining popularity on Facebook, where it was shared in several viral memes, including one by a popular parenting page known as Sarcastic Mama.
From Facebook, it made its way to an Instagram meme account.
Recently, it was TikTok user Mark Billett who apparently brought it to its next social media platform: TikTok. In a video from January, Billett looks wide-eyed into the camera and gives a sarcastic reading of the line.
“I’m having a really hard time distinguishing the millennials who unironically find this funny and the Gen Zs making fun of them,” one commenter joked.
‘Coffee spelled backwards’ goes viral on TikTok
The “coffee spelled backwards” meme is rare — not many memes can translate across various platforms. But since Billett brought the line to TikTok, other users are getting in on the joke.
Gen Z vs. Millennial humor
In June, younger TikTok users classified “millennial humor” as being made up of outdated and cringy jokes. Gen Z creators started mocking millennial humor in videos — humor that they define as a lot of self-deprecation, trying too hard and influenced by limited pop culture references like Harry Potter and BuzzFeed quizzes.
“Coffee spelled backwards,” which is certainly millennial humor, falls into this bucket, which explains why the joke took off again on TikTok.
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