When Jennifer Trujillo first heard her middle school band students say “six, seven” in class and explode with glee, she sought out the advice of an expert — her 15-year-old daughter.
Trujillo wanted to know what, exactly, her students were saying when they’d repeat the numbers and moved their hands in a juggling motion. Her daughter gave her an unsatisfactory reply: “Mom, nobody knows.”
And yet, the phrase “six, seven” is being used by kids and teens seemingly everywhere. It’s gotten so maddening for adults that at least one school has banned the phrase “67.”
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the trend, the phrase comes from a song by Philadelphia rapper Skrilla, who told the paper he never “put an actual meaning on it.”
Skrilla, whose real name is Jemille Edwards, told The Times in an email that the song “Doot Doot (6 7)” wasn’t supposed to leave the recording studio, but he decided to leak it at the end of 2024, and teens took the phrase from there and ran with it.
The term “6-7” has turned “into something positive and fun that people everywhere are enjoying,” he wrote. “6 7!!!! Keep it goin’, keep it positive, and remember where that energy come from.”
“6-7” disturbs the classroom
The lack of meaning behind the phrase has seemingly given it the ability to show up everywhere and for kids to find any reason to shout it out and laugh.
It’s been referenced in a recent episode of the four-time Emmy winning series “Abbot Elementary” and was the entire plot of South Park’s first episode of season 28.
A video posted on social media showed a group of teens going wild at In-N-Out when order 67 was finally called.
“You don’t realize how many times you say 67 or six, seven in your daily life until you have a bunch of middle schoolers to remind you,” Trujillo said.
Trujillo, who teaches at Giano Intermediate School in West Covina, likened the experience to the word-of-the-day segment on the “The Pee-Wee Herman Show” from the 1980s that would cause everyone on the show to erupt with joy when the word was said.
Desarie Alvarez, 13, 8th grade associate student body president at Giano Intermediate, told The Times the phrase has been creating a playful buzz around the campus and playground for the past couple of months.
The phrase “6-7” is random, she said, but her classmates find it funny nonetheless.
“I don’t really see how it’s funny but, I got used to it,” she said.
Teachers in some states are disciplining their students or banning the phrase altogether when the laughter or constant jeers disrupt the class.
Carlos Ochoa, principal of Giano Intermediate School, acknowledged that some of his teachers get annoyed the trend disrupts their classroom. But for the most part, he said, his teacher’s go with it and either give their students a chance to yell “six, seven!” to get it out of their system, or say it along with them in the hopes of making the phrase uncool.
“I think the culture of our school is we roll with the punches because you can’t fight this,” Ochoa said.
In Ochoa’s 13th year of being the principal, he said he’s seen a lot of fads and at this point, he’s just getting ready for the next one.
Why the “6-7” trend has lasted
A viral trend can ignite, peak and die in a matter of days or weeks.
The trick is getting it to catch on in the first place and there’s a very slim chance of that, said Karen North, a professor of digital social media and psychology at USC.
The longevity of the “6-7” trend is somewhat unusual because Skrilla released the song last year but it didn’t start to gain momentum until it was used on social media.
It’s unclear when exactly “6-7” caught on for the first time. In March, basketball influencer Cam Wilder posted a video on YouTube from an Amateur Athletic Union game where two teenagers in the crowd turn to the camera and say “six, seven.”
More recently, Charlotte Hornets basketball player LaMelo Ball, who is 6 foot 7 inches tall, began using the music, referencing the song and lip dubbing “6-7” in TikTok videos.
North said she believes “six, seven” sprung back to life because teachers got involved.
“Because there’s nothing that middle schoolers or elementary schoolers like more than to have teachers get upset and try to take action against something, especially if the something is impossible to ban,” she said.
A child could argue they’re not breaking the rule if they simply cheer when they encounter 67 in the world, North said, or end up having to say it as part of a lesson, like in a math class.
Why “six seven” seems like a generational code word
“Six, seven” is one of those things where kids have this secret code that’s fun to participate in and make them feel like part of the “in crowd,” North said.
It’s almost become a game because kids have realized that adults can’t avoid sometimes saying or being exposed to the numbers six and seven because they’re a part of everyday life.
“I have to tell you I have a PhD and I am the kid who, if a teacher said ‘you can’t say six seven in my classroom,’ I would be laser focused looking for any six, seven,” North said. “I would think that was the greatest thing in the world.”
North wants to remind parents and teachers that every generation has their secret code word. What was once the “bee’s knees” would later become “groovy” which changed to “fire.”
What’s different about the spread of generational phrases now is how social media can quickly amplify them but also give them a relatively short shelf life.
Before “six, seven,” there was “Skibidi” a phrase born out of a computer animated video of a head coming out of a toilet. However, it’s hardly used now.
Perhaps, Trujillo reasoned, these nonsense and silly phrases are this generation’s way of telling everyone to just have fun.
“When you think about all of the things that our kids go through in this age, with all the bullying and political stuff that’s going on in the world, we could be worried about so many other pressing things,” she said. “But for us to be worried about two little numbers, you know, maybe it’s this generation telling us to lighten up a little.”
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