The ‘6-7’ meme suffers a slow, painful death as parents confirm ‘the kids hated it’ after deploying a humiliatingly low-effort Halloween costume

Parents are trying to kill the “6-7” meme by co-opting it for the easiest, most humiliating Halloween costume ever. It’s the news we needed to hear this year: the phrase that has been disrupting classrooms and driving teachers (and, let’s be fair, everyone else) completely insane is finally on the way out, all thanks to a glorious, low-effort parental crackdown.

If you’re lucky enough to have avoided this one, let me catch you up: “6-7” (pronounced “six seven”) is an internet meme that started going viral in late 2024. The term actually comes from a line in Skrilla’s hip-hop track “Doot Doot,” where he raps, “6-7, I just bipped right on the highway (bip, bip).” It became a nonsense chant that just stuck, spreading like wildfire across TikTok and into classrooms.

What makes this meme particularly annoying is that it’s completely without context or actual meaning. Its power is purely social; it’s like an inside joke that binds young people together while setting them apart from clueless adults. That flexibility is exactly why it spread so fast. In fact, many schools were cracking down hard on the phrase, trying to ban it altogether because of the chaos it caused, per Daily Dot.

Did you get six-sevened yet?

But, as with any annoying fad that spreads much faster overall than seems reasonable, the time came for the elders to reclaim the chaos and bring this viral moment to a screeching halt. The genius of this meme-slaying strategy is its simplicity. This Halloween, parents figured out the easiest way to make something uncool is to simply adopt it themselves, taking the “6-7” phrase completely literally.

The resulting costume is a masterwork of minimalism: just grab any matching sweatshirts or T-shirts, add the numbers 6 and 7, and you’re done. You can buy a cheap, pre-made version online or just get creative with some fabric paint and iron-on numbers—it’s that low-effort.

Financial advisor Douglas A. Boneparth and his wife became the poster couple for this movement when they posted a photo of their DIY sweaters with the brutally honest caption: “Our kids hate our Halloween costume.” The trend took off, and at this point, the lack of effort makes the joke even better.

Commenters immediately dubbed the move genius, recognizing that this is the oldest trick in the book when it comes to generational warfare. As one person commented, you’re “Singlehandedly ending a movement. Doing god’s work.” Another astute observer noted the beautiful, poetic irony of the situation: “We’ve lived long enough to see ourselves become the villain.”

Gen Alpha will probably look back on in 20 years and cringe at, just like we do with the memes our parents once tried to understand. We’re simply doing exactly what our parents did when a new fad or trend came along that they didn’t understand or like. As soon as the older generation took an interest in it and/or co-opted it, it wasn’t cool anymore (silence, brand!).