TikTok’s ‘boy math’ trend, explained

You’ve all heard of “girl math”, but what about the male equivalent?

It was inevitable, from the first moment a “girl math” video became popular, that “boy math” would eventually follow. As with “girl dinner,” it took a bit longer for men to get in on the trend, but they eventually caught on. Now, videos are flooding TikTok and X — formerly Twitter — with hilarious examples of so-called “boy math.”

And, as occurred with the female half of the trend, people outside the target gender quickly got in on the joke. As such, people regardless of gender identity are sharing their own hilarious examples of math that only boys understand.

What is ‘boy math?’

This is a hard question to answer. As with its female-centric predecessor, “boy math” is extremely subjective. It can relate to the kind of spending men often partake in, that male emphasis on height, or perhaps the amount a gym bro can bench.

It can also relate to pretty much anything that has to do with numbers, as well as pretty much anything outside of numbers, just so long as at least one man has tried to explain their odd approach away.

Boy math on TikTok

Examples of “boy math” caught on pretty quickly over on TikTok and soon spread to X, where people are having far too much fun breaking down their own takes on the trend. The videos have become a phenomenon on TikTok, with a slew of users finding their own creative ways to take on the trend.

The “boy math” trend started out innocently enough, with men listing the wild cranial shortcuts they’ll take to accomplish something they want, but it soon spiraled. Thanks to the sexist response the “girl math” trend received on sites like X, women were waiting in the wings to clap back.

And clap back they did.

Men were utterly savaged in the female responses to boy math, as women used those carefully sharpened tongues to teach them a lesson about staying in their lane. Once they opened the door to criticism — which far too many of them did by piling onto the girl math trend — no one was listening to their complaints about the scathing response to boy math.

The trend even took on a political angle, as people explained away many of our modern issues by way of boy math. Even politicians got in on the trend, with Democratic darlings like AOC and Ilhan Omar hopping on the trend to shoot some shade in the direction of their Republican colleagues.

Any mention of “boy math” has largely transformed into a scathing — but earned — reproval of the male response to girl math. There are few responses from men left among trending hashtags and FYPs, as women use the skills social media has taught them to seize control of the “boy math” trend and teach men a lesson in the process.