DON GONYEA, HOST:
The number 67 has been causing a commotion among kids lately. Try saying it around any Gen Alpha and you'll probably hear someone shout...
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: (Shouting) Six-seven.
GONYEA: Some people say it's a reference to the 10-67 police code used to report a death. But that's awfully reminiscent of the spurious claim that 420 - the number associated with cannabis - comes from a police code. It could've started with Philly rapper Skrilla and his song "Doot Doot"...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DOOT DOOT (6 7)")
SKRILLA: (Rapping) Shooter stay strapped. I don't need mine. Bro put a belt right to they behind. The way that switch brrt, I know he dyin'. Six-seven. I just...
GONYEA: ...Or the call from the stands to NBA player LaMelo Ball, who is 6-foot, 7-inches tall.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Hey. Hey, six-seven.
GONYEA: Whatever the source, it caught on first with teens, now with tweens. And they use it somewhat indiscriminately as a filler word or to describe something that's average. For example, how's your day? You know, six-seven. But it generally means, well, nothing. Even Skrilla told The Wall Street Journal that he never intended to put meaning to the number, but it's apparently driving teachers up the wall. Math teachers say they can't get through a class without some kid yelling six-seven. Others are banning it from their classrooms.
MRS LAFLANDER: This is the rule in Mrs. Laflander's room. We are not seeing the words six-seven anymore. If you do, you have to write a 67-word essay.
GONYEA: And educators are going online with advice about how to deal with it. One says to just, well, embrace it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: We are actually using six-seven as a call and response. Now, there's many ways that you can do it, but the way my class specifically wanted to do it was they want me to go six, and then they all go, seven.
GONYEA: Some language experts say it is not brain rot, though. Instead, it's a way for kids to feel like they're part of a larger inside joke. Even parenting expert Becky Kennedy - that's Dr. Becky to you - said in an Instagram video, to give them a break.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BECKY KENNEDY: Six-seven is meaningless in content, but it's not meaningless in feeling. Think about when you were a kid. What's more powerful than feeling like you belong?
GONYEA: So, you know, the next time you hear someone yell six-seven, just take a chill pill, as they say, if the kids are still saying that. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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