Right around 6:07 PM on June 7th, Washington Square Park turned into a scene straight out of New York City’s playbook: weird, random, and hilarious. Hundreds of people showed up, gold balloons floating above their heads, not for music or politics or anything with an actual goal, but to mark the moment when the date and time lined up as “67.”
When the clock struck, the crowd went wild. They cheered, high-fived, and recorded every second. Other folks watched, probably confused but entertained. There was noise, laughter, and a sense of total, joyful absurdity. Of course, videos blew up online.
What’s “67” anyway? It’s not just a number now that Gen Alpha has turned it into a meme. They say “six seven,” never “sixty-seven.” Nobody can really pin down what it means, but everyone is in on the joke.
It got big after rapper Skrilla dropped “Doot Doot (6 7),” and viral clips featuring “67 Kid” took over TikTok. Then NBA star LaMelo Ball, who stands exactly 6’7”, gave it another boost.
It became classroom chaos, TikTok edits, and a runaway internet phenomenon. Basically, it spread because the algorithm couldn’t help itself.
Dictionary.com even went all-in, naming “67” the Word of the Year for 2025. They said it means “so-so” or “maybe this, maybe that,” especially when people do the hand gesture: palms up, moving up and down.
The real truth is that “67” is impossible to define. It’s everywhere, doesn’t make sense, and that’s kind of the point.
New York City’s Internet Is Divided
The clip sparked debate online in New York City and well beyond, with some finding it endearing and others questioning what it says about the current state of civilization.
“NYC adults scheduling brainrot in their calendars is wild,” one commenter wrote. Another pointed out a generational irony: “It’s so funny that I don’t see kids say it as much anymore but you got full grown adults going crazy over it still.” The observation wasn’t wrong – Dictionary.com’s director of lexicography noted that the phrase “just kept on growing larger and larger, snowballing into kind of like a cultural phenomenon” well past its Gen Alpha origins.
Others were more philosophical. “Is this good or bad for the human condition?” one user wrote. “I could go either way.” Someone else kept it brief: “This is what happens when everyone is single.”
One comment looked to the future: “Imagine having to explain this video to someone 50 years from now.” And perhaps most memorably, one user invoked New York City’s newly elected mayor: “Mamdani should double everyone’s taxes who did this.”
Now, hundreds of New Yorkers marked their phones and showed up. Nobody actually knows who pulled the event together – was it all planned online, or did it just happen because the date and time matched up? The answer is as unclear as the meme itself.
