Popular slang term ‘6-7’ might have actually been created by Shakespeare
Don't worry, we're just as surprised as you...
Whether you're a parent, teacher or older sibling - it's safe to say that anyone who has been around kids for even a minute will no doubt have found themselves totally bamboozled over the whole '6-7' craze, which is, apparently, still raging on.
Gen Alpha kids seem to be obsessed with screaming '6-7' at the moment, with many left feeling like the youth of today are speaking an entirely different language that even Gen Z finds hard to properly understand!
The joke, of course, is that there is no joke.
In short, the trend originates from a song called 'Doot Doot' by the rapper Skrilla, in which he repeats the lyric 'six-seven'. Groundbreaking, we know.
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It seems like the viral sound echoed through TikTok enough until every child under twelve decided it deserved a full cultural moment, pairing it with hand gestures, dramatic pauses, and even meshing it with other mind-boggling internet meme culture tidbits.
However, there's an odd little theory now floating around which sees some people reckon that '6-7' has roots older than Minecraft and Fortnite combined with some even claiming that iconic playwright Shakespeare - AKA the bloke responsible for Romeo and Juliet, shaping what we know about theatre and film to this day as well as introducing an estimated 1,700 words that are still in use today into the English language - got there first.
Yes, it sounds unhinged, but the theory is a very fascinating, albeit totally bonkers, one indeed.
It all started when David Marcus, a columnist for Fox News Digital, heard his teen try to explain to him what exactly '6-7' means.
He pointed to an old dice game called Hazard, which sees players call out the number they need to roll, with six and seven being high-risk targets.
"In the game, a player would call out the number he was trying to shoot for, or make, with two six-sided dice. Five, eight and nine were the most likely results. Six and seven, gamblers quickly discovered either through math or experience, offered lower odds and hence less chance of winning," Marcus explained.
"From then on, six and seven, taken together, became forever associated with risk and worry. It can be found in the works of Chaucer, and has marched quite steadily down through the centuries."
Shakespeare apparently dropped the phrase into his 1595 play Richard II, grumbling that 'all is uneven, and everything is left at six and seven'. In short, life's a total sh*tshow.
Obviously, most kids screaming '6-7' around the playground and classroom won't know about all of that, but when they appear to be shouting absolute nonsense, they’re also accidentally riffing on a line with centuries of literary history.
Which, if you ask me, makes the whole thing less unbearable.
Topics: Books, Gen Z, Life, Parenting, Social Media, TikTok, Explained
Rhiannon Ingle