OK boomer
phrase
A sarcastic comeback to fogyish condescension
What does OK boomer mean?
OK boomer is an acerbic expression used, especially online, in response to something said by an older person. It serves to dismiss an opinion, attitude, or action as out-of-touch, condescending, ignorant, or otherwise cringeworthy.
Also written as OK, Boomer and ok boomer.
Examples of OK boomer
[In reply to @atrupar.bsky.social on 22 Oct. 2024: “Obama is rapping!”] Ok boomer
—@meredithshiner.bsky.social, Bluesky, 22 Oct. 2024
This is the most out of touch, off-base, staggeringly clueless "OK Boomer" thing I've ever read, and I'm almost a Boomer myself.
—Ok, boomer. I mean, love the Stones but stay in your lane, Keith. … [Quoting an article published in The Independent on 23 Sep. 2023] "Keith Richards has criticised rap music, as “people yelling at me”, pop music scene, as “rubbish”."
—“Ok boomer” has become Generation Z’s endlessly repeated retort to the problem of older people who just don’t get it, a rallying cry for millions of fed up kids.
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Where does OK boomer come from?
The OK in OK boomer is ironic, meant to convey dismissive disregard of something out-of-touch said by a boomer. Boomer is a shortening of baby boomer, which means “someone born between 1946 and 1964.”
In the 2010s, younger generations, such as millennials or Gen Z, and older generations, such as baby boomers, clashed (or were seen to) in popular culture. A view attributed to so-called boomers was that younger people were stunted, lazy, and coddled. ‘Millennials could purchase a home,’ as a popular example goes, ‘if they only spent less money on avocado toast.’ Younger generations, in turn, ridiculed boomers for such opinions, blaming them for causing or exacerbating their material circumstances—as well as greater societal challenges—in the first place.
Around the mid-2010s, OK boomer emerged online as a kind of younger person's answer to the older person’s lament of “Kids these days…” The phrase went viral in October 2019 after it was prominently used in comments on a TikTok video where a middle-aged man criticized the purported softness of younger people. That November, it gained further attention when a younger New Zealand politician used it to dismiss an incredulous interruption by an older colleague during a speech she was delivering about climate change.
How is OK boomer used?
While early uses of _OK boomer _did take the form of a younger person clapping back at an older person for expressing dated opinions, the phrase has evolved as a more general way, regardless of age or generation, to dismiss someone perceived to be uniformed or cringey in some way. .
The popularity of the phrase prompted some discussion of whether or not it can be construed as ageist. While it can certainly be cutting, OK boomer generally amounts only to mild mockery. That said, as with any pejorative expression, usage—and impact—may vary by speaker and context.
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