The Meaning Behind The ‘Ohio’ Meme

Topline

The viral “Ohio” social media meme—used to describe something as weird—has rapidly grown in popularity and gained a total of 10.2 million likes, comments, shares and other engagements on social platforms in July alone, making it one of the biggest social media trends of the summer.

Key Facts

Mentions of it on social media grew 193% year over year between July 1, 2023 and July 31, 2024 compared to a similar timeframe covering the previous year, according to data from social media analytics firm Social Sprout.

The meme originates from when social media users would post crazy videos and news articles of things happening in Ohio during 2021 and 2022, and people would comment “only in Ohio”—similar to the “Florida man” news story trend.

The phrase was shortened to just “Ohio,” and it’s now used by Generation Alpha—those born after 2009—to describe something weird or bizarre, according to NBC News.

Social media users are now combining Ohio with other viral social slang words—including the gibberish term “skibidi” and the word “rizz,” which means to flirt—to create new sentences and phrases like “skibidi Ohio rizz,” which is an insult meaning a weird person who doesn’t have the ability to flirt.

There were 10.2 million total social engagements—how users interact with content through likes, comments, shares and more—with the meme across all platforms in July, increasing by 214% since June, according to Social Sprout.

What Other Slang Words Are Associated With Ohio?

Rizz: Named Oxford’s Word of the Year in 2023, rizz is a term short for charisma, and describes the “ability to attract another person through style, charm or attractiveness,” according to Oxford. The word had 106,591 mentions across all social media platforms between July 1, 2023 and July 31, 2024, according to Social Sprout.
Skibidi: “Skibidi” stems from an 11-second viral video titled “skibidi toilet” posted in 2023 that features a singing head coming out of a toilet. The term skibidi has now transformed to mean something that’s generally bad or nonsensical. Skibidi toilet has grown in so much popularity that director Michael Bay and former Paramount Pictures president Adam Goodman announced in July plans to develop a film and television series based on the meme. Skibidi had 75,232 mentions on social media.
Sigma: “Sigma” stems from the term “alpha male,” which is used to describe a man who is attractive, successful and at the top of the male hierarchy, TODAY reports. Sigma describes a man similar to an alpha male, but who is more humble. The term had 53,713 mentions.
Cap: This term is derived from African American Vernacular English and is another word for lie. It can also be used as “no cap” to emphasize when someone is telling the truth, USA Today reports. The term had 39,393 mentions.
Gyatt: This term can be used to describe someone with a voluptuous butt, or used as a shortened form of the term “goddam,” according to Bark, a company that monitors online slang. Gyatt had 32,330 mentions.
Aura: “Aura” is used to describe someone’s cool points, The Wall Street Journal reports. Having good or positive aura means someone’s cool, while having bad or negative aura means they’re not. Social media users often use the caption “how many aura points did I lose when…” and then describe an embarrassing situation. Aura had 29,775 mentions.

What Is Brain Rot?

Parents and experts have described the use of these slang words as an effect of “brain rot.” Although it’s not a medically recognized condition, brain rot is a “state of mental fogginess and cognitive decline that results from excessive screen engagement,” according to the Newport Institute, a collection of substance abuse and mental health centers for young adults. Excessively using technology in ways like binge watching YouTube videos, endlessly scrolling on social media or using multiple devices at once—watching television and scrolling through social media on a phone—can cause brain rot, according to the Newport Institute. Parents have reported holding “unintelligible” conversations with their children because of the new slang terms they’ve created, NBC News reports, though younger generations have historically created new slang words that older generations may not always understand, like the millennial terms “on fleek” and “krunk,” and Gen Z’s terms “bussin’” and “ate.”