Catchphrases that instantly reveal your age if you still use them
Which of these have you said in the last year? “Dy-no-mite!” “Gag me with a spoon.” “YOLO.” “No cap.” “Six seven.”
Your answer tells people when you grew up.
Pew Research defines Boomers as born 1946 to 1964, Gen X as 1965 to 1980, Millennials as 1981 to 1996, and Gen Z as 1997 to 2012. Gen Alpha follows, with the start date varying by source, according to the Library of Congress.
Nine catchphrases follow, each with a documented origin.
Boomers: “Dy-no-mite!”
It was a sitcom’s breakout line. “Good Times” premiered on CBS on February 8, 1974. Director John Rich insisted Jimmie Walker say “Dyn-o-mite!” in every episode, Walker told CNN. He thought viewers wouldn’t buy it.
Norman Lear dismissed it as a non sequitur. A band called Bazuka took a song called “Dynomite” into the top 10 in 1975, The Hollywood Reporter notes.
Panasonic sold an 8-track player called the Dynamite 8 with Walker as spokesman, Retroist reports.
Boomers and older Gen X: “Where’s the beef?”
A Wendy’s commercial started it. It first aired on January 10, 1984, with an 81-year-old former manicurist, Clara Peller, Yahoo reports. Joe Sedelmaier directed.
Wendy’s said it lifted annual sales 31 percent.
On March 11, 1984, Democratic candidate Walter Mondale used it against Gary Hart in a televised debate, per The Retro Network. Ad Age ranked it among the top 10 ad slogans of the 20th century.
Gen X: “Gag me with a spoon”
A 14-year-old made it up. Moon Zappa says she improvised it, along with “bag your face,” for her father’s 1982 song “Valley Girl,” Yahoo reports.
It was meant as a parody. Frank Zappa gave the song to LA radio station KROQ. It reached No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Grammy nomination, Far Out notes.
Zappa hated the San Fernando Valley, Songfacts says. Teenage girls across the country said it anyway.
Gen X: “Party on!” and “Not!”
Mike Myers made them up on couches in Toronto. The character, Wayne Campbell, started as a bit to make his friends laugh, The Ringer reports.
“Wayne’s World” first aired on “Saturday Night Live” on February 18, 1989. The film came out February 14, 1992. TIME credits it with “schwing,” “party on,” and the emphatic “not”.
The American Dialect Society picked “not” as its 1992 Word of the Year, Wikipedia notes.
Millennials: “YOLO”
It’s older than Drake. The phrase “you only live once” goes back centuries, PBS NewsHour notes. Drake’s “The Motto,” with Lil Wayne, came out November 29, 2011, and made the acronym an “epidemic.”
By 2012, it was the teen buzzword of the year, Ben Zimmer told NPR. Drake later called it an epidemic himself.
Millennials: “Bye, Felicia”
It’s from a 1995 movie. In “Friday,” which came out April 26, 1995, Ice Cube’s character dismisses a neighbor named Felisha, KnowYourMeme reports.
Ice Cube says the line is for anyone saying something stupid, PinkNews notes. Angela Means, who played Felisha, believes he ad-libbed it.
The phrase went viral in the 2010s. Someone submitted an Urban Dictionary entry for it on December 7, 2008.
Gen Z: “No cap”
The slang predates the generation. “Cap” has meant to lie or boast in Black English since at least the mid-1900s, Merriam-Webster says. “No cap” was in Atlanta hip-hop lyrics by the early 2010s.
Dictionary.com found it on Twitter by 2012. A 2017 track called “No Cap,” by Future and Young Thug, popularized it, per Outfeed’s summary.
Gen Z: “Rizz”
Oxford named it its 2023 Word of the Year, announced December 4. It’s believed to be a shortening of the middle of “charisma,” Oxford University Press said.
Streamer Kai Cenat is credited with popularizing it in 2022. Actor Tom Holland boosted it in June 2023, telling BuzzFeed, “I have no rizz whatsoever,” CBS News reported. Usage rose about 15-fold in a year, Smithsonian Magazine notes.
Gen Alpha: “6-7”
It has no meaning. Dictionary.com named it the 2025 Word of the Year anyway, CBS News reported. It’s pronounced “six seven,” not sixty-seven.
It traces to rapper Skrilla’s song “Doot Doot (6 7).” Viral clips paired it with NBA player LaMelo Ball, who is 6 feet 7 inches, as far back as October 2024.
Dictionary.com’s lexicographer got a text from a middle school teacher friend: “Do not make six seven word of the year.” Usage in October 2025 was six times the 2024 average, CBC reports.
The bottom line
Moon Zappa invented “gag me with a spoon” as a teenager. A 1984 Wendy’s ad ended up in a presidential debate.
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