67 and the History of Number Memes: 420, 69, 21 and Beyond
67 is not the first number to become a joke. A tour of the number memes that came before it, and why 67 is different from all of them.
· 2 min read · by the 67 team
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Numbers have been jokes for as long as the internet has existed. 67 joined a small, strange club. Here are the other members.
69
The elder. A number that is a joke because of what it looks like and what it refers to, which we will not elaborate on because this is a family website. Its rule is simple: say it, someone says "nice". Decades old, still working.
420
The cannabis number, from a group of California teenagers in the 1970s who met at 4:20. Became a date (April 20), a time and a wink. Unlike 67, it has a meaning, which is why it never crossed into schools the same way.
21
"You stupid" meme, from a viral clip of a kid answering a maths question wrong. Short-lived, hugely quotable, and the closest ancestor to 67: a number, a kid, a clip, no real meaning.
9+10
Same lineage: a kid says "twenty-one", the internet laughs for two years. The template for the 67 kid, a decade earlier.
1337
"Leet", from hacker slang, the numbers standing in for letters. A number meme for people who thought they were smarter than you. 67 is the opposite: nobody is smarter than anybody.
100
The emoji, mostly. "Keep it 100". A number as a promise of authenticity.
41
The pretender. Tried to be the next 67 and became a punchline about trying. See our 67 vs 41 piece.
What makes 67 different
Every previous number meme meant something: a body position, a drug, a wrong answer, a code. 67 means nothing. It is the first pure number meme, a sound and a gesture with no referent. That is either the end of the genre or the start of a new one, and we will not know which until the next number shows up.
For now, there is one number, and it has a crown.
