Dear Reader, I will admit: there are times while typing that I certainly feel like the Crypt Keeper, and this explainer is destined to be one of those fateful moments—but please, come on a journey with your Grandma here.
According to the very scientific and always correct KnowYourMeme, this all began three lifetimes ago back in May of 2023 when a flier appeared on some cars in Florida advertising a “TikTok Rizz Party.”
Rizz, for the uninitiated, is a Gen-Z/online term for being charming and having charisma. It started on Twitch a few years back and has since blown up everywhere—particularly TikTok.
The fliers were quickly posted (and annihilated) online, dubbed as “extreme cringe” based on the party planners choice to use already-dated internet slang in an attempt to appeal to a younger audience.
From there, the image went viral for its sheer ridiculousness before seeming to peter off toward the end of the year—but not for long.
Well, the once-dead meme has reemerged thanks to a TikTok posted by Island Entertainment.
This past March, the event company posted a short video to their TikTok featuring of a group of teenage boys scream-singing along to “Carnival” by Kanye West. The original video—which has accumulated well over 7 million likes—features the caption “The boys showing how it’s done at Jillian’s sweet 16.”
But how does this relate to a party advertised over a year ago? Well, the top comment on the video is, quite literally, “TikTok Rizz Party.” You see, many online have dubbed this specific party the actual “TikTok Rizz Party” due to the nature of the clip, with countless TikTok users and meme makers analyzing every single second of the footage from Julia’s now infamous birthday party.
Yes, you read that correctly, friends. TikTokers far and wide have begun scavenging the app for more shared videos from this sweet 16, trying to decipher the “hierarchy” of this friend group, creating backstories and assigning personas to the “characters,” and even going so far as to create their own conspiracy theories—all about a group of teenagers they’ve never met based on a few seconds of footage. It’s like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but weirder and with more blue neckties!
Here are just a few of the most popular examples:
The meme has slowly made its way onto X, as well, though the “lore” is only just beginning there:
There admittedly does seem to be a little bit of context lost in translation to other platforms—and even in the newer TikToks about the party. Like this one:
And this one:
As explained earlier in this post, this party was NOT the actual “TikTok Rizz Party” originally advertised via fliers back in May of 2023, though some users are posting as if the two are one and the same! The title has simply been co-opted for speaking about this sweet 16.
Glad we could get that all cleared up—it definitely didn't age me several hundred years to research and explain.
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