Bye bye brainrot and AI slop and annoying nonsense words that drive us insane. Teens are planning on ditching these annoying trends (*fingers crossed!*), and we couldn’t be more excited. It’s all part of a movement called “the great meme reset of 2026.” If it works, we could see the return of classic memes and jokes, made popular by millennials (you’re welcome).
Middle school teacher and TikTok teen slang guru Mr. Lindsay talked about “the great meme reset of 2026” in his latest video. “Apparently, what they want to make happen, is they want to get rid of the brainrot by going back to the quote, ‘good memes.’”
Related story
Why You Might Not Want Your Teens Saying ‘Thank You’ Right Now — This ‘Inappropriate’ Term Explained
So, their new year’s resolution is to “reset all of the memes with the old memes.”
Growing up with the dog sipping coffee while the world burns down and the “ermahgerd” memes of the aughts, I’m OK with this change! And it seems like a lot of people in the comments were too.
“Great meme reset sounds like a great idea tbh,” one person said. Another quipped, “Yeah I hope they bring back ‘weird flex but ok’ I liked that one.”
“great meme reset… i love hopecore,” someone else commented.
Some people shared that the reset is already happening. “my kid brought up Chuck Norris recently and I was like that’s ancient meme history,” one person said. “I’ve been hearing ‘your mom’ lately and honestly it’s nice to hear some tradition,” another wrote.
Same! I’ll take “your mom” or “cool story, bro” over “skibidi” any day.
If you have trouble keeping up with slang of today’s teens and tweens, you aren’t alone. In fact, even artificial intelligence can barely keep up! A June 2025 study found that AI models can’t understand what Gen Z and Gen Alpha are saying.
“Their distinctive ways of communicating, blending gaming references, memes, and AI-influenced expressions, often obscure concerning interactions from both human moderators and AI safety systems,” the study stated.
Maybe a return to old-school memes and slang should be on all of our 2026 resolutions!
For more information on today’s teen slang, check out our guide HERE.
These celebrity parents are sharing the struggle — and sweetness — of raising teenagers.
