This week, a nearly incomprehensible meme surfaced online. It was, in its most basic form, a copypasta of sorts about Livvy rizzing up Baby Gronk — or vice versa — thus transferring the title of Drip King. You’d be forgiven if that sentence reads like a toddler mashing keys.
You have to be super online, very on TikTok, and kind of into sports for it to make even a modicum of sense. Fortunately, that is my corner of the internet, and I’ll do my best to explain what’s going on here. Because once it does make sense, it’s a good meme. So let’s get everyone to that end goal.
First, you need to understand why this meme took off. TikTok account @h00pify(opens in a new tab) posted a few different videos about Livvy Dunne — a massive TikTok star and gymnast at LSU — supposedly helping to recruit a fourth grader nicknamed Baby Gronk, who has gone viral for his football prowess. But @h00pify decided to use terms like “rizzed up” and “drip.” And this person’s face and tone while reading it, I can only describe it as AI trying to read a straight-faced version of a parody of how Gen Z might talk. The TikToks also have weird noises and sound effects, and honestly, this dude has to be doing some weird bit.
It took over certain parts of the internet, especially the weird side of sports Twitter, as people noted how strange and creepy this whole thing was. As Mashable’s Elena Cavender wrote, rizz is short for charisma and, basically, means someone can flirt. Soooo, this weird TikTok is saying a 10-year-old and a college student are rizzing one another in some form? It’s all strange. But basically, the TikTok implies that football wunderkind Baby Gronk had rizzed up Livvy — or, separately, Livvy had rizzed him up — making baby Gronk either the new Rizz King or Drip King. (Drip King, separately, is college lacrosse player and social media personality who had previously been linked to Livvy Dunne, a crucial bit of information.)
OK make sense? Only kinda? That’s OK, that’s kind of the point. The joke of this thing is how silly and odd it is.
SB Nation poked fun at the weird TikTok(opens in a new tab), which further accelerated the meme. Soon enough putting these phrases together with a picture, or playing on the theme, became a common thing online. And the jokes are pretty damn good.
OK, so there you have it: Those are the basic beats of this weird saga. And if you want to learn more…don’t! This is ridiculous and silly and go touch grass.
