What does “fanum tax” mean? This Gen Z slang is part of a new viral song that’s been stuck in people’s heads for days. Here’s what you should know.
In the age of TikTok and viral sensations, the latest trends can catch fire before you even realize it. Whether folks are stuck on a new dance craze, an online urban legend, or a new bit of slang, these things can become wildly popular overnight to the point where not even our resources for new trends and phrases can keep up all the time. Lately, TikTokers have been blessing each other with “Fanum tax” status.
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If you’re not quite sure what it means right off the bat, you’re probably in the same boat as literally anyone from before Gen Z. The phrase came about during late 2022 and has been widely used on TikTok as part of one of the weirdest and most absurd-sounding love songs of this generation. You’d be excused if you had no idea what being called Fanum tax means, but we’ve got you covered. Here’s why it’s considered to be a good thing.
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What does “Fanum tax” mean? It’s kind of a compliment.
You might have heard this weird but cute love song (at least, we think it’s a love song) circulating on TikTok. It first originated from @papaboy020 and appears on a short video in which the song is set to their Roblox gameplay.
The small snippet of the song goes “Sticking your gyatt for the rizzler / you’re so skibidi, you’re so Fanum tax / I just wanna be your sigma”
If you’re a millennial or older, your head is probably spinning from all the Gen Z lingo that occupies every single bit of this 11-second segment. Nevertheless, the song itself has already been making the rounds with lip-sync videos and parodies. But if you’re completely lost on what any of it means, we’ve got you covered.
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As far as “Fanum tax” goes, this seems to be a pre-existing term. According to an article on Know Your Meme, the “Fanum” portion of the phrase refers to a popular streamer on Twitch and originated back in 2022. During his gaming streams, Fanum can often be seen imposing a “tax” on his teammates by taking a small part of their meal for himself seemingly without question or struggle. The Fanum tax trend quickly began spreading on social media platforms until it ended up stuck in your head in @papaboy020’s song.
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Essentially, granting someone Fanum tax status means that you’d let them have some of your food without them necessarily having to ask. It’s kind of like when a romantic couple isn’t exactly sharing a meal with their significant other, but they are subtly entitled to a small part of whatever it is they’re eating at the time. It’s a romantic gesture! At least, we’re pretty sure.
It’s safe to say that Gen Z and Gen Alpha terms will continue to baffle other generations for years to come, but evidently, they’ve started working on their romantic slang that we can just roll with.
An NFL tailgater found a brilliant way to kill two birds with one stone: get the cost of his game day tickets covered while enjoying some beers.
Source: TikTok | @ronnydoitche
Tailgating is about as time-honored a tradition as stanning for K-Pop groups on Twitter by doxxing anyone who says anything bad about your favorite 17-woman group.
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And while you could pretty much tailgate anywhere you can park a car and bust out a cooler of drinks and a portable grill, the practice is often most closely associated with NFL fans who vehemently debate whether or not Tom Brady would be able to survive under the rule set that other greats like Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw among many others.
That’s usually what one thinks of when tailgating: a group of fans pre-gaming while rocking their favorite jerseys and day drinking, presumably in a bid to make the game more enjoyable while they scar their vocal cords as they say things about the referees who probably would’ve gotten them banned from social media.
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What one doesn’t consider, is how fans can, before the game, earn a few bucks while engaging in some friendly drinking competitions with their fellow pigskin lovers.
But that’s exactly what this industrious fan did.
Source: TikTok | @ronnydoitche
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Ronny Doitche (@ronnydoitche) has posted several TikTok clips that demonstrate his beer chugging prowess, whether it’s rocking crazy-looking, quad-bottle holders to help him slam multiple Miller High Lifes at the same time, or sitting outside of a McDonald’s and pouring out and pounding down a Grimace Shake Jager Bomb, the man sure knows how to get creative with his unique skill.
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In what is perhaps the most brilliant display of mixing business with pleasure when it comes to drinking beer in a stadium parking lot before a football game, Ronny set up a table with a cooler and multiple plastic cups and decided to record himself absolutely smashing folks who thought they could out chug the quick-beer-drinking maven.
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Source: TikTok | @ronnydoitche
In a clip that’s garnered over 18.7 million views, Ronny can be seen sitting behind this table. His face: stoic, presumably fixated on the task at hand: to take as many $20 bills from unsuspecting NFL game attendees as possible.
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A sign on the table reads: “$100 to your $20 I can chug a Friday beer faster than you change my mind.”
An unsuspecting participant approaches Ronny at the table and puts $20 into his jar as he says, “Go Patriots.”
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The two men cheers and they begin to chug: Ronny’s is gone in an instant as the challenger is still drinking from his own cup.
Source: TikTok | @ronnydoitche
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Another NFL fan tries his luck and Ronny seemingly gives him a head start, but he summarily loses, earning Ronny another $20 in the process. The third guy puts up a better fight, but ultimately falls to Ronny.
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Source: TikTok | @ronnydoitche
While the video shows a fourth competitor, someone off camera remarks that Ronny was already “10 beers deep” at this point, signifying he’s already managed to earn $200 from his tailgating venture. This individual watches the chug champ best him, and doesn’t even bother to attempt to chug any longer.
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Source: TikTok | @ronnydoitche
No matter who steps up to test their mettle against Ronny, they can’t seem to match his speed, but everyone, to their credit, takes it well. By the end of it, according to a caption he appended to his post, he was $440 richer, which, depending on the tickets he bought for the game, should more than cover the cost of his ticket and the beers he brought to the parking lot.
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Source: TikTok | @ronnydoitche
TikTokers who bore witness to Ronny’s chugging excellence seemed just as impressed as everyone else watching on in the video. Like this person who wrote: “It seemed like he just kept getting faster each time lol I could never do that”
While another was just impressed with his hustle: “Dudes making money by drinking beer. I need this talent lol”
In trying to explain the economic divide between Boomers and younger generations, one man figures out that the latter doesn’t benefit from work.
It feels like younger generations hear certain phrases from Boomers all the time about our work ethic, lifestyle, and expectations. Most of all, they call us “lazy” and say that we don’t want to work anymore. In reality, many of us have been working since we were teenagers and are still holding down challenging jobs.
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These conversations can be especially tricky during the holidays when older family members blame us for any financial shortcomings. “At your age, I had already bought my second home and had a child,” they might say. Luckily, comedian Brendon Lemon was able to make the logical argument on TikTok as to why younger generations don’t actually benefit from work.
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Comedian Brendon Lemon figured out why younger generations don’t want to work — there’s no benefit.
When talking to his Boomer dad and uncles, Brendon made a point about the difference in generations and our expectations. “Why do people expect work to be good?” Brendon’s Boomer relatives tell him. “It’s not supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be comfortable, that’s why you call it work. We didn’t expect it to be comfortable, we labored in uncomfortable situations, and we did it in order to make a living. We didn’t expect luxuries. You guys expect luxuries.”
What luxuries do millennials and Gen Z expect? Sure, offices lure us in with nice coffee machines, ping pong tables, and in-office bars, but no one is asking for that. Those are all just distractions from low pay and even lower growth opportunities. Maybe if the office is nice, we won’t want to leave a job that takes us for granted as quickly. But at the end of the day, all people really want is enough money and time to have a life outside of work.
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“Who’s telling them that we want luxury?” Brendon asks. “And that for some reason we’re unwilling to put up with uncomfortable situations? All of us worked through college! I don’t know a single person who didn’t have a job, who didn’t work almost full-time all the way through college, even though they were going to college full-time.”
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“Secondly, most of us are just asking for healthcare and affordable housing. I don’t understand where the concept of luxury is coming from. A place to sleep and have some money to buy food and then maybe go out every once in a while is most of what people are asking for. And not to be terrified of future and retirement and dying poor and lonely.”
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But an emotional argument can only take us so far. When Brendon gets into actual statistics, it’s terrifying what we can see and how the future looks for future generations. Since 2000, there has been 62.34 percent inflation total.
For example, something that would have cost $5.38 in 2000 now costs at least $8.73. The CPI (Consumer Price Index) has increased by 500 percent since 1970, and college tuition has increased by 1,550 percent. But there has only been a 10 percent increase in wages. That’s a recipe for disaster!
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Not only that, but Brendon added the data about how Baby Boomers have blocked career progression and wage increases for younger generations by not retiring. All of this data shows one very important fact — it isn’t that millennials and Gen Z don’t want to work. It’s that working isn’t worth it anymore. Because even if we do everything our parents did, we won’t be able to afford even half the life they wanted for us.
One person even commented that they make more than their parents combined, who owned three houses, and they can’t even afford to buy one house. Others pointed out that the basic necessities of internet, cell phones, and a place to live are suddenly being equated with “luxuries.”
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Someone else added that not only does work not benefit us, but it also doesn’t seem to benefit society. Most of the high-paying jobs are for large corporations who take advantage of the Earth’s natural resources and lower-rung employees, all while benefiting one rich guy at the top who donates to campaigns we disagree with.
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Millennials have been working for at least a decade, if not longer. They would know by now if work was worth it, but if anything, many of our lives have gotten harder instead of easier.
Millennials had the technology to warn Gen Z, and they’re now learning the same thing and how to make money through other avenues, such as NFTs and influencer marketing, which may not seem like “work” to Boomers.
So yes, the Boomers are right, to a degree. We don’t want to work, because what’s the point?
It’s kind of hard to imagine Boomers struggling financially when they have things like three cars and one airplane parked in their driveway.
I think about money a lot. I’m definitely someone who has had to check their bank account before making any significant purchases. By the way in this scenario, significant can be anything from dinner to a concert ticket. There has rarely been a time in my life when I haven’t mostly lived paycheck-to-paycheck. Let’s just say, I know how to budget and cut a corner. My corners have been so cut I am living in a circle, baby!
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My situation has often been exacerbated by the fact that my mother, who is a well-meaning and supportive member of the Boomer generation, doesn’t always understand my financial struggles. Despite the fact that she is now retired and living on a fixed income, a luxury I doubt I will ever see, she often thinks I’ve spent money incorrectly. This is why I understand the frustration felt by one TikToker who doesn’t need advice from Boomers when some of them have planes parked in their driveways.
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Despite what you think, it’s not OK, Boomers.
Paige, who goes by @sheisapaigeturner on TikTok, is tired of explaining the ridiculous cost of living to a generation who kind of had a hand in making things bad. It seems as if any time Paige dares to express her concern over the astronomical price of childcare, some Boomer swoops in and demands she needs to “learn how to live within her means.”
It’s funny what kind of advice a person will give when they don’t have all the information. For example, if I wasn’t in possession of Paige’s entire financial portfolio I wouldn’t tell her that she’s spending her money incorrectly.
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On a personal note, I do see that my mother is usually out of the loop because she doesn’t live almost exclusively online like I do. If or when the television is on, it’s turned to HGTV or something on a streaming service she’s watching at the moment. She has Facebook and never logs on. All this to say, I kind of get when Boomers have no idea what is happening outside of their own world.
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Still, if you don’t know what’s happening then please don’t give unsolicited advice. And don’t filter someone else’s experiences through your own. This is the same kind of thinking that gets us the “I had to pay for college, so should you” crown when it comes to student loan forgiveness.
Paige then pulls from her own life to show just how out of touch Boomers are. Looking around her neighborhood, which she says is mostly members of that generation, Paige is able to deduce that they might not be on the same rung of the financial ladder.
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The house across the street from Paige has three cars in the driveway, which isn’t so bad until she explains only two people live there. Other than Jay Leno, who has an extra car? One of the cars is a collector’s item. When someone casually collects something I use for utilitarian purposes, that’s how I know they have money.
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That’s not the craziest part of this driveway. There is also an airplane in the driveway which begs the question, does Paige live across the street from John Travolta? Either that’s a big driveway or a very small plane.
Paige isn’t asking for a whole airplane at her house, she is merely on the hunt for affordable daycare. Gosh, maybe the neighbors can open up a facility in the plane. That would kill two birds with one stone.
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In what feels like some sort of prank, Paige then moves onto the house next to the plane place. They have four cars and a boat. I’m now thinking she must live by some sort of dealership.
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I’m going to say one thing in defense of these people. Unless I missed something, Paige is responding to other people who have told her to “stop being so materialistic.” A different group of Boomers have told Paige to curb her spending enthusiasm.
We have no idea who they are and how they reached such great heights, one of them literally. At the end of the day this is a systemic issue. Sadly we can’t control where we are or how we got here. We can only control, honestly nothing. Things are bleak!
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