A trending TikTok meme is influencing how Gen Z articulate the challenges of everyday life.
Amidst a week dominated by the Group 7 phenomenon on social media, which has left many puzzled and intrigued, another trend has emerged capturing the online community’s attention.
While many are still trying to decipher the meaning behind ‘6, 7’, a new meme format on TikTok is allowing users to humorously express both significant and trivial concerns.
This trend, known as the ‘lion/lioness’ meme, has revived a memorable quote from Game of Thrones, which also resonates within grind culture circles.
In the first season of the HBO series, Tywin Lannister offers his son Jamie some memorable advice.
In 2011, he stated: “The lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinions of a sheep.”
Language expert Anna Pyshna from the language learning app Preply notes how this line is now being used by Gen Z to express their worries.
Utilizing Tywin Lannister’s quote, TikTok users label themselves as the lion or lioness while sharing their real concerns.
Examples include, ‘the lion does not concern himself with societal pressure to get a driver’s licence’.
Or, ‘the lion does not concern himself with getting into a relationship’.
This meme has exploded in popularity, inspiring over 26 million TikTok posts. Creators use it to humorously address insecurities and connect over common feelings of burnout, dating stress, and self-doubt.
Beyond being an amusing and relatable meme, this trend unveils intriguing aspects of Gen Z communication.
Expert Anna points out that the younger generation uses humor and irony as tools for emotional expression.
“What’s fascinating about this trend is that it takes a phrase about power and flips it into something self-aware and deeply human,” she commented.
“This style of communication, telling a serious truth wrapped in a joke, is now a defining feature of how people, especially younger users, express emotion online.”
Research supports this change, revealing that Gen Z utilizes memes as ‘identity markers and emotional language’, with humor as a common strategy for managing stress.
Diving deeper, Anna suggests the meme fits into a broader category of communication known as ‘anti-proverbs’, where classic phrases are adapted to reflect modern-day realities.
“The proverb structure gives people permission to say something personal. It’s a mask of humour that allows honesty to feel socially acceptable,” she elaborated.
“These meme-based rewrites show how internet users reshape classic language to match contemporary experience, using irony not to distance themselves from meaning, but to make it shareable.”
It seems Gen Z not only excels in humor and relatability but also demonstrates a keen awareness of emotions. Impressive!