TikTok is humble-bragging with the new 'holy f-ing airball' trend
If there's one thing people on the internet love doing, it's showing off — in all its various forms, like flexing (literal or not), humble-bragging, fishing for compliments, whatever. Hell, Instagram became popular for this very reason. TikTok's latest trend is more of the same.
People all over TikTok are posting about their "holy f-ing airballs." You might be wondering what that means, which is fair because it's a pretty nonsensical phrase. The trend basically goes like this: 1) post something about yourself 2) post someone's incorrect expectation of that thing 3) call that expectation a "holy f-ing airball." (For the non-sports people, an "airball" is when you completely miss a shot.)
Typically speaking, the point of the post is to say something like, "Oh, you thought I'm a runner who likes to do fun 5Ks, well, joke's on you, I'm a world-class marathoner." The idea is to subvert expectations in a way that's likely a brag — lots of viral posts, for one reason or another, seem to also subvert the idea that folks would think they're right-wingers. Here are a few popular examples of the trend.
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It makes sense that this trend has taken off; people love bragging, posting about themselves, and proving others wrong. So for the next few days or so, get ready to see even more f-ing airballs.
Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).
