Credits: Social Media
Noelani Renee meme explained as podcaster says ‘like’ 37 times in less than two minutes
A resurfaced clip of a podcast guest, Noelani Renee, saying ‘like’ in every other sentence has us thinking about Gen Z’s favorite filler word.
This week, TikTok is fascinated by Noelani Renee, whose frequent use of the word ‘like’ has prompted a debate about the way we perceive intelligence, and why young people seem to use the L word so often.
Noelani Renee is, like, sick of talking stages
Reene has once again gone viral thanks to a clip from her appearance on the Whatever podcast back in 2022, in which she did not hold back when asked about her issues with dating in the modern world.
Renee was attempting to explain why she hates the ‘talking stage’ of a relationship, (the awkward phase when both parties are showing interest without showing commitment), but her point was disregarded by the internet, which could only focus on one thing – her use of the word ‘like’.
According to Know Your Meme, Renne, who keeps a relatively low profile on social media outside of her lone podcast appearance, dropped the word ‘like’ 37 times in around a minute, much to the dismay of various social media users who claimed her reliance on the word was directly correlated with a level of unintelligence:
‘Like’ video promotes debate about intelligence and filler words
Despite the fact over what Renee was trying to say wasn’t particularly controversial, hundreds of viewers took umbrage with the way the Gen Z representative phrased her answer.
Responding to the video, one angry TikTok user wrote: “‘I dont know how to word this’ YOU DONT SAY??”.
Another perplexed viewer added: “As a Noelani myself, this is, like, so like EMBARRASSING like”.
Some viewers did leap to Renee’s defense, however, with one person in the comments section clarifying that “‘like’ is just a filler word the equivalent of ‘uhm’ or ‘uhh'”. This response was echoed by a supportive user who simply wrote “Made sense to me”.
Why do young people say ‘like’ so much? A linguist weighs in
But what do linguists have to say about the word ‘like’ and its increased presence in our everyday language?
In an in-depth feature on the use of the word published just a couple of months after Renee first started taking heat for her perceived overuse of it, writer Sam Wolfson noted critiques of the use of the word are often linked to a perceived lack of intelligence, meaning that ‘like’ has been subject to a great deal of debate among linguists.
According to Wolfson, instances such as a 2017 episode of Love Island UK in which the word was uttered 76 times by contestants in five minutes, have led to schools outwardly banning the use of ‘like’ among pupils.
The word can, however, be a useful one and can help to indicate tone, according to Wolfson. They claim like is “actually an incredibly versatile and dynamic word” as “You can tell an anecdote that makes you sound wittier and more erudite than you actually are because youre not promising exactly what was said but the feeling of what was said.”
Whether you think it’s a clear sign of an undeveloped vocabulary or a helpful tool to expand your sentences, it’s, like, definitely quite interesting to think in-depth about the power our seemingly small, everyday words can hold.
