A 25-year-old lawmaker dropped the “OK, boomer” phrase on a heckler who started speaking out during the lawmaker’s speech on climate change.
Chlöe Swarbrick, a member of the New Zealand Parliament, was only 40 seconds into her speech about climate change policy when a heckler interrupted her. She had just begun talking about how old she would be in 2050.
“In the year 2050, I will be 56 years old; yet, right now, the average age of this 52nd Parliament is 49 years old,” she said, according to The Washington Post.
Her colleague lamented her age and started shouting at her. So, she answered: “OK, boomer,” and continued her speech.
Watch the moment below.
Swarbrick’s mic drop clap back hits at a time when the phrase “OK, boomer” has achieved mega popularity on the internet, specifically on social media apps like TikTok. As I explained for the Deseret News, younger people will often use the phrase as a way to deflect criticisms from those who don’t agree with their point of view. Young people will also use it to reference those from older generations, specifically the baby boomers (1946-1964).
So what happened after Swarbrick’s comeback? Not much. The New Zealand Parliament Building remained mostly quiet “perhaps because the room was nearly empty, or perhaps because Swarbrick’s casual use of internet jargon did not resonate with those in attendance, who, if they were like the average lawmaker, were twice her age,” according to The Washington Post.
Swarbrick later wrote in a Facebook post that she didn’t mean any harm with the phrase.
“Today I have learnt that responding succinctly and in perfect jest to somebody heckling you about *your age* as you speak about the impact of climate change on *your generation* with the literal title of their generation makes some people very mad,” she wrote on Facebook. “So I guess millennials ruined humour. That, or we just need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and abstain from avocados. That’s the joke.”