Out of all the memes to survive 2024 worldwide, it would turn out that Ninja getting a low taper fade is still the most massive.

Originally popping up thanks to singer and songwriter EricDoa in early January of 2024 from a freestyle livestream, at one point he started singing the words “Imagine if Ninja got a low taper fade” in the most soulful way possible, and made history. It happened because Eric was trying to hold back from crying due to his Grandpa passing away from COVID-19, hence the raw and genuinely emotional output. To prevent himself from breaking down on the stream, he started singing random words to stop himself from crying on the live stream. This led to him singing about Ninja, another massive streamer, receiving a certain haircut.

Due to the unusually vulnerable sound of the singing, and a rather random choice of words, the internet quickly took the audio and turned it into a meme. This was the low taper fade’s first peak, even if you had no idea what it meant or cared for it, it was likely that you saw it frequently after its breakout. Of course, Ninja, the referenced streamer in the lyrics, quickly picked up on this as many viewers began commenting the words on his streams and video, and has since then never looked back. 

However, Ninja continued to drag the meme even after it slowed down, saying things like: ”You know what’s crazy is that that low taper fade like the meme is, it’s still massive.” The meme then shifted to a new variant. The low taper fade meme was massive once again as now the joke became Ninja continuing to drag the meme when it was considered no longer relevant. Ironically this development only made the meme more relevant than ever before. As a result, people on social media started repeating Ninja’s comical remarks.

Taking a turn that nobody expected, rather than this new meme dying off and fading into irrelevance once again, it instead began to be used in everyday vocabulary, as well as being incorporated into other memes as well. For example, if another trend or joke was on the decline or irrelevant, someone might say: “You know what’s crazy is that that (irrelevant trend/joke) like the meme is, it’s still massive.” It was so massive, that at quite a few points, dragging the “dragging the low taper fade” was another meme in itself, making fun of Ninja dragging the meme of himself dragging the low taper fade. This normalization of using the phrase in comical remarks outside of the meme itself prolonged its popularity and lifespan to lengths no one would have imagined. 

Fast forward to 1 full year later in January 2025, after the low taper fade meme has endured through multiple highs and lows, it seems that the joke has now cemented itself into pop culture indefinitely, seeing as many people continue to drag the low taper fade. In an age where everyone’s attention span is relatively lower, and where trends and jokes rise and fall at a rapid pace, it’s truly a wonder to see the low taper fade last this long and remain massive. On any video or form of media, if even the word “massive,” or any of the other buzzwords like “low” and “fade” are even mentioned, chances are that hundreds of comments are all about the low taper fade, homage to it remaining massive. The low taper fade might be brought up even when the topic shares no correlation to the joke or no buzzwords are mentioned. Say, someone said something was “huge”, chances are someone around might state: “You could even say it’s… massive,” and would be followed by a chain of replies all related to the low taper fade.”

Q&A

Q: Do you know about or have heard of Ninja’s low taper fade meme in the past year, if so how often do you encounter it whether in real life or on social media?

Annabelle Trombley, junior: “Yes, I have heard of the meme and I encounter it quite often as it’s pretty massive. Every time I go on like Instagram reels I do encounter it, and probably every time I go on Tiktok.”

Grant Privratsky, senior: “Yes, it used to be daily at some point but now it’s kind of died down, but I still see it from time to time.”

Q: How massive is the impact of the low taper fade on pop culture, and how far in the future do you see the meme drag on? 

Annabelle Trombley, junior: “Well, I think right now the impact is pretty massive because like on Instagram reels nowadays there’s a lot of conglomerate memes with people like smashing a lot of memes together and the low taper fade is usually one of those that they can like, you know, put in there.”

Grant Privratsky, senior: “There is zero impact because it’s a joke and is stupid.”