Even a year after its conception, the low taper fade meme remains undeniably relevant.
The trend, which took off on TikTok and Instagram, revolves around people creating “edits” and “surprise edits.” In these videos, someone might say the word “massive” or the phrase “You know what’s crazy?” before the screen slowly shifts to a collage of clips set to a popular song. Meanwhile, in the background, video game streamer Ninja “responds” to the initial statement, usually saying, “You know what else is crazy/massive…” followed by an exaggerated delivery of the phrase, “Low taper fade!”—a reference to a haircut musician and influencer EricDoa once jokingly imagined Ninja having.
“It’s really rare that every single time the joke hits, but when I see the low taper fade meme, I just, like, I can’t help myself… honestly, it’s just always hilarious when, you know, you see a low taper fade meme,” senior Alex Briggs said. “Whenever I think about it, I gotta give myself 10 seconds to get the laughs out of my head. If you really let your mind do the work for you, it starts to add up, why it’s been around for so long, and why it’s still actually huge, it’s huge, it’s massive.”

The meme stems from an EricDoa livestream where he was emotionally singing. To avoid getting too sentimental, he abruptly switched the topic to popular streamer Ninja, imagining what he would look like with a low taper fade haircut.
He pours his heart out while singing, “Imagine if Ninja got a low taper fade.”
The joke gained traction, eventually reaching Ninja himself. Embracing the meme, he later revealed a dramatically styled haircut, bringing the joke full circle—no longer an imagined scenario, but a reality.
“It’s one of those genius, spurt of the moment things, you know? It’s unprecedented, but it’s groundbreaking,” Briggs said. “There’s this kid, like TikTok live, and he’s just got, like, Frank Ocean beats playing. He’s just singing about like his dead grandpa or something and all of the sudden *unintelligible* ‘imagine if ninja got a low taper fade.’“
The trend has continued to evolve, now shifting to jokes that tease Ninja for prolonging the meme to maintain relevance. As a result, the meme has seen multiple resurgences. While the volume of videos being produced may be declining, the joke’s impact and longevity have allowed it to become second nature to the humor of many social media users alike.