The Low Taper Fade Meme is Still Massive is a series of humorous memes, videos, and a copypasta that all make fun of online personality and streamer Ninja for overusing and referencing the "Imagine if Ninja got a Low Taper Fade" audio clip—(and eventually, calling it "massive") when it had already peaked and played itself out.
It all began with a dream
A dream by musician @ericdoa, who went on Twitch in Jan. 2024 and freestyled the verse "Imagine if Ninja got a low taper fade," referring to Twitch streamer and online personality Richard "Ninja" Blevins, and the potential of him getting a "low taper fade," a men's haircut where the hair gradually tapers and fades to a shorter length from the top of the ears downward.
The internet embraced the freestyle, inspiring humorous reactions and slideshows exploring the idea of Ninja having the haircut, birthing the "Imagine if Ninja got a Low Taper Fade" meme.
On January 13, 2024, Ninja did indeed get a low taper fade. He posted the results on TikTok, intercut with @Ericdoa's original sound, where it racked up almost a million views.
And people loved it:
But that was in January.
What does 'low taper fade meme is still massive' mean?
This meme's sole meaning is to make fun of Ninja and his ego, for dragging out a meme that has already gone viral, and is, essentially, "over." When Ninja kept talking about the low taper fade he got back in mid-January, people started to call him out as "cringe." On January 30, 2024, TikToker @OblivionCactus posted a Ninja's live Twitch stream in which he talks about the lower taper fade meme not just being popular still, but "massive."
The user's post has text overlay saying, "Ninja is dragging the low taper fade at this point," in addition to captioning the post, "bro is still milking the meme 😭."
Turns out, @OblivionCactus was not the only one tired of Ninja talking about his low taper fade. A new category of ironic memes exploded around this subject matter, with many new iterations happening in May 2024 and beyond.
The "lower taper fade meme is massive" memes ironically riff on the played-out nature of the "lower taper fade meme," using text and audio clips from the live stream where Ninja calls the meme "massive," in addition to the original @ericdoa audio (though it's often heavily filtered).
Many of the memes use the direct copypasta: "Low taper fade. Dude you know what’s crazy? Is that that low taper fade, like meme, dude it is still massive. Yeah. MASSIVE" (a larger piece of the Livestream's transcript can be found here).
Meme examples
That being said, of course, these memes move beyond irony, giving the original viral phenomenon and its creators a new chapter—in this case, nearly a year later.
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