Update: March 25, 2026: When I filmed this video, I was between permanent jobs, and wasn't part of a teaching community, so I had no one to trade stories with. Since I've joined a school faculty, I've heard from numerous colleagues that the failure rate for this test is actually quite high, and that a lot of people study hard for this test but don't pass it. I guess I didn't realize how lucky I was to pass it. I apologize if my comments about passing this test seem insensitive.
The past few weeks I've been substitute teaching. And I don't know how many times I've heard kids randomly yelling out "I've played these games before!" Particularly at the elementary schools and the middle schools, there's always a few kids every day who will yell this out during class. (Often the kids will yell it out in response to being asked to do an activity that they've already done before, but it seems to me that they are just as likely to yell it out without any apparent context.)
I had no idea what they were talking about. So eventually, I got curious and Googled it. And now that I've figured it out, I thought I would make an Interesting Random Facts entry out of it, because I'm assuming most other adults have no idea what it is. (Or am I wrong? Is it just me? Am I just out of it? Quick straw poll: How many of you out there have heard of "I've played these games before!"?)
Apparently then it went on to become a common meme on Tiktok among gamers, which is why kids are always yelling it out now.
In the course of researching all of this, however, the thought occurred to me: the kids are always yelling out something.
Now, granted I've been outside of the United States for most of the past 24 years, but I've been teaching kids in Japan, Cambodia and Vietnam, and in all these countries, I've noticed that there's always some slogan or catchphrase that the kids are constantly yelling out.
When I was in Japan, it was the catchphrases of Hard Gay that the kids were always yelling:
...it used to really annoy me at the time, because I'd be trying to get the class to listen to me while I explained the next activity, and then some kid would just randomly yell out one of Hard Gay's catchphrases, and start thrusting his pelvis.
At the time, I remember a Japanese friend telling me that Japanese teachers really hated Hard Gay, and I could see why. Although, even at the time I realized that if it wasn't Hard Gay, it would just be something else. The kids are always yelling out something.
Anyway, if you're thinking to yourself, "Hard Gay? That sounds like a really offensive stereotype."
Yeah, yeah I know. Well, what can I say? Japan has different ideas about political correctness than the United States does.
A character (introduced in 2002) developed and portrayed by Sumitani is Hard Gay (ハードゲイ, Hādo Gei). The term "Hādo Gei" is a Japanese reference to American gay subculture in similar fashion to "punk". In Japan, gender subculture with distinct dress style is referred to as "Gei ゲイ". In turn, the term "hard gay" became the reference to more masculine oriented "drag" seen to be prevalent in America. The fact that Hard Gay does not portray any Japanese gay subculture also explains why the sketch was allowed to be aired on Japanese TV, which has its own code of political correctness.
The official name is Razor Ramon HG. Dressing in a tight black PVC gay fetish outfit, he performed acts of charity (yonaoshi, “social improvement”) for unsuspecting bystanders while performing trademark pelvic thrusts and vocalizations, often accompanied by "Livin' la Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin.
According to some accounts, the name "Hard Gay" was the suggestion of Sumitani's senior comedian in the Yoshimoto Kogyo group, Kendo Kobayashi, in reference to his hard dancing. The name has also been described as a pun on 芸, gei, which means "skill" or "art." However, to develop his character, Sumitani visited gay bars in Doyama-cho, Osaka’s biggest gay area, and his costume, which consists of hot pants, a small vest, and cap, all in black PVC, along with aviator sunglasses, was purchased at a shop called VFTQ in Minami-Horie, Osaka, which specializes in gay fashion. Hard Gay makes regular use of a number of catchphrases in his act; he usually makes his entrance in front of the camera shouting "Dōmō Haadogei desu" ("Hello, it's Hard Gay"), with arms thrust out and a spin afterwards. His self-introduction is then followed by his dance moves. He often shouts "Hoooooo" (フゥ～!) or "Foohhhh!" (フォー！), a running joke in his performances. He often stops people saying unfavorable things to him by shouting "Sei sei sei sei sei" with his palm in front of the person's face. Whether this means anything is debatable, although Sumitani has commented that "sei sei" is something that comes out from his mouth when he is not happy, and that he does not mean "say" as in to speak something, although one might compare this action to the "talk to the hand" gesture. A possible interpretation might be that the origin lies in the word urusai (lit. "noisy," meaning "Be quiet!"), which is often pronounced urusē うるせー in Kansai dialect, shortened to sei. Another theory is the word sei written by kanji 静, meaning "quiet."
Sumitani's supposed homosexuality was exposed as a gimmick when he was caught in the midst of a date with Japanese actress and swimsuit model Anna Suzuki, whom he has since married. He has been criticised for his stereotypical depiction of gay men and for building a career on using bizarre and extreme antics to "parody" a social minority. A spokesperson for the Hokkaido Sexual Minority Association Sapporo Meeting, a support group for gay, lesbian and transgender people, has said: "Hard Gay’s acceptance by the Japanese public shows me that there is a strong tendency here to see homosexuality as something to be laughed at. That is sad."
....Over the years, I've forgotten most of the other catchphrases and fads that were popular in various countries I've taught in. (It may come back to me later, in which case I may update this post.)
The only other one I remember off-hand was from teaching in a university in Vietnam a couple years ago. During the first day of class, the students were supposed to prepare a presentation about their group for the rest of the class. Among other things, the students were supposed to talk about their hobbies. One group said their hobby was Bing Chilling. I had no idea what they were talking about, but they mentioned it like it was just a common thing everyone knew. So I asked them what it was, and they didn't really explain it at all. (There was a communication breakdown going on, because they were assuming everyone knew what Bing Chilling was, and so they couldn't understand what I was confused about. They kept saying, "You know, Bing Chilling." And I kept saying, "But what is Bing Chilling.") After a few back and forths, and several follow up questions, I eventually got the explanation story out of them.
So, there's this video of John Cena in which he shows off his ability to speak Chinese by talking about ice cream. The Chinese word for ice cream sounds like "Bing Chilling".
...apparently, it was popular in Vietnam a couple years ago for people to memorize the whole speech, and then film themselves reciting the whole thing, and then they would upload it onto Tiktok.
In November 2022, John Cena's script went viral on TikTok after a series of creators began making videos delivering the dialogue in near-perfect Mandarin. On November 14th, TikToker[4] @giapaoohehe posted a video that gathered over 4 million plays and 300,000 likes in nearly four days (seen below left). On November 13th, TikToker[5] @alfallis posted a video saying the dialogue as well, gathering over 13 million plays and 2.7 million likes in nearly three days.
The trend soon grew popular, with various creators making videos repeating the phrase, oftentimes mimicking Cena's particular pronunciation rather than an authentic Mandarin tone. Other creators discussed how Cena's videos inadvertently altered the way they speak Mandarin as their native language.
So there you go. I'm assuming this is something that was just for the kids, but how many adults out there knew about this?
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So, if indeed the kids are always yelling out something, I guess that begs the question: What did we yell out when we were kids?
Well, I've been searching my memory banks on this one. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was of course tremendously popular among nerds. If you were a bit nerdy in high school, I'm sure your group of friends quoted from that movie all the time. (I know mine certainly did.) But I don't think it ever got much beyond the nerd circles.
When I was in middle school, I remember people constantly quoting Wayne's World, and probably "Party on, Wayne! Party on, Garth!" was the most frequent thing being yelled out by my classmates.
Some other SNL catchphrases also had some popularity.
And of course, The Simpsons. Everyone quoted The Simpsons. Particularly in the early 90s, Bart Simpsons catchphrases "eat my shorts" and "don't have a cow" were ubiquitous among middle schoolers.
What else am I forgetting?
Addendum: March 10, 2025
As I wrote above,
Over the years, I've forgotten most of the other catchphrases and fads that were popular in various countries I've taught in. (It may come back to me later, in which case I may update this post.)
...well, a few more have come back into my mind recently:
1) For a couple years after the Black Panther movie came out, in Vietnam it was common for the boys to shout "Wakanda Forever". This was one of the rare cases when I knew exactly what they were referencing, and so I wasn't confused about it.
2) For a while in Vietnam, around 2016 or so, it was common for students to be constantly referencing the Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen song. (See Wikipedia article HERE and Know Your Meme article HERE).
I've just asked my sister and brother-in-law if they had ever heard of Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen song, and they said no, so maybe it was more popular in Asia than in the U.S. But then, by their own admission, my sister and brother-in-law don't spend a lot of time watching memes online. So once again, dear reader, let me know what your take on it is. Had you heard this song before?
