About

Holy Airball or Holy Fucking Airball is a slang term and catchphrase used to claim that someone drastically failed at taking a "shot" at someone or something, likening their attempt to an "airball," a term in basketball used to describe a shot that doesn't even touch the net, rim or backboard. The term, derived from expressions like "holy cow," was popularized in May 2025 through a TikTok trend set to "Soul Survivor" by Jeezy in which users share anecdotes about themselves or someone else making an airball by misunderstanding, downplaying or otherwise mistaking something the person told them. Some versions of the meme use an image of a basketball player shooting at the Earth from the moon to illustrate the idea of a "holy airball."

Origin

One of the earliest known uses of the term "holy airball" to describe someone "missing a shot" was posted to the /r/ZargoryanGalaksisi^[1] subreddit by Redditor u/LiterallyError on August 13th, 2024. The post, titled "Holy airball 😭," shares a screenshot of an Instagram user attempting to flirt with another user, followed by an image of a man shooting a basketball at the Earth from the moon, garnering around 14 upvotes in a year. It is unlikely that this is the true origin of the phrase.

Spread

The phrase "holy airball" garnered virals spread over the following months, especially on TikTok. On December 8th, 2024, TikToker^[2] @jerkxyita posted an edit captioned "holy air ball" that repeatedly shows a boy pulling a girl in for a kiss only for her to reject him, with videos of basketball players making airballs spliced in between, garnering over 4.6 million views in five months.

In May 2025, TikTokers began a trend set to "Soul Survivor" by Jeezy in which they share anecdotes about times when they or someone else metaphorically "missed a shot." The phrase is often used ironically. Some of the earliest versions of the meme are about cars.

For example, on May 15th, 2025, TikToker^[3] @vqpanther posted a slideshow participating in the trend by showing his Toyota Prius as an example of the car a girl missed out on riding around in, garnering over 1.1 million views in four days.

On May 16th, TikToker^[4] @t.i.beyer9 posted a video participating in the trend in which the "holy airball" is the fact that he and his partner had a child despite using two types of birth control, garnering over 850,000 views in three days.

On May 17th, 2025, TikToker^[5] @foresttheweenie posted a slideshow starting with two images of their dachshund under captions about a person misunderstanding the seriousness of the races it attends, followed by a third image of the dachshund surrounded in medals captioned, "Holyfckingairball," garnering over 2.5 million views in two days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References