About

In the Big 25 or In the Big 2025 is a catchphrase commonly used online to indicate that a certain thing, slang term or worldview is considered old, outdated or "washed" in the current year. Initially paired with a montage of basketball player Shaquille O'Neil and other athletes in the decline of their careers, the catchphrase has been used online since February 2024.

Origin

Prior to September 20th, 2023, X / Twitter user @not_onions posted a montage of NBA players, football players and other professional athletes playing for clubs and teams at the decline of their careers, opening with a photograph of NBA player Shaquille "Shaq" O'Neal in his Boston Celtics jersey, set to a nightcore version of "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay. On September 20th, 2023, X^[1] user @Dom_2k reposted the video, with the upload garnering over 340 reposts and 5,100 likes in two years.

On February 8th, 2024, X^[2] user @CFC_Janty reacted to the news of former adult model Mia Khalifa launching OnlyFans by posting the montage together with the caption "Mia Khalifa onlyfans in big 2024," implying that the period of Khalifa's prime popularity has passed. The post (shown below) received over 474,000 views, 120 reposts and 3,300 likes in one year.

Mia Khalifa onlyfans in big 2024 https://t.co/fxXe2Bx3gl pic.twitter.com/bHK4AxI5K3

— Janty (@CFC_Janty) February 8, 2024

Spread

Following a period of use together with the montage, the phrase "in the big 2024" achieved independent popularity, typically used to indicate that something was considered outdated, old or "washed" in 2024. For example, on August 20th, 2024, TikTok^[3] user @chrimahcaleb posted a meme about jokes they considered to be outdated in August 2024. The post (shown below) garnered over 79,000 likes in five months.

On October 31st, 2024, TikTok^[4] user @e3ojay posted a montage of Shaq playing for the Boston Celtics captioned, "Being a loverboy in The big October 2024." The post (shown below) received over 106,000 likes in three months.

Starting in December 2024, an updated version of the catchphrase, "in the big 2025," started being used online. For example, on January 18th, 2025, X^[5] user @WayComet made a post about people who dislike their favorite characters being featured as skins in Fortnite (shown below), which gained over 1,000 reposts and 16,000 likes in two weeks.

Various Examples

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7455386182688623878

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7457087560867679495

Search Interest

External References