About

Naysayers refers to a stand-in slang term for the N-word that went viral in early January 2024 after ESPN pundit Rece Davis read about University of Alabama football player Jalen Milroe's merchandise, which features the acronym "L.A.N.K." In the clip, Davis says the acronym stands for "Let A Naysayer Know," to which the other pundits around him begin laughing and joking about how they thought the N in the acronym could stand for the N-word. The video subsequently went viral online, inspiring memes and jokes using the term and catchphrase.

Origin

On January 1st, 2023, on the College Gameday ESPN broadcast ahead of that evening's game between Alabama and Michigan, pundit Rece Davis, who is white, opened a segment about Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe wearing his own apparel with the acronym "L.A.N.K.," which Davis said stands for "let a naysayer know." Immediately, the other pundits at the desk began laughing and joking about how they didn't think the N stood for "naysayer" and how it sounded like Davis was about to use a slur. The clip was posted to ESPN's TikTok^[1] that day, gaining over 173,000 likes in one day (shown below).

Spread

As the clip spread on social media, users began joking about it by replacing famous movie quotes that use the N-word with "naysayer." For example, on January 1st, 2024, X / Twitter user @JustJayBBK^[2] used the word with a quote from the film Django Unchained, gaining over 5,000 retweets and 33,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). The same day, user @TBrown_80^[3] made the joke with a quote from Pulp Fiction, gaining over 2,700 retweets and 16,000 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Alabama ended up losing the game on January 1st, which led to increased usage of the term at Alabama's expense shortly after. For example, on January 2nd, Twitter user @KingJosiah54 posted a video with the term, gaining over 1,200 retweets and 8,800 likes in less than a day (shown below, top). Also that day, user @2strong2silence^[4] joked about the outcome of the game with the phrase, gaining 20 likes in one day (shown below, bottom).

Naysayers after Michigan stopped Milroe on 4th down pic.twitter.com/NamwZfzrER

— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) January 2, 2024

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References