About

TS PMO ICL, also spelled TSPMO ICL, refers to a Slang Overload trend of overusing slang abbreviations like TS, PMO and ICL, among others, to form nonsensical, brainrot posts that satirize the slang's use. TS means "this shit" or "that shit" and memes about it meaning "this" instead surfaced en masse in late 2024, leading to discourse and memes about the appropriation and bastardization of AAVE akin to Digital Blackface. PMO, which means "piss me off," and ICL, which means "I can't lie," trended in TikTok memes during the same timeframe. In turn, users combined all of them, ultimately championing the wrong usage, often subverting the purpose of abbreviations by using more letters and typing. TS PMO ICL memes were often Druski Dancing or Little Squid Game Guard Dancing videos with the walls of abbreviations and slang overlayed on top. Other popular slang terms that were added include Tuff ("Boi TS tuff") and The Pizza.

Origin

Currently, the first viral meme to overuse TS and PMO for ironic effect was a video shared by TikToker^[1] @throwxway2 on December 21st, 2024. The video showed two men dancing in Times Square with text overlay repeating, "Ts shit pmo onb," gaining over 28,000 likes in a month (shown below).

Spread

The TikTok sound^[2] of the abovementioned video was a hip-hop remix of "Rude" by MAGIC! with overblown 808s. In the following days, others used the sound, posting videos of dancing people with captions that repeated then-popular slang abbreviations.

For instance, on December 22nd, 2024, TikToker^[3] @mrgambleton shared a video of internet comedian Druski dancing with a long-form caption that poorly defined slang terms, titled, "Slang words WE all use and what they mean." The video received over 47,200 likes in a month (shown below).

On December 27th, Twitter / X ^[4] user @futurenaztalgia replied to a gimmick account called aave struggle xeets (focused on the misuse of AAVE), writing, "ts pmo asf as a demure chile sis," receiving over 8,600 likes in a month (shown below).

The Slang Overload trend continued to devolve heading into January 2025. For instance, on January 21st, TikToker^[5] @nender posted a video using the Little Squid Game Guard Dancing format, adding a text caption that outlined a love story about "TS and PMO fall in love," gaining over 153,800 likes in 10 days (shown below).

On January 26th, TikToker^[6] @we_crave_dih posted a Druski Dancing meme with PMO spelt out in tiny TS's, gaining over 96,000 likes in five days (shown below).

Also on January 26th, 2025, TikToker^[7] @aiden_arn14 posted a video of him and his friends recreating the original Druski Dancing video with a caption reading, "ts pmo icl istg ru fr rn." The video was set to GreenArts' cover of "No More Parties" by Reese Youngn. Over five days, the video received roughly 462,900 likes (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References