USS Gyatt, Rizzi and Ohio

About

USS Gyatt, USS Rizzi and USS Ohio refer to a series of memes that highlight the use of the words gyatt, rizz, Ohio and sigma, all prominent Gen Z slang and memes in 2022-2023, in the names of U.S. Navy ships in the 20th century. First spotted in mid-October 2023, screenshots of Wikipedia articles for the warships went viral on social media in late October that year.

Origin

USS Gyatt, USS Rizzi and USS Ohio were United States Navy battleships that were operational in the 20th century. USS Gyatt was a Gearing-class destroyer named after U.S. Marine Corps Private Edward Earl Gyatt that was operational between 1945 and 1969.^[1] USS Rizzi was a John C. Butler-Class destroyer escort named in honor of Rosalio Mario Rizzi and was used for two separate periods between 1945 and 1958.^[2] USS Ohio refers to several ships that operated under that name, although in memes USS Ohio (BB-12) is the one typically referenced. USS Ohio (BB-12) was named after the 17th state of the U.S. and was operated between 1904 and 1919.^[3] Sigma-class design (with SIGMA standing for Ship Integrated Geometrical Modularity Approach) is a Dutch-built family of modular naval vessels.^[4]

In 2022 and 2023, the slang terms gyatt, rizz and Ohio, among others, achieved overwhelming prevalence among Gen Z and Gen Alpha, leading to popularization of slang overload memes such as Pizza Tower Ohio Rizz Gyatt and Sticking Out Your Gyat for the Rizzler.

On October 12th, 2023, an iFunny^[5] user posted a snippet of a Wikipedia article for USS Gyatt, making a nod to the gyatt meme. The post received over 420 smiles on the platform in three weeks (shown below).

Spread

On October 28th, 2023, X^[6] / Twitter account @SR_Planespotter posted the snippet, with the post garnering over 100 reposts and 750 likes on the platform in three days.

On October 29th, X^[7] user @ShitpostRock posted an image combining Wikipedia snippets for USS Rizzi, USS Gyatt, USS Ohio and Sigma-class design, superimposing them over an image of Peter Griffin screaming in a straightjacket. The post (shown below) received over 1,800 reposts and 20,000 likes in two days.

The post achieved viral spread online shortly after. For example, on October 30th, Redditor dazli69 reposted the image to the /r/NonCredibleDefense^[8] subreddit, where it received over 4,300 upvotes in two days. The spread of the image and individual snippets online was followed by memes and posts referencing the ships.

On October 31st, 2023, X^[9][10] gimmick account depths of wikipedia (@depthsofwiki) posted the snippet from the USS Gyatt entry, attaching a pageview statistic showing a massive surge of interest in USS Gyatt in late October 2023 (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References