Ben Shapiro DESTROYS Words of the Year - The Ben Shapiro Show

The Ben Shapiro Show – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Ben Shapiro DESTROYS Words of the Year
Date: December 24, 2025
Host: Ben Shapiro (The Daily Wire)

Overview

In this episode, Ben Shapiro dives into the “Words of the Year” as selected by various prominent dictionaries in 2025. He examines each word, unpacks their cultural and societal implications, and delivers take-no-prisoners commentary on what these choices say about modern life, technology, and language. The episode humorously critiques how contemporary linguistics and tech trends intersect, underlining the ways they reflect ongoing transformations in society.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Oxford Dictionary: Rage Bait

Definition & Origin:
- "Rage bait" refers to content posted online specifically to provoke anger and drive engagement.
- First appeared in 2002 on Usenet describing “deliberate attempts to provoke” (01:20).
- Used today to gain clicks and virality by making people angry.
Ben’s Analysis:
- Relevance acknowledged: “A lot of rage bait being posted online these days… that’s what rage bait is all about.” (01:59)
- Differentiates between content meant to anger versus mere trolling.
- Notes that the online environment is engineered to maximize this emotional manipulation:
  
  “You do not experience rage bait nearly as much in your real life as you do in the online space. The online space is programmed to give you the stuff that generates a viral emotional response.” (02:36)
Takeaway:
- Shapiro agrees it’s a “pretty good word of the year,” pointing out its accuracy in describing modern digital experiences.

Macquarie (Australian English): AI Slop

Definition & Evolution:
- Initially meant low-quality, error-filled generative AI content (“Will Smith eating spaghetti” memes).
- Now includes clickable, seemingly real but AI-faked content, e.g., fake viral videos (03:22).
Ben’s Commentary:
- Observes the meaning shift as AI grows more sophisticated—slop now just means “AI content you don’t want or that’s made just to get clicks”.
- Jests:
  
  “People with nine fingers and such… now, AI slop just means AI that I don't want, or AI that I don't like…” (03:44)
- Notes this reflects changing perceptions as technology improves.
Insight:
- Reflects society’s ongoing struggle to evaluate authenticity and value in an AI-saturated media landscape.

Cambridge Dictionary: Parasocial

Definition:
- “A connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they don’t know, a fictional character, or artificial intelligence.” (04:30)
- Term dates to 1956, but is now mainstream due to online culture.
Ben’s Take:
- Critiques the rise of “emotional investment in people they don’t know” via online personas and celebrities.
  
  “Because our connection with reality has become so weak, because we spend so much time online, it is easier and easier to form these parasocial relationships…” (05:09)
- Points out parasocial dynamics aren’t just celebrity-focused; they also apply to faceless online interactions.
Theme:
- Shapiro sees this as proof technology is eroding authentic social relationships.

Collins Dictionary: Vibe Coding

Definition:
- “The use of AI prompted by natural language to assist with the writing of computer code.” (06:08)
- Coined by OpenAI’s Andrej Karpathy, as “giving in to the vibes, embrace exponentials and forget that the code even exists.”
Shapiro’s Perspective:
- Views this as a positive, democratizing force:
  
  “Knowing how to code was a barrier to entry… being able to code just by typing in some prompts is pretty incredible.” (06:42)
- Acknowledges his surprise that so many words of the year are tied up in technology and AI.
Nuance:
- Vibe coding could be both a leap forward for creation and another sign tech is reshaping cognitive skills.

Dictionary.com: 67

Definition & Context:
- "67" isn’t a word; it’s a random phrase popular among kids as a meme and group in-joke.
- Shapiro explains with help from Perplexity’s Comet:
  
  “67 is a mostly nonsense catchphrase kids yell as a joke and in-group signal. It does not have one real fixed meaning. So it's very postmodern.” (07:33)
- Tracked back to a rap song lyric, viral NBA edit, and meme videos, but now used for humor and group bonding.
- Ben shares a personal anecdote: “My kids don’t know where it came from. They just know that all their friends use it.” (08:41)
Ben’s Critique:
- Uses the reference from The Fugitive:
  
  “Don’t use words that have no meaning around me. I’m a Tommy Lee Jones, okay?” (09:14)
- Views it as an example of “stupidities” going viral for no reason.
Theme:
- The spread of meaningless language among youth as a sign of linguistic postmodernism.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Social Manipulation Online:

“The general idea is that most Americans, now a huge number of Americans and people globally, are being emotionally manipulated in the online space by stories that sometimes are true and sometimes are false, but are all rage bait.” (02:11)
On AI Content:

“When AI slop first got presented, it was this doesn't look as good as human crafted stuff… But now… it looks pretty much identical to reality.” (03:44)
On Parasocial Relationships:

“Even the people you quote unquote, do know, you don't really know… That is a form of parasocial relationship.” (05:28)
On Vibe Coding:

“Do I think vibe coding is bad? No, actually, I think that probably we're going to get some pretty incredible apps because of vibe coding…” (06:38)
On Linguistic Fads:

“It demonstrates that stupidities can go viral with the young at any time. And there's a long history of words that are sort of like the 6, 7 in group signals that kids use that don't mean anything.” (08:55)
“Don’t use words that have no meaning around me. I’m a Tommy Lee Jones, okay?” (09:14)

Timestamps for Key Segments

[01:17] “Rage Bait” – Oxford Dictionary word of the year
[03:00] “AI Slop” – Macquarie Dictionary choice and its evolving meaning
[04:30] “Parasocial” – Cambridge Dictionary and the rise of pseudo-relationships online
[06:08] “Vibe Coding” – Collins Dictionary’s tech-driven choice
[07:33] “67” – Dictionary.com’s meme-inspired selection
[08:55] Critique of viral nonsense words and comparison to past slang

Overall Tone & Final Thoughts

Tone: Characteristically fast-paced, sharp, and tinged with skepticism, Ben offers wry humor mixed with genuine concern about cultural and technological trends.
Summary: The episode unpacks deeper societal changes reflected in language—chiefly, how tech shapes emotional reactions, online relationships, and even the way young people build community through inside jokes and memes. Shapiro invites listeners to reflect on the consequences of these shifts: the blurring line between real and fake, the atomization and commodification of social bonds, and the ceaseless churn of internet-born fads.
Call-to-Action:

“If you have words that you think ought to have been the word of the year, submit them below and we'll see you here in a bit.” (09:23)

For listeners: This episode is an incisive, sometimes playful look at how the ‘words of the year’ both reveal and provoke our anxieties about tech, truth, and meaning in the modern era.

Transcript

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Alrighty folks, today we are going to go through the words of the year 2025. From all of the dictionaries, they all pick a new word of the year. We're going to go through those in just a minute. Apparently, according to Time magazine, the Oxford Dictionary has declared the word of the year rage bait. Apparently it was first used online in 2002 in a posting on the online forum Usenet to describe drivers reactions to other drivers flashing their lights at them when seeking to pass in an apparent deliberate attempt to provoke. It's funny to see how these things grow. Of course, rage bait now just means that you're posting something online in order to draw rage from others. And that I think is a pretty good word of the year. A lot of rage bait being posted online these days, and I've heard it used in a couple of ways in the online space. One is that you are posting something in order to earn the clicks and the virality off of others being enraged. And so you are posting it and then you say this is rage bait, meaning like, yeah, we're supposed to be enraged. And then there is also just kind of trollery that generates rage itself. And that's also I've seen used as sort of rage bait. Like don't take the bait. Don't say. But I think the, the general Idea which is that most Americans, now a huge number of Americans and people globally are being emotionally manipulated in the online space by stories that sometimes are true and sometimes are false, but are all rage bait. I think this is totally right. You do not experience rage bait nearly as much in your real life as you do in the online space. The online space is programmed to give you the stuff that generates a viral emotional response in you. That's what rage bait is all about. So that's actually not a bad pick. By Oxford Macari Dictionary, known as the arbiter of Australian English, has picked a word of the year. It is AI slop, which is defined as low quality content created by generative AI, often containing errors and not requested by the user. Now again, you can see this term kind of shifting and moving in real time. So AI slop originally meant Will Smith being unable to eat spaghetti on AI, right? Just like total junk that didn't look real. Kind of inhabited the strange uncanny valley where AI was hallucinating and generating weirdnesses. People with no nine fingers and such. AI slop now is being used to mean AI content that very often looks real but is just created in order to get you to click on it. So people will say that's just AI slop. And what they mean is that it is a piece of viral content like man fights gorilla and gorilla pummels man that looks extremely real but actually isn't real. And that's AI slop. But you can see that changing. Why? Because the AI has gotten better. So when AI slop first got presented, it was this doesn't look as good as human crafted stuff. It doesn't look as good as either real video or, or human beings doing art. The computers are basically generating stuff that looks like second rate human work. But now as the AI has gotten better and better as you look at what VO is doing or sora and it looks pretty much identical to reality. Now, AI slop just means AI that I don't want, or AI that I don't like, or AI that's generated in order to just get clicks as opposed to improve the quality of our world. Cambridge Dictionary has parasocial, which it defines as, quote, involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they don't know, a character in a book, film, TV series or artificial intelligence. This word first appeared in 1956 in an academic article called Mass Communication and Parasocial Interaction. Apparently now again, it's become very common because people have decided to emotionally invest themselves in people they don't know. So, for example, if you're very invested in Tay Tay getting married because that's because you have a parasocial relationship with her, that's been true for a very long time. People have always identified with pop culture icons. They've always followed the gossip pages and all the rest. But because our connection with reality has become so weak, because we spend so much time online, it is easier and easier to form these parasocial relationships with either AIs or with celebrities. Certainly people you don't know, and even the people you quote unquote, do know, you don't really know. You might have a relationship with somebody using a screen name and you have no idea who that person is. That is a form of parasocial relationship. Again, one of the common themes here is how tech has really wrecked our emotional relationships with others. Whether it is rage bait, or whether it is AI slop or whether it is parasocial, there is no question that tech is radically changing how we perceive the world and how we interact with the world. Arnie Collins Dictionary Their word of the year is Vibe coding, which is apparently a slang term defined as, quote, the use of AI prompted by natural language or to assist with the writing of computer code. So instead of painstakingly coding a new app, you actually just tell the AI to code for you a new program. This was coined by a co founder of OpenAI named Andrej Karpathy and he described it as a type of computer coding where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials and forget that the code even exists. So the LLMs basically do the heavy lifting on creative programming code. You know, again, this is how things are being shifted now. Do I think vibe coding is bad? No, actually, I think that probably we're going to get some pretty incredible apps because of vibe coding, meaning knowing how to code was a barrier to entry. To be able to actually create in cheap and efficacious fashion, some form of app or website or whatever. Being able to code just by typing in some prompts is pretty incredible. But I don't think it's a coincidence that everything is now tied up in tech and AI. This episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Your online activity isn't private. Data brokers track your habits, beliefs and spending, and then they legally sell that information. Corporations use it to target ads, platforms, manipulate what you see during elections. It can be used to sway your vote, to protect your freedom and your privacy the way I do. You need ExpressVPN. With ExpressVPN all of my online activity gets rerouted through secure encrypted servers, so my Internet provider has no way of seeing what I'm doing. 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Find out how you can get four months free by scanning that QR code on screen, clicking the link in the description box below, or by heading on over to ExpressVPN.com Ben Shapiro Show Finally, Dictionary.com has 67 as its word of the year, which is not actually a word, obviously it is two words. So although I am generally aware of the origins of 67 because my kids and all of their friends use this idiotic and annoying term, I did ask our sponsors over at Comet, a project of perplexity, what does 67 mean and where does it come from and why do the kids use it? And According to Comet, 67 is a mostly nonsense catchphrase. Kids yell as a joke and in group signal. It does not have one real fixed meaning. So it's very postmodern. It started online from a rap song and some viral basketball clips and then it's spread into schools where kids use it because it's funny, annoying and makes them feel part of the group. This is definitely how kids use it is that they randomly just shout 6 7. And then everybody laughs because it has no meaning. Apparently the phrase comes from a drill rap song Doot Doot by Skrilla where the lyric 6:7 hits right on a beat drop. And then that sound clip was used in a TikTok Instagram YouTube edit of NBA player LaMelo Ball who is 6 foot 7. And then there was a viral video of a boy at a basketball game screaming six seven with a big hand gesture turned into the six seven kid. And then that apparently, you know, made it very, very popular. You know, the reality is that my kids don't know where it came from. They just know that all their friends use it. They're not listening to skrilla songs and they have no idea who LaMelo Ball is. But it demonstrates that stupidities can go viral with the young at any time. At any time. And there's a long history of words that are sort of like the 6, 7 in group signals that kids use that don't mean anything. I'm always reminded of that line that Tommy Lee Jones uses in the Fugitive. One of his colleagues says that something is hinky and he says, what does hinky mean? And guy says, I don't know. You know, hinky. He says, don't use words that have no meaning around me. I'm a Tommy Lee Jones. Okay? So if you have words that you think ought to have been the word of the year, submit them below and we'll see you here in a bit.