Rizz. Pete Davidson has it. Jack Harlow has it. Your friend who somehow always has a hot significant other despite their weird thing for Daisy Duck has it. But what does it truly mean to “rizz” someone up with your “mad rizz”?


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Formally defined as “another word for spitting game/how good you are with pulling and sustaining bitches,” per the totally non-problematic linguistic geniuses at Urban Dictionary, rizz has risen to the top of the zeitgeist, taking over Twitter, TikTok and even NBA commentary, apparently. 



First popularized by Twitch streamer Kai Cenat — though the term had previously existed as part of New York City slang, according to Know Your Meme  — rizz picked up steam on Twitch and YouTube before hitting prime time on the final bosses of internet memes — TikTok and Twitter — over the past few months. 



“Rizz is when you’re talking to a girl, and at first, shit is not going your way. It’s looking bad for you, until you spit game and you’re rizzing them up to where shit starts to go your way,” Cenat explained during a recent rizz-fueled appearance on Adam22’s No Jumper podcast. “You’re so slick with your words and what you’re saying, to where the girl is like, ‘Okay, yeah, who is this?!’ After shit goes your way, you’re like, ‘Yeah, I rizzed her up. I’ve got mad rizz.’”



A BDE 2.0 for those who weren’t around for the absolute chokehold that one photo of Davidson and Ariana Grande sucking on lollipops had on the collective, horny internet consciousness, rizz is right at home amid the dawning of the charisma renaissance.


Gone are the days of thirsting after the classic “Hollywood Hunks,” as People magazine calls them. Why strive for the Brad Pitt or the Chris Pine types — i.e., conventionally leading men — when the funnier, stoner-in-your-psych-101-lecture-type Davidsons and Harlows of the world exist? Most of us have NOTHING on their alleged lovers, a star-studded laundry list that purportedly includes Emily Ratajkowsk and Dua Lipa, yet their sheer charisma and humor make it seem as though we *may* have a chance — provided, of course, we’re packing enough rizz.


They look like the boys we went to college with. They look like our moms’ know their moms. Yet most of all, with Davidson’s adorably dorky grin and Harlow’s likeness to Mr. Tumnus from The Chronicles of Narnia, they most closely resemble the dudes we went on two REALLY awkward Tinder dates only to have them reply with a flame emoji to all of our Instagram Stories from now until eternity.


Hotness goes a long way. Rizzing it up is even c-rizz-ier.