Joey Fatone Decodes Gen-Z Slang: Helping Parents Slay And Be Cringe-Free!

Has your teen told you that you look “mid” or to “take a seat” when you’re in the middle of saying something? Or does your teen call you “bruh” 50 times a day? You’re not alone. 

Pop icon Joey Fatone is one of us! The NSYNC member is trying to keep up on all the new younger generation slang and is helping the rest of us do the same through his partnership with Great Clips. 

So without sounding “cringe,” let’s dive into this new language with Fatone and Great Clips leading the way!

Through his partnership with Great Clips, Fatone is learning all the cool new slang terms so he can keep up in a conversation with his 14-year-old daughter Kloey. And knowing that he’s not the only parent who sometimes gets lost in a conversation when slang terms are being thrown left and right, he’s trying to help educate the rest of us with the help of Great Clips and their Student Slang Translators and Online Curriculum. 

“Back in the day when we were young, it was ‘dope,’ ‘mint,’ ‘rad,’ you know, some of the words you can’t say anymore, which is politically incorrect that we used to say, but nevertheless, they were our slang,” Fatone told The Blast exclusively. “And now hearing, ‘ate,’ and ‘bruh,’ and ‘no cap,’ and ‘caught in 4K.’ I don’t even know the definitions.” 

When Great Clips approached Fatone about partnering to help bring more awareness to parents about the new slang terms, he was all in. 

Being a dad to a 23-year-old and 14-year-old means keeping up with all the new terms as best he can. And with Great Clips Student Slang Translators, a group of popular teacher influencers, and a slang dictionary that parents can refer to, it won’t be as difficult to keep up with the younger generation’s language. 

With new slang terms popping up often, Fatone uses very few in conversation but sometimes likes to purposely use slang in the wrong ways for fun.

“No cap is the only one I’ll probably use, but a lot of times what I do is I’ll actually say the slang in a completely wrong text just to annoy them [the younger generation],” he told The Blast. 

“That’s what I do. So I’ll be doing a lot of that. They laugh at us that we don’t know the definition so we’ll just make fun of it and flip it that we really don’t know it.”

Great Clips, along with Fatone and his daughter Kloey’s help, is trying to get parents all ready for the new school year and help students walk back into school feeling confident and ready to go.

To celebrate the new school year, Great Clips is offering the first 24,000 individuals who register at GreatClips.com/BacktoSchool a free haircut for their child at a participating Great Clips salon. 

Great Clips is also helping to teach parents and teachers all the new slang terms that the kids are saying on a regular basis with a Slang Dictionary.

“We understand that parents are trying to keep up with their kids and help them feel confident all while staying on a budget,” Lisa Hake, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Great Clips, Inc. said. “With the help of our Student Slang Translators and our online curriculum, we’re helping families better understand what their kids want so they can get that fresh haircut at a great price and head back to school with a new level of confidence.” 

From singing and dancing to hosting television shows to acting, it seems Fatone has worn many different hats throughout his career. 

“I have ADHD, and the reason I said that is because I love doing different things,” he said. “For instance, Justin [Timberlake] and JC [Chasev] are writers and they love being in the production side of writing and being in the studio. I do not like being in that studio for that long and would get agitated after a while. So I think for me, my jobs, when they change, I love that.”

He also brought up his part in “Impractical Jokers.” 

“That gives a whole new side of me where people never even knew that I was in NSYNC. They only knew me from ‘Impractical Jokers’ and thought I was just part of that randomly,” he explained. “So it’s really weird to see the different things that I do, but it’s always different and I love that.” 

His partnership with Great Clips falls right into that same category of being able to enjoy a multitude of different gigs often. 

With so many different things going on at any given point in Fatone’s life, he’s loving that he can choose whatever he’s going to do next. 

“I’m at a point in my life where I get to pick and choose whatever I want to do, in a sense, and if I don’t like it, I don’t have to do it. I’m content in where I am,” he told The Blast. “I don’t need a ridiculous amount of money or a ridiculous, lavish lifestyle. For me, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned what really matters. It’s my kids, my girl, my family, my friends, just want to be happy and that’s it for me. And that’s the fun thing about the things I get to do with these jobs.”

So what upcoming projects and gigs is Fatone looking forward to? One thing he said isn’t happening just yet is an NSYNC reunion.

“Obviously people have questions about NSYNC and I have no idea what’s happening with that, so there’s the answer to that question,” he said. But he is still going on tour with A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys. 

Fatone is also talking about opening up another location of his hot dog place, “Fat Ones.” 

As far as NSYNC reuniting for a project, Fatone said they haven’t had a conversation about it yet.

“I can honestly say that we haven’t had a conversation. The five of us have to get together to really have a conversation, whether we want to do something or not,” he said. “What does that look like? What does that entail? We’ve definitely had some offers and stuff like that, but nothing major.” 

Fatone said that he’s had too many memorable moments with NSYNC to pick just one favorite one, but he instantly shared two that stand out for him.

“I think the two memories are kind of like the bookends for me,” he shared. “The beginning of when we ever sang together for the first time and sang the song ‘I Thought She Knew’ which is an acapella song that was on one of our albums, and then getting the star on the Walk of Fame.”