What happens when a Gen Xer tries to figure out what it means to “touch grass,” or a Gen Zer tries to pronounce “Depeche Mode”? You get the AARP Slang and Pronunciation Challenges. In our Slang Challenge, participants from two different generations exchange slang from their respective eras and try to guess what each other’s terms mean. Its sister concept, the Pronunciation Challenge, follows the same format — this time with each generation presenting unique, era-specific brands, bands or names for the other to pronounce.
Both ideas share a single purpose: Creating space for two generations to interact, learn from one another, and share a laugh. The fun comes not only from the guessing itself, but from the surprising overlaps, the unexpected blind spots, and the genuine moments of connection that emerge when people discover what they do — and don’t — know about each other’s worlds.
Our objective is simple: spark joy, encourage empathy, and prove that sometimes, the best punchlines come from learning about each other. If you’re looking for something as heartwarming as it is hilarious, this TikTok series delivers. No cap! 😉
From the start, we knew the heart of both the Slang Challenge and Pronunciation Challenge would be the dynamic between two generations — specifically Gen X and Gen Z. Our goal was to capture genuine interaction, so paired our resident Gen Xer — aka Craig, the AARP TikTok Guy – with a Gen Z coworker with whom he already had an easy rapport. Their comfort with one another meant they wouldn’t hold back, even when they were hilariously off-base with their guesses.
The biggest challenge came long before the cameras rolled: choosing the right words. For the Pronunciation Challenge, we had an abundance of options, but we found the sweet spot in musician and band names and lifestyle brands—terms that felt second nature to one generation but were far less familiar to the other. We collaborated across teams (and across age groups) to curate a list that struck the right balance of recognizable and confounding.
The process was similar for the Slang Challenge. We sifted through multiple rounds of slang terms, refining the list until each word felt authentically tied to one generation while still being a likely mystery to the other. It took several iterations to land on a set that felt both challenging and fair.
Once the lists were locked, production became the easy part. We seated our Gen X and Gen Z participants side by side, handed them spiral notebooks to write their chosen words, and let the conversations unfold naturally. There was no scoring, no pressure —just an environment designed to spark honest reactions, shared laughs, and the kind of intergenerational connection that makes the series work.
Our Slang and Pronunciation Challenge series didn’t just spark laughter; it ignited playful banter and genuine connection across generations. With 1.8M views and over 13,000 hours of watch time, the series swept through feeds as viewers delighted in the hilarious confusion, surprises, and shared moments that arise when Gen X and Gen Z tackle each other’s language.
Originally developed for our TikTok channel, the series has been a hit with our audience on Instagram as well, generating nearly 1,500 comments as viewers reacted to the nostalgia, the humor and on-screen banter, and shared recommendations for future episodes:
Lol I couldn’t hold my laughter at some point 😹
To be fair to GenZ, I also needed help pronouncing those names back in the day 😅😅
I love these videos! Please do more!
Oddly I’m a Boomer and knew all of them! 🤣
Ok aarp ur coming at me on my fave app now 😂
To date, this series has generated 1.8M views, and earned 35,000 likes, 10,000 shares, 2,400 saves, as well as 4,100 new followers.
