4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Holy airball! Have the nepo babies found another way to put everyone's backs up?
Name: Wealth bragging.
Age: There's Buddhist scripture warning against it, so let's assume pretty old.
Appearance: Evolving.
Don't worry, I'm very up to date on this. It's all about stealth wealth these days, right? You mean subtle demonstrations of wealth that deliberately make a point of not looking obnoxious?
Yes, that's exactly it. Ha ha ha. No.
What has it changed to? Are you familiar with the 'holy airball' trend?
I'm an adult with real-world responsibilities, so of course I'm not. OK, so the TikTok kids are saying 'Holy airball' whenever someone underestimates them. For example, the professional swimmer Alexia Sotomayor posted a video that said 'told him i'm a swimmer, he said 'i used to swim in the summer, i can probably beat you''. Then there was a clip of her preparing for the world championship, and the word 'Holyfrickenairball'.
Oh, gross. Yes, it's a wildly ostentatious boast. But now the nepo babies are doing it.
Give me an example. Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe's daughter, Ava, just posted a TikTok that read: 'I told him my mum's a lawyer, and he said, 'Oh what firm does she work at?'' The holy airball moment here was a photo of her mother in Legally Blonde.
Any others? Martin Scorsese's daughter, Francesca, got in on the act ('I told him my dad is a film-maker. He said 'Oh nice, for like commercials or something?'' ) and Akon's daughter, Alianna ('told him my dad was in the music industry … he said 'oh, like a manager?'').
Oh, it's wrong to be proud of your parents now, is it? Well, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Because now the children of CEOs have waded in. The daughter of an Airbnb executive posted a TikTok reading, 'I told him my family owned an Airbnb. Him: 'Oh their little apartment must be cute'', followed by a slideshow of expensive rental properties. The daughter of an Anthropologie designer did one that said: 'I told him my mom designed a famous candle. He said, 'like for a farmer's market?'.'
This is sweet. No it isn't. It's one thing to brag about your own accomplishments, but it's far uglier to brag about accomplishments you had nothing to do with and only benefit from. The subtext of all these TikToks is essentially: 'Look how rich I'm going to be when my parent dies.'
I'm not sure that's the case. And the format of the videos is offputting too. God forbid anyone asks you a follow-up question when you're boasting about your mum.
So I shouldn't show off about my parents online? Not unless you want everyone to think you're incapable of standing on your own two feet without them, no.
Do say: 'TikTokers are bragging about generational wealth.'
Don't say: 'Their parents must be so proud.'
