The phrase comes from the wave of Skibidi Toilet slang that spread through TikTok and YouTube Shorts after the animated series became a Gen Alpha phenomenon in 2023. Erm what the skibidi riffs on the older erm what the sigma reaction format, swapping in skibidi as a deliberately meaningless intensifier. Short reaction sounds like this travel well because they need no context, so editors keep reusing it to flag something absurd, random or intentionally low-effort.