A new TikTok trend sees TikTok users posting content related to the catchphrase “keep it lemon”, also using the lemon emoji.
Currently, the earliest known “keep it lemon” video was posted by TikToker @lilfleming on February 19, 2023, gaining roughly 23,300 plays and 2,500 likes in one year.
What does ‘keep it lemon’ mean?
In early 2022, TikToker @jayjaybrooke1 started posting content related to the catchphrase “keep it lemon”. The sound used for the TikTok was techno song Give Me All Your Love by Schwing, which was seemingly associated with the TikToker (who has since deleted his account.
Slowly starting to become a trend, another video posted by infamous London nightclub @ministryofsound on April 1, 2023, used the song and showed the cameraman running into @jayjaybrooke1 in public, gaining roughly 226,800 plays and 13,400 likes in a year.
Keep It Lemon is a British, slang catchphrase that means to “keep it cool” or “keep it fresh”. The origin of the phrase also has links to the album cover for the Stone Roses album, The Stone Roses.
The phrase is also associated with the slang term “chav” (or “charva”) and the chav stereotype of loud, unrefined British louts. In the trend, TikTokers often parody chavs by doing a one-finger point, wearing clothing from brands like Nike and Stone Island, and listening to stereotypically “chav” music — drum & bass and UK garage, among other techno genres specific to the UK.
By September 20, 2023, the hashtags #keepitlemon and #keepitlemonð had amassed more than 121.1 million and 515.5 million views on TikTok.
This video was captioned, “Les av a gooden tonite eh geez”. While one comment says, “Keep it lemon”.
The British chav stereotype seems to be making a comeback — on TikTok. “In early Noughties Britain, reality television and comedy shows profitted off a certain type of sterotype: the chav.
“From Catherine Tate’s waxy-haired Lauren (’Am I bovvered?’) and Little Britain’s Vicky Pollard (’Yeah but no but...’) through to series like Big Brother, The Jeremy Kyle Show, and X Factor, it was — for years — in vogue to demonise the working class,” Dazed reported.
