"OK Boomer" Book Is Already on Its Way

In the 2020s, books will be based on memes. Or at least one book will, anyway. The Simon & Schuster imprint One Signal Books has announced that journalist Jill Filipovic is to pen OK Boomer: Let’s Talk: Dispatches from a Generational Divide, a new book that takes its title from the Ok Boomer meme.

The book, which the publisher announced will seek to look beyond the “humorous meme” in its exploration of the core issues at the center of the nation’s generational divide, is slated for a late 2020 release, AP reported Tuesday. Filipovic took to Twitter to explain what the book will focus on:

I'm writing a book about the generation divide between Boomers and Millennials / younger folks. What are the most pressing issues & glaring gaps? https://t.co/6Grkeqbotf

— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) November 26, 2019

In a statement, Filipovic explained that many of today’s hallmark struggles for young people in America are the result of “choices our parents’ generation made.” The CNN columnist and New York Times contributor added that the post-boomer world has left younger generations “at a crossroads.”

As some have pointed out, however, there is a certain generational irony in the 36-year-old Filipovic, a millennial, authoring the book on the Gen Z meme.

“The ok boomer book appears to be about millennials vs boomers but isn’t the whole deal that it is a gen z meme,” tweeted writer Rachel Syme.

the ok boomer book appears to be about millennials vs boomers but isn’t the whole deal that it is a gen z meme

— rachel syme (@rachsyme) November 26, 2019

The meme, which originated among Gen Z teens using the phrase to mock their unwoke elders, first gained widespread attention late last month when Taylor Lorenz reported on the phrase and its corresponding merch for the New York Times.

The phrase quickly sparked comically undue outrage among its boomer targets, while also falling prey to near-immediate millennial appropriation and overuse. Which brings us here: an Ok Boomer book penned by a millennial.

Another problem with the art-imitates-internet rise of books based on memes? Internet memes have a notoriously brief shelf life, while books, ideally, do not. By the time Filipovic’s book comes out next year, the generation to which it owes its title will have already gifted and surrendered countless memes, leaving just a handful of raging boomers and aging millennials desperate to prove they still “get it” on the OK Boomer beat.

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