搞抽象

From gaming insult to mainstream comedy

抽象 started around 2015 as the in-joke of a notorious group of Douyu game streamers whose crude, chaotic broadcasts their fans called 抽象文化 ("abstract culture"). The studio was banned in 2017 and the slang went underground.

By 2024 it had been sanded down into a mainstream verb. Xiaohongshu (RedNote) named 抽象 its keyword of the year that December, defining it as "using nonsense to season daily life."

Today, 搞抽象 covers:

• Ironic consumption — buying something because it's terrible (see: 牛来 movie tickets).
• Nonsense replies — answering a serious question with a wall of emoji or a completely unrelated story.
• Performance chaos — acting unhinged in videos, livestreams, or group chats on purpose.

The spectrum of abstract

搞抽象 has levels:

Why it's 2026's defining humor

Three things make 搞抽象 the perfect 2026 word:

1. It's post-ironic — you're not mocking something sincerely; you're creating a parallel reality where the joke is the point.
2. It's cheap — anyone can be abstract. No budget, no skill, just a willingness to be weird.
3. It's a pressure valve — when the world is stressful, being deliberately nonsensical is a form of release.

How to use it

• "太抽象了" — "too abstract": said when someone does something brilliantly weird.
• "搞抽象是吧" — "oh, we're being abstract, are we?": called out when someone starts acting up.
• "抽象一波" — "let's do a wave of abstract": inviting chaos.

The highest compliment: "你抽象得很有水平" (your abstract game is high-level).