Street voices
Janna
·
United States
"I can't, or I can't even, usually just said, you know, the phrase by itself. It basically means, I don't know, when there's something really funny, or shocking, or just overwhelming, you just say, I can't, or I can't even. An example would be, oh my god, there's no way the entire class, a whole hundred people, failed this exam. I can't even."
What it means
You drop this when something is so funny, shocking, cringe, or wildly too much that your thoughts just hit the brakes and refuse to keep going. The whole point is the dramatic cutoff. It can mean you're losing it laughing, staring in disbelief, or folding from secondhand embarrassment.
Usage examples
"A hundred people failed the same exam and the professor still said it was manageable, nah, I can't even, that class was cursed from jump."
"She brought a ring light, a mic, and a full tripod setup to film her coffee order. I can't even."
"He sent a paragraph apology in lowercase and finished it with rawr. I can't even."
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Where it comes from
It grew out of longer lines like I can't even deal and I literally can't even, which were already floating around in spoken English and online chat. By the early 2010s, people started leaving the thought unfinished on purpose. That cutoff became the joke, especially in internet slang, because the dramatic overload landed harder than a full sentence.
Editors of this term
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