The acronym “FAFO” has been popping up a lot on social media, especially TikTok, within the last year or so. And while FAFO might not be a term you understand right off the bat, it stands for a phrase that you’ve most likely heard. New slang pops up all of the time thanks to texting abbreviations, hashtags or just shortened versions of words for convenience. Sometimes there’s even slang that kind of doesn’t make a lot of sense in how they’ve evolved from their origin (like GYAT or bumboclot). But FAFO has been around for a while, and several different groups of people have used it over the years. And again, it stands for a phrase that you’ve definitely heard and have probably used if a certain curse word is in your vernacular. But FAFO has indeed skyrocketed in popularity over the last year, for very specific political reasons. However, it’s not the first time that FAFO has been used in a political way or by one ideological group. So, what is FAFO? And what does FAFO stand for? Read on to find out.Related: What Does 'POV' Actually Mean? (Its Use on Social Media Is Slightly Different Than IRL!)
What Does ‘FAFO’ Mean?
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So why have you seen FAFO around a lot more in the past year? The 2024 Presidential Election, that’s why. As Yahoo reported back in November 2024, there were two notable uses of FAFO (or a form of it) in the news cycle before and after the election on Nov. 5 that year.The first was Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who used a censored version of FAFO in a press conference, referring to anyone who had plans to interfere with Philadelphia’s election process.The second was after the election, when Donald Trump won; former Democratic congressman Bakari Sellers used FAFO on CNN’s This Morning Show. Sellers was using FAFO in response to comments from political analyst Ron Brownstein, saying that voters might be thinking that “the most extreme things Trump is talking about” aren’t something to worry about because “we got through the first term and none of these things happened.” "But we have a colloquialism. It’s FAFO," Sellers said. "And you’re going to find out in the first six months of what that chaos was…”And more recently, in September 2025, the head of the Department of War (formerly Department of Defense), Pete Hegseth, used "FAFO" in a meeting with top military commanders, per USA Today."Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision and ferocity of the war department. In other words, to our enemies... F-A-F-O," he said, spelling out the acronym.Before the 2024 election, though, FAFO was a slogan used by the Proud Boys, who also put the term on hats and shirts, according to Reuters. And back in 2022, when FAFO was announced as the word of the year, The Washington Post reported that the slang acronym grew in popularity near the end of that year when Elon Musk tweeted those four letters in response to Kanye West getting booted from Twitter (now known as X) for sharing a bad photo of Musk. And as they explained, FAFO has been used in memes since 2020 from both sides of the political aisle.Related: Huh? Here's What 'ENM' Means in a Dating Profile
Where Did ‘FAFO’ Come From?
With all of that said, and even though “F–k around and find out” and FAFO have been around a lot longer than just this past year, the term is picking up popularity on TikTok after the election.Some are using FAFO to communicate their opinions about voters being uninformed, like user @philiptalksaboutthings’s video series, pointing out just that. In a video from December 2025, he shared that some Republican voters are seeing their healthcare premiums and deductibles skyrocket. Other videos, like user @charlyndajean’s, are using FAFO to talk about how Trump’s presidency was going to impact imports, tariffs and more, believing that it will negatively impact those who voted for him too. And others are using it as a simple response to people who are no longer speaking to family members after the 2024 election.But again, that’s just the most recent surge of FAFO posts on TikTok. Some posts date back years and have to do with anything and everything under the sun—not just political things.Related: This Might Be the Most Annoying Corporate Jargon Phrase Ever
Is FAFO Military Slang?
How To Use FAFO
First off, can you use FAFO? It’s not a slur or a derogatory phrase (unless you are really against the word “f–k”), and isn’t relegated to just one group of people or demographic. As we’ve stated, people from all political parties, backgrounds and situations have used FAFO. If it makes sense in what you’re trying to convey, why not?This acronym is more for written social media posts—like in captions or on-screen text—but saying “fa-foh” has also been used, especially in more recent TikToks. Otherwise, you can use “FAFO” in a caption, but if you’re making a video, you can just say, “F–k/Eff around, find out.”Up Next:
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