What’s with all the talk about nachos on social media lately?
Taking over social media platforms like X and TikTok are posts about “reheating nachos,” a bizarre yet apt metaphor in music fandoms to describe artists revisiting or recreating styles from the past.
In other contexts, having someone take your nachos means you’ve been outshined or surpassed by another person, especially in a competitive or artistic way.
As explained by Dexerto’s Kawter Abed, the phrase seemingly began thanks to a viral TikTok of a scene from the reality show Baddies West, in which Natalie Nunn kept staring at Stunna Girl’s nachos.
“You can tell Natalie lowkey wanted Stunna Girls’ nachos,” the clip is captioned.
It’s clear that the video is about actual nachos, but somehow stan culture ran with this and quickly made “nachos” into a metaphor for an artist’s creative effort and “reheating” to mean “revisit.”
The phrase seemingly took off earlier this month when Lady Gaga released her latest single, “Abracadabra,” per Yahoo! News’ Katie Mather. The track, which serves as the second single from her forthcoming album Mayhem, is being compared to Gaga’s earlier hits like “Bad Romance” and “Alejandro,” leading some to say she was “reheating her nachos.”
It didn't take long for the idea of reheated nachos to extend beyond stan communities. The term has found its way in the feeds of stars like Halle Berry and Dionne Warwick, who have shared their confusion about the phrase on their X accounts.
Check out some of the most hilarious reheated nacho memes below.