“Delulu” and “Rizz”- How South Africa’s 2025 Slang Meets ChatGPT and WhatsApp Culture

The Language of 2025

South Africa’s social feeds in 2025 are buzzing with new words and digital inside jokes. Slang like delulu, rizz, and skibidi have broken out of TikTok and landed firmly in South African WhatsApp chats. They are part of a growing blend of youth culture, online humour, and local creativity that reshapes how we talk, joke, and even text.

Now, with ChatGPT joining the conversation, the results are hilariously unpredictable. South Africans are testing AI with slang, turning cultural misfires into memes that spread faster than load-shedding alerts.

The Slang That Rules the Screens

“Delulu” (short for delusional) describes over-the-top confidence. “Rizz” is short for charisma, often used in dating or flirtation jokes. And “skibidi” is just pure absurdity — a sound turned into a meme and now a universal inside joke.

These words dominate South Africa’s trending searches and group chats. But when ChatGPT tries to define or translate them, it often misses the tone entirely. That mismatch is where the comedy begins. Screenshots of AI misinterpreting slang as serious philosophy or formal English lessons have become viral content across local social channels.

When AI Tries to Speak Mzansi

South Africans love to test AI tools using slang, isiZulu-English blends, or Afrikaans idioms. One user asked ChatGPT to “explain rizz in isiZulu” and got a wildly literal translation. Another requested a love poem using “skibidi” and received an overly sincere ode that was too cringe to handle.

The contrast between street-smart slang and polite AI explanations turns simple exchanges into meme material. The laughter isn’t just about AI errors, it’s about watching global technology trip over South African cultural nuance.

Why It’s More Than Just a Joke

This trend isn’t just humour. It’s proof of how people shape global tech tools through culture and language. South Africans are teaching AI to recognise local expression, tone, and humour in ways that English-only datasets never could. The process is messy, funny, and deeply human.

It also reveals a cultural truth — language is no longer static. It’s shaped by digital feedback loops where slang, memes, and tech constantly remix one another.

From Chat to Crypto

Even the financial world isn’t immune to meme power. The rise of “memecoins” has blurred the line between humour and money, with crypto tokens adopting slang-inspired names to ride viral trends. Words like rizz or delulu are just waiting for their own blockchain moment.

And just like slang itself, the joke might turn into something valuable.

Culture Meets Code

WhatsApp, TikTok, and ChatGPT have become the new town squares of South African culture. In this ecosystem, slang is more than fun, it’s a creative language of identity. It connects generations, travels across class and region, and even teaches AI to lighten up.

The Last Word

South Africa’s digital language isn’t just evolving, it’s thriving. Every meme, typo, and ChatGPT fail adds to a shared national archive of humour and tech literacy. So the next time your WhatsApp group sends a screenshot of ChatGPT explaining “rizz” like it’s a school report, save it. That’s history in the making — one delulu chat at a time.