The Anatomy of an Awkward Phrase
A phrase that does not exist, yet now everyone knows it.
The gap: adults reach for slang the way they reach for a remote - from memory, slightly too late. The phrase they pick is almost always last year's. "Bismillah c'est les ténèbres" is the gap made audible: a line no young person would say, said to sound like one.
The tell: real Gen Z slang is used without explanation and without irony aimed at the user. The moment someone has to perform the slang, it is no longer slang - it is a costume.
Why it is funny rather than cringey: the humor is in the sincerity of the attempt. No one is mocking the speaker - everyone is mourning the phrase itself, which never existed and now will never be un-known.