Katt Williams’s Necklace Has TikTok Users Mystified — Here’s What It Says
Published Jan. 8 2024, 3:27 p.m. ET
Comedian and actor Katt Williams made headlines in January 2024 with a nearly-three-hour interview on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast, in which the comedian made bold claims about Cedric the Entertainer, Ludacris, and Kevin Hart, among other celebrities. But some viewers were distracted by the necklace hanging from Katt’s neck.
“I know y’all thought I was going to do a review [of] the interview with Shannon Sharpe and Katt Williams. I’m not,” TikTok user @udreamof_kattie said in one video. “I’m just trying to figure out what this chain … what does that say?”
“I want to know what it says!” @frank_thebarber said in a comment. We have the answer … but be forewarned that the answer only raises more questions!
What does Katt Williams's necklace say?
As some TikTok users have already parsed out, the necklace reads “Woke Foke” in glittering letters, with the two words overlapping at the “O.”
Unfortunately, we don’t have much of an idea what the phrase “Woke Foke” means to Katt. The only time he seems to have mentioned it was in March 2022, when he posted an Instagram photo of himself performing stand-up. In that caption, he wrote, “Woke Foke vs. sleep [sheep emoji].”
Katt Williams on 'Club Shay Shay'
Though “woke” is one of those polarizing words of our modern era — it’s a badge of pride to some, a pejorative to others — it seems Katt is aligning with the woke folks. (“[It] means, you know, that we’re basically woke right here, to all the bulls--t that they are trying to play in our faces with,” TikTok user @10kmazi asserts.)
Katt may have gotten the necklace around the time of that Instagram upload of his, because the jewelry company Icebox posted a close-up of the same “Woke Foke” pendant three days prior, saying in the caption that the comedian owned it.
“But does he know ‘folk’ is spelled not that way?” one Instagram commenter asked at the time.
“Of course he does…” another Instagram user replied. “It’s the street version, aight?”
Icebox was also selling the same design on a bracelet and a ring at the time, judging by that Instagram post, and as @10kmazi points out with photographic evidence, it seems Katt owns all three.
Icebox’s close-up also affords us a better view of the design. The words “Woke Foke” are set atop a compass which is set atop a ship’s wheel.
TikTokers are finding other symbology in in the design, too.
TikTok user @WHOISTAI observed that the ship’s wheel also looks like the symbol of the Helm of Awe, which is a rune associated with “protection and prevailing over one’s enemy,” according to Norse mythology blogger Daniel McCoy.
“[Katt] knew what he was doing,” @WHOISTAI added.
Another TikTok video, posted by @viraltime_2, noted the design’s similarity to the dharmachakra, which is “the single most important symbol of Buddhism, denoting the Buddha’s First Sermon in the forest at Sarnath, where he set Buddhist Law (dharma) in motion,” according to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Whatever the meaning, the Woke Foke design clearly had admirers. “I need this necklace," TikToker @aliceadams48 said in a comment.
