What does “God forbid a white boy catch a vibe” mean?

“Catching a vibe” means to enjoy oneself, feel comfortable, to feel good, to dance to music that sounds good. A “vibe” is an emotional state, or the emotional atmosphere. For example, “This person has bad vibes.” “God forbid” means “I hope God stops it” and it is used in sarcastic sense in this case, as others have explained and, typically when someone is doing something that others might criticize. In the context of American society, white boys (boys refers to men, in this case) are not expected to participate in “vibing” with certain activities that might be associated with another race or gender, and they might be criticized. In the Tiktok trend, the white boy is showing that they are enjoying participating in that activity and shutting down any criticism with the phrase, “God forbid, a white boy catch a vibe.” Essentially, “It’s silly to critique a white man for enjoying things outside of the social norm.” (Edited for clarity and grammar)

Needs heavy context lol. Usually when people use the phrase "God forbid [something]", they are sarcastically expressing that there is nothing wrong with that [something] and adversity is silly or frustrating. It's a little difficult to explain, but I guess I would call it a sarcastic exclamation? For example: Boss: "I need you to come in today. Two of our cooks haven't shown up." Worker: "God forbid I have a day off!"

First off, like a lot of what you see on tiktok, this is markedly strange phrasing. People see a weird sentence and think it's funny, so they repost it. I don't want you to get the notion that everyone in the Anglosphere talks like that. I would guess what makes it funny is the change in registers between "God forbid" which is extremely old fashioned and "white boy catch a vibe" which is very new slang. "God Forbid" is so old that people saying it sincerely died out in the 1800s. It's more commonly used to suggest someone is being as outdated and restrictive in their morals as those 19th centuary stiff. Even that usage is now quite dated. I would guess that in general it's playful, maybe boardering on mocking. But I've not seen these tiktoks.

Yeah the phrase “God forbid” is generally used sarcastically. It’s generally used when people are complaining or saying negative things about something, and you respond with “God forbid ____.” Example: Person 1: “Ew your dinner looks disgusting! It’s just vegetables.” Person 2: “God forbid I try to eat healthy 🙄” So on TikTok when people say “God forbid a white boy catch a vibe”, it’s a joke basically just emphasizing that the video is a white person doing something with a very “white” vibe—stereotypically meaning kind of awkward or nerdy.

A lot of people are saying that "God forbid" is a sarcastic phrase, and in your example it certainly is, but it's not always used that way. It can also be used to say you hope something doesn't happen. For example you could say "If something bad happens to Jane, God forbid, I will take care of her dogs". In other words, "I hope nothing bad happens to Jane, but if it does I will take care of her dogs". It's almost like saying "knock on wood". This is the way it was originally used and still sometimes is. You'll hear it a lot if you watch The Sopranos.

Did the video of the frat guy at a party bobbing his head prompt this🤣 that was at my college a few months back, I love that video

Other replies are good, but also having seen this trend on tiktok, it has a lot to do with the action the white boy is doing in the post. Normally they’re doing something culturally associated with other cultures, and normally something outgoing or social at the same time, maybe a little embarrassing but clearly while enjoying himself. You can imagine someone getting some mild criticism for that on the basis of cultural appropriation or hogging the spotlight, but probably not any serious criticism. Hence the usage of the phrase sort of preemptively defending from this probably nonexistent criticism. Hope that makes sense