Anything over 40% Short Interest (SI) is heavily shorted compared to other stocks.
100% SI means that a company is shorted by 100% of it's entire float, which just shouldn't ever happen.
140% SI is the maximum amount that would generally ever be reported, as 140% is the maximum legal amount shares can be rehypothecated, so claiming a SI% above that is openly admitting to crime.
226.42% means there has been a fukktonne of crime, and more counterfeit shares exist than real shares. They all have to be bought back, and when they the price will literally go parabolic.
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EDIT
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Had a lot of people asking things like 'So what will actually force them to cover? Why can't they just keep conspiring?'
Listen, the worlds whack and no one can know anything for sure, but heres MY personal understanding, copied from my reply to someone else
ok here we go, bare in mind this is all my personal opinion again, not financial advice.
I'm not very good at essay writing, so forgive me if this is hard to read.
1) The shorts aren't going away unless they cover. If they truly plan to never cover, then they will be permanently be bleeding out fees, and banks who have lent them money will eventually want their money back.
Now you might propose, what if they conspire even more egregiously, and artificially force cover (without paying) the shares, well..
2) It isn't only retail investors invested in GME. One of GMEs top holders is Blackrock, who has 9,175,737 shares in GME, or 12.965% ownership.
GME Institutional Ownership and Major Shareholders (GameStop) Who is Blackrock?
risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with over $8 trillion in assets under management as of January 2021.
BlackRock - Wikipedia
They are the single largest company in the world by Assets Under Management, with a huge 12.9% ownership of GME, and as of 5/7/2021 their investment was valued at $1.74B. It's worth understanding that it wouldn't just be retail that they are fukking over if they try anything, how do you think a multi-trillion dollar company would react if a billion dollar investment of theirs was artificially devalued?
3) Trying anything funky would jeoporadise trust in the entire US markets. There are eyes and journalists all over the world paying attention to how this situation is handled. Imagine if they turn off the buy button again. Foreign investors would never want to invest in US markets again, it would be clear as day to the common man that the stock markets are rigged. The government doesn't want this.
4) SEC, DTCC, NSCC, aka the financial regulators, have been unleashing a SLURRY of new rules these past 6 months, most of which seem aimed at containing a fallout and what to do incase a member (bank) fails, limiting short hedge fund practices, faster margin calls, and generally 'tightening the noose' so to speak. Please read this post for more detailed information
but basically why would they be preparing for a fallout so dilligently if they planned to pull the rug on retail investors and bail out sHFs and banks.
5) It doesn't have to be GME which ignites it's own fuse. There are a lot of theories that we are imminent for a market crash. I'm sure you've seen this on r/all recently;
In the event of a market crash, there will be lots of margin calls. Everyone is overleveraged as is, if assets market-wide drop 10, 20, 30%+ you can bet lots of places will have to liquidate, which will involve covering their short positions. Even if the top sHFs like citadel don't immediately have to, once someone smaller does, they will cover and rise the price a bit, which will make someone medium sized margin called and have to cover rising the price moderately, and these dominos will eventually reach citadel.
6) I'm sure there's some other stuff that I could mention but you're getting the picture, like the possibility of a crypto dividend.
Anyway, please keep asking questions, it's how we bolster our own understanding and strengthen any holes in our thesis.
About the deadlines, yeah there's a bit of a mix on this sub, some people like them because it gets us hype but others don't because if a date comes and goes it can be demoralising, and it's clear this is a patience game. I say get excited for dates but don't TRULY start believing any given date is the MOASS until it happens. One way to think of it is there is no dates, just times when the noose gets tigher and tighter, although I will say gosh it's looking pretty tight right now.
Hope this helped, is there anything else you want me to try to explain? This is good for me too because I understand things better when I explain it to someone else.
And feel free to join the sub
is this financial advice? Are you a financial advisor?
you start talking about institutional ownership, next thing you know you'll be waiting for earnings to drop. You know fundamentals aren't allowed around here 
I crossed 500 this week. Got in the game a little late, but I plan on trying to get to 1000 before the squeeze.
if it aint before the end of fall/autumn then it aint close breh
