Gen Z — laughing in the face of destruction

Like most members of Generation Z, I find myself scrolling through endless videos on my phone throughout the day. Whether on YouTube or TikTok, most content gets a quick exhale from my nostrils, sometimes a chuckle, and on occasions, I think something is so funny I find someone to show it to.

To this day, my parents, early millennials, haven’t found anything I’ve shown them as funny as I’ve found it. I don’t even want to mention my grandparents, who just give a forced laugh or don’t even react at all. But then again, the jokes my parents make don’t fly with their five kids either.

The memes popular among today’s younger adults and teens don’t consist of anything particularly funny. Instead, jokes are punctuated by absurdity and dark humor that sheds light on difficult situations.

Take the popular meme of Adam Driver in HBO’s Girls sipping from a spoon and proclaiming it “good soup,” or the other from Teen Titans Go, where the character Raven says “I’m thirsty … Refreshing.” There is nothing funny about these phrases alone; it’s the videos made accompanying them that make them so laughable. Whenever someone films themselves saying “I’m thirsty” while someone pours a bucket of water on their head, I’m rolling on the floor with laughter by the time they say “refreshing.”

Like my parents, people in other generations have a harder time figuring out why Gen Z finds the most unusual things funny.

Baby boomers born after the Second World War seem to find humor in making fun of young people and their internet addictions, while the middle-aged members of Generation X constantly seem to have another dad joke up their sleeve.

And millennials, who also deal in memes and are often seen as the generational ally to the younger members of Gen Z, would much rather find humor in “But first, coffee” mantras. Meanwhile, Gen Z has rolled eyes toward millennials’ “adulting is hard” humor about the realities of growing up. The joke is no longer funny when enough millennials have taken it on. Each generation has its brand of humor, but Gen Z’s is particularly distinct.

Many teens and young adults today were born in this new age of technology where social media affects every aspect of life. Platforms including TikTok, Twitter and Instagram have the biggest influence on modern humor, even in day-to-day conversation. Much of the comedic content on these sites is centered around absurdity, which is often only funny upon initial encounter due to its shock value.

Because we are constantly being fed new content, these memes escalate to extreme in a matter of minutes. The failure for these jokes and memes to make sense is their inherent value in the first place. The idea of making a meme that can make onlookers go, “How did they come up with that?” is what makes the meme or joke funny to begin with.

Most Gen Z humor is tied to things that are quite the opposite of funny. Our generation grew up in a world where hardships are thrown at you from every angle. Faced with the combination of having too much to deal with, not being old enough and not having the time to tackle it all in the first place, Gen Z is forced to throw in the towel and succumb to a life of hopelessness, where a new style of humor rises from the ashes.

We are often told we can’t take a joke or we’re too “soft,” but frankly, we are tired of jokes centered around homophobia, sexism and racism. We’ve moved past that. From climate change disasters looming over our heads to school shootings a step behind us, not to mention mental health issues. This is creates a dark humor, the kind millennials haven’t laughed at. Just admit it: You’ve probably seen at least a hundred World War III memes; I know I have. And I don’t even understand the extent of them.

Millennials endured 9/11 and the 2008 economic recession. When the promise of an American dream began to fade, they, too, turned to humor. However, Gen Z jokes have a tinge of lightheartedness compared to millennial humor, which radiates defeated energy. Millennials joke about their misfortune with a bitter edge, like it can’t be any worse. But Gen Z jokes about misfortune like they joke about anything else.

Gen Z humor is something no one had on their radar. It’s easy to spot how far humor has come, and with the internet constantly spewing new jokes and memes, they will only get wilder. There is just one question: How far is too far, and has our generation done it already?