Photo by Generated by ChatGPT

This is one of many “kirkified” images. Gen Z takes serious issues and immediately turns them into memes.

When something in the world goes wrong, Gen Z doesn’t grab a protest sign; instead, they immediately head to the internet. As soon as the news breaks, there’s already a meme about it. 

Whether it’s hurricanes, the Louvre heist, or a submarine tour gone wrong, serious events often turn into inside jokes online. To older generations, this may seem insensitive, but, to Gen Z, it’s less about laughing at tragedy and more about finding a way to laugh through it. 

“I think humor can make serious information more accessible and then more people want to read about it.” freshman Ella Neal said.

One example of this is the Louvre heist on Oct. 19. Immediately after it happened, people were making Tik Tok videos and posting memes about the situation. The story gained traction from this and more people started to pay attention.

“I find them so funny,” junior Morgan Malik said. “Obviously the situation is not, but the memes are.”

Gen Z’s humor might come across as dark or even heartless, but it’s actually just their way of coping.

Often, these Gen z-ers don’t know how to express their feelings, so they laugh about them instead. With so much chaos updated constantly online, turning it into something funny makes it easier to handle. For a lot of people, humor isn’t just for laughs, it’s a distraction. 

In fact, laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural “feel-good” chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even reduce stress.

“The memes kind of distract me from the fact I’m not in a good situation,” sophomore Amanda Fredrickson said.

A 2023 study by cognitive psychology researchers in Rome found that humor is a coping strategy that helps reduce perceived stress during the COVID‑19 pandemic, especially when people used avoidance-based coping methods. Laughing at bad situations doesn’t mean they don’t care, it just helps them avoid spiraling. 

“People are going to cope in different ways, and humor is a pretty good way of coping with things,” math teacher Chris Peters said.

If something bad is happening, there’s probably already a post about it before the news can even cover it. This speed can make it seem like they’re joking about serious things they shouldn’t be, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes posting a meme right away is their way of acknowledging the issue and saying they’re processing it together. 

This can be seen with the whole Charlie Kirk situation. When clips of his speeches from Sept. 10 went viral, people started turning him into a meme overnight. People began “kirkifying,” or adding his face to, unrelated pictures and videos. It shifted the focus away from his death and made it feel more like a trend rather than a serious event.  

There’s a clear point where it stops being funny and becomes inappropriate. That line is different for each generation. Something that is really funny to gen Z can be seen as insensitive to other generations.

“Older people tend to take it more seriously, and they think everything needs to be a lesson when it’s really not that deep,” Malik said. 

To Gen Z, humor isn’t just a form of entertainment; it’s a form of communication. Sarcasm and irony have become part of how they discuss everything, including pain. There’s comfort in turning the world’s chaos into a joke they can share with their friends. It’s not that they don’t care, it’s that the joke makes caring a little less painful. 

Coping through humor isn’t a new concept Gen Z created. Older generations did similar things to cope: millennials created gifs and older generations had chain emails. For Gen Z, it’s on a much larger scale because of social media.

“It used to be chain emails for old people, and my generation it was gifs,” Peters said. “Every generation finds its own way to react.”

While older generations are writing essays on world issues, Gen Z is making memes about them, which, in a strange way, does the same thing. 

Humor has also become a way for Gen Z to build community and connect with one another. Shared jokes about serious topics can turn fear into connection. A meme about a crisis might seem dark, but it’s also a reminder that they’re not the only ones feeling helpless or confused. 

Humor doesn’t erase the reality of what’s happening, it just helps Gen Z get through it.