In the face of the threat of a third world war, Gen Z chooses laughter

The third world war is an endless source of jokes for Gen Z, receiving the title of “the least serious” generation. On social media, geopolitical tensions are turned into memes, images, or videos full of irony and dark humor regarding a potential upcoming conflict. Explanation in video.

The use of dark humor in times of crisis is not new and goes beyond war. “Charlie Chaplin used satire in ‘The Great Dictator’ in 1940 to address the threat posed by Adolf Hitler,” says the American site HuffPost.

Even in 1940, during the Nazi occupation, “the Czechs mocked the oppressors by using dark humor.”

And nowadays, in hospitals, “cancer patients joke about their mortality to lighten up and regain control,” notes the Singaporean website CNA Today.

“In 1927, Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psychoanalysis, considered humor to be the way in which the mind protects itself from painful realities. Psychologists have long noticed that it helps cope with the unbearable.”

What the Z generation is doing is not unprecedented. But “what has changed is not the existence of dark humor, but its impact,” notes CNA Today.

With social media, this form of self-defense in the face of increasingly grim news is very common and accessible worldwide.

And while they may be seen as entertaining, the power of memes should not be underestimated.

As The Print, an Indian media outlet, puts it: “We have seen in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Madagascar that lighthearted memes could lead to a revolution,” referring to youth uprisings in those countries that have sometimes led to the overthrow of the ruling power.

“Politicians around the world have reason to worry,” concludes the Indian media. And if not for them, for the future of this generation, who, in the absence of a perspective of lasting world peace, have chosen to laugh about it.

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