what makes gen z humor so interesting?

gen z has developed a breed of humor all its own with jokes no other era of people have even had the opportunity to create 22 pictures that prove gen z humor is on an entirely different level than millennial humor the shocking and absurdist humor of jet set with gen z's quirky social humor [Music] what you know about rolling down people seem to recognize that gen z humor is different which is not too surprising because with each new generation comes a new set of shared experiences and a new youth wave that is bent on differentiating from the past outdated oldies yeah millennials are so last decade but what exactly is exclusive to gen z humor while researching for this video i thought i had it all figured out until i stumbled upon anna isabelle's video why is millennial humor so weird and a lot of what she talks about is what other sources labeled as gen z humor the comment section seemed to contain quite a bit of confusion as well so after more research i realized that it can be difficult to cleanly separate millennial and gen z humor contrary to popular zoomer belief not all millennials are 20 to 30 year olds who are passionately defending their right to wear skinny jeans gen z are categorized by the pew research center as those born between 1997 to 2012. though i agree with this article that for the purpose of discussing online humor a year range of 2000 to about 2008 is more fitting a lot of millennials then are still very close in age to gen z and are up to date with gen z humor and trends look at anna isabel she's a millennial but she doesn't look like the poster child of one this is to say that when i'm talking about what makes gen z humor unique in this video it is not to reignite the cultural war between these two generations i'm just calling it gen z humor because there is a rough cutoff age as to who actively consumes and uses the type of humor i will be discussing but the generational cohorts are just a general form of categorization so if you were born in 1996 instead of 1997 that does not mean that you can't enjoy understand and create gen z humor alright so how do we enjoy understand and create gen z humor well to do that we need to have a 101 lesson on irony i'm going to be citing so much from the youtuber greg in this first part because i think he had a good irony layer system going on thank god there is no verbal plagiarism check essentially he discusses four levels of irony sincerity irony sarcasm host irony and meta irony sincerity has zero levels of irony aka there is no irony whatever the content is at hand is being conveyed in a straightforward truthful manner irony sarcasm has one layer of irony true meaning is comprehended under the guise of it being delivered as its opposite meaning for example wow this class is amazing when really you hate the class as dreg points out this one layered type of irony is something a lot of boomer memes use now moving on to the more complex versions of irony post irony has two layers of irony dred calls this a return to irony because you start off sincere then dive into irony leading people to think that you stand for the opposite only to return back to the original point which was what you were actually sincere about i'll show a clip from the video to give you a good example so here's an example of verbal post irony um i could say you're looking good right now but i mean it so like the the point of that is i genuinely think you look good but i said it sarcastically lastly meta irony has two layers as well except it's not clear whether the speaker is being ironic or sincere and thus you can't get to what the sincere point was supposed to be almost as if the speaker themself is confused on what they believe if you're lost right now so is i at first but don't worry i found this extremely sophisticated youtube comment to help you out sincerity i'm not a furry true statement no joke irony haha i'm a furry not a true statement which is the joke post irony haha i'm not a furry guy stop it true statement but with the appearance that i'm being ironic and i am a furry which is the joke meta irony guys i'm not a furry stop it's not like i have a fursuit or anything guys stop i'm not the truth of the statement is undeterminable because of how many layers there are and at this point no one can tell if i'm a furry or not which is the joke most takes i've heard about gen z humor's relationship with irony is that they are unique in their usage of both post irony and meta irony however i argue that post irony already emerged in millennial humor for example the spongebob meme many iconic vines what the [ __ ] is up kyle no what did you say what the [ __ ] dude set the [ __ ] up [Music] and while post irony is certainly loved by gen z the real distinguisher between them and older generations is meta irony and the way it makes self inseparable from the comedic product take skits and roleplay style videos for example they have become a lot more meta-ironic in the sense that it can be difficult to tell whether the creator is being sincere or ironic often times the only way to know is to understand the source of that humor the tick tocker noah miller posted this video [Music] now for me i knew from the get-go that this was post-ironic but if a user who had no idea what type of personality and humor noah tends to post about saw this tick tock it could be a struggle to decide whether this video is sincere or whether it's ironically mocking the sincere just based off of this one video it only becomes post-ironic once you know the type of person noah is this way you know that noah thinks this trend is cringe but he participates in it in the exact fashion that other sincere people do making you originally think that he is also sincere with the trend and that is the joke this is what's known as the schrodinger's meme concept at least that's what this youtube comment called it and i'm just going to trust them because i didn't find any alternative information about it on the internet so the schrodinger's meme concept is when the origin of the comedic product must be known in order for the audience to know whether the humor was ironic or not the irony then is not in the content itself per se but in its source as this youtube comment explains it is why if a boomer posts a minion meme it lacks irony because they sincerely thought it was hilarious but if a meme page dedicated to pre-ironic humor such as old meme archive on twitter posts the same minion meme then it has layers of irony and hence the younger generation finds it funny in fact it's not uncommon nowadays to find creators who make their entire accounts based off of a certain crafted persona rendering the schrodinger's meme concept irrelevant for instance the tick tocker 2006 underscore we underscore remote or martin embodies the roar xd potato era energy and he does it well a little too well oh god that thing is huge yeah how about no i'm noping the [ __ ] out of there none of his content comments or captions ever sway from this persona and while most people just assume he's being ironic because what are the chances that someone genuinely acts that way i'd say his content is quite meta-ironic unlike pov accounts that caption their videos with pov letting you know that this is just a comedic role play martin doesn't drop any hints that he is being ironic it's up for the audience to try and figure out and that's a big part of what makes his account humorous it's a lot more rare to find such meta-ironic personas amongst millennials scott fogel a senior strategist at the digital creative agency firstborn writes that while millennials are very comfortable with modern technology it is something that came to fruition during their lifetime and so they adapted to it whereas social media and smartphones already existed prior to gen z and so they grew up with it this is why gen c tend to have a quote intimate exhibitionism in a way that older generations simply don't have for zoomers their online presence is no longer separate from their self rather it's a part of who they are and how they define their identity so content can't be treated as though it exists in a vacuum anymore part of a comedic product's appeal now depends on where it originates from on the contrary it's rare for millennials to post anything online that would make them look strange they typically won't create a meta-ironic cringe persona because they don't want to risk people mistaking their ironic content for being sincere or vice versa but for gen z the idea of coming off as quirky and unusual is actually attractive i think this is why even though millennial humor can certainly be random and can certainly possess elements of absurdism gen z can take it to an extreme that i've never seen before obama where did you go there's no man whoa yankee with no they love putting things in two or three times speed bass boosting and warping audio cutting off videos randomly anything to make the content more absurd the snl skit dear sister is often credited with influencing the start of a more random millennial humor in the skit the characters just shoot each other at unexpected times and fall to the ground while the song what you say plays in the background tim and eric which is a show run by the two comedians tim and eric have also contributed to shaping absurdist humor however there's still a vague sense of a storyline in both dear sister and tim and eric skits for example in this car commercial video a lot of the dialogue doesn't make sense there are wacky transitions and unexpected cuts to both tim and eric but everything still happens in the given context of this car commercialness the fonts the colors the tone of their delivery all remain consistent it's the same with their it's spaghetti skit it is absurd no doubt but the randomness still occurs within the essence of a commercial prank show well what about eric andre who rose to popularity years before many gen z reached their tween slash teen age he frequently seems insane and has some of the most bizarre skits and sequences ever seen nothing no you can't i didn't get the job i didn't get the job in front loops yet everything still takes place on the same set with the same base characters and for his skits they follow a set concept even for his out of the blue shooting scenes there's usually a lead up that foreshadows its incoming especially if you've watched a lot of his episodes before you might have a feeling of when it's coming i feel as though the newest season of the eric andre show has actually upped its level of absurdity as if it's trying to match gen z's increasing liking for randomness because gen z have been so exposed to the online world all their life and content has been so accessible in this day and age the oversaturation of humorous content leads to a desire for the zany the more absurd and unexpected the better sometimes so absurd that it's dark people commonly think that nihilism is a big aspect of gen z humor's uniqueness oh you say we don't mind dying yeah you know with the state of today's economy the natural disasters this [ __ ] show that is the system might as well go out in a blaze of glory like you titan fighting idiots i'm heroes oh they're gen z and i agree to a certain extent gen z were not the first generation to make self-deprecating jokes and to laugh at existential crises or how meaningless life is millennials were with millennials growing up in the age of 9 11 the 2008 economic recession and realizing that gen x and boomers promises of an american dream were fading they had a lot to feel hopeless about hopeless that's the key word here i think a lot of nihilistic millennial humor radiates a defeated energy it sinks into the nihilism but nihilistic gen z humor still has a tinge of light-heartedness millennial jokes about misfortunes have a bitter edge but gen z joke about their misfortunes as if it is any typical conversation my mental health was like not okay like both my parents abandoned me last night like i'm fine i'm i'm kind of thriving i guess like i don't moreover the dark humor that millennials adopt usually are about themselves such as not being able to afford a house not being able to get a job losing their friends in adulthood but gen z is able to make a lot of dark jokes about egregious acts that harm a lot of other people there's multiple articles on how some are unsettled by gen z's ability to joke about things like school shootings and even turn it into a trend by using the sound sweet caroline on tiktok or how their overarching reaction to trump ordering for the killing of iran's major general was to make world war three memes i think there are two reasons for why gen z does this number one gen z stepped into a world where all of these horrible events such as 911 the 2008 economic recession yada yada yada have all already happened and they are constantly connected to new sources and other youth on a global scale submating in a never ending flow of doomsday messages it's overwhelming to read article after article declaring that the earth is going to perish in x amount of years and it is up to the youngest generation to save us all trying to find laughter in these situations then is a coping mechanism to deal with it all gen z has this unparalleled connectivity with each other thanks to the connectivity of the digital era this bond with one another allows them to make these really dark jokes yet simultaneously understand that none of them really mean any harm it's just sharing the anxiety and fear as kevin detmar puts it it now appears that 911 and the subsequent war on terror may have shaken irony out of the lazy cynicism into which it had settled and rather than rendering it obsolete has made ironic critique more urgent than ever the second reason is perhaps that gen z has not yet lost hope in creating a better world in general they are a politically active bunch quite interested in social change they live at protests they hand out petitions like it's the weekly newspaper a survey conducted by los angeles times and reality check insights after america's november presidential election found that gen z was collectively more confident that america could move forward from trump versus the older generations so the fact that they're making all these depressing jokes is one a sign that they acknowledge and are aware that these issues exist and two because they believe the current tragic state is not the end state tragedy and comedy both deal with conflict and hardships but what differentiates the two genres is how that conflict is resolved and i think that gen z has some faith in a peaceful resolution at least to some issue out there unsurprisingly meta irony can occasionally cause confusion among its audience for instance hannah kim posted this tick tock and it was supposed to be mocking a video that sienna may had made but a lot of people thought hannah was being sincere because they hadn't seen the original video it caused some tension in the comments section to say the least or take this video from the account rdj reacts let's make a sassy vodka i'm in a protein shake people had to defend the woman in the first clip and clarify that she was being ironic like hannah she was just mocking an original video now when it comes to silly sassy baca videos the potential confusion of meta irony is no big deal but consider this back in 2008 the artist barry blight published this infamous cartoon in the new yorker titled the politics of fear light created this cartoon in defense of obama to illustrate that quote the idea that the obamas are branded as unpatriotic let alone as terrorists in certain sectors is preposterous but a lot of people interpreted his cartoon as a racist and islamophobic attack ultimately the good intentions that blight had didn't play out the way he had planned because the audience could not tell whether he was being sincere or ironic and so they had to make that interpretation for themselves i wanted to quickly add that this goes back to the schrodinger's meme concept perhaps if i was good friends with barry blight i would have known that this cartoon was ironic satire but without sufficient knowledge about berry blight the source of the cartoon its level of irony cannot be confirmed i bring up this fiasco to raise a question should we as gen z be more careful about our use of meta-irony when it comes to nihilistic dark humor are certain topics deserving of clarity there's a well-known essay called the age of irony comes to an end which roger rosenblight wrote shortly after 9 11. he says one good thing could come from this horror it could spell the end of the age of irony the consequence of thinking that nothing is real apart from prancing around in an air of vain stupidity is that one will not know the difference between a joke and a menace it is clear now that the age of irony is here to stay and is stronger than ever but should we be imposing limits on ironic humor you let me know i'm part of gen z myself so please don't hate on me for lacking expertise in pre-genzi humor i tried my best but if i did make some mistake please let me know feel free to share any thoughts you have down in the comments like and subscribe if you want thank you so much for watching let's keep talking and i hope to hear from you soon bye

Channel: oliSUNvia

Views: 1,760,881

Keywords: meta irony, metaironic, meta-irony, postirony, post-irony, postironic, post ironic humor, post ironic memes, meta ironic memes, ironic memes, boomer memes, gen z memes, generation z humor, why is gen z humor so weird, absurd humor, absurd memes, dark humor, edgy humor

Id: a1LyTThf7V0

Length: 21min 0sec (1260 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021