Why is Gen Z Humor So Weird?

generation z humor what what is that why why people find this funny isn't gen z just a movie about some zombies oh oh stinky hi i'm mr sweet and today i'm going to be giving you a guide into generation z's humor but before we start talking about generation z we need to make sure that you don't confuse generation z with millennials you see generation z started in 1995 and has continued through today millennial humor was much more simple and could be represented by the easy to understand memes of ifunny such as the philosoraptor wherein a velociraptor scratching his chin would ponder such questions as if two lefties had an argument which one would be right or the collection of meme templates known as rage comics featuring such classics as me gusta and a troll face some would say it wasn't incredibly funny but you would breathe out of your nose slightly and that was enough for them so how is generation z's humor any different well to understand that you have to understand the background of generation z they were born into the age of iphones ipods ipads and instant connection to the internet at nearly all times this unprecedented accessibility coupled with a little bit too much free time is what led to the first influence of generation z's humor when you hear a joke from a friend it's funny that first time and then maybe it's funny one more time when you reference it however imagine a bunch of people you don't particularly care for come up and they all start telling the exact same joke yeah yeah that joke was funny the first 400 times you said it this is exactly how the internet works one person comes up with a meme and then about a billion other people repost it continuously with slight variations this overexposure of jokes is what leads to the concept of oversaturation which is a concept that members of gen z have to deal with on a near hourly basis being that this humor is consumed so rapidly its life cycle is greatly diminished leaving few month old trends to feel like they came out decades ago [Music] this phenomenon brought rise to another staple of generation z humor are you winning son oh pierre you want to come out here sure it's cool to like things when they're cool but it's much cooler to wait until it's completely left everyone's brain just for you to bring it back in and enjoy it ironically similar to the concept of movies that are so bad they're good oh hi mark oh my god i can't believe you committed suicide i cannot believe you committed suicide how could you have done this how could you have committed suicide you enjoy it because it is awful and making fun of it and pretending to enjoy it is in its own right entertaining and this can apply to jokes and memes and music even this is what allows outdated means to receive a second life under the guise of ironic enjoyment being only now that they're so unfunny and so unpopular that they can once again become funny sort of like recycling not good [Music] delicious [Music] and sometimes the fact that the joke doesn't make any sense is itself the punch line take for example the shie hao piao trend on tick tock [Music] in july of 2020 there was a tick tock trend wherein people would use the chorus of the song shie hao pyao as the punchline for their joke there wasn't inherently anything funny about the joke and even when you translate it back to english it didn't make the memes make sense but the fact that nobody really knew what it meant and that it was so ill-fitting as the punchline to a joke is what inherently made it funny it also helps that this is a song that most people admit to enjoying at least ironically this trend was later replaced by baka mittai a song from a game called yakuza 0 wherein your character goes to a karaoke bar and sings a deeply emotional japanese song [Music] no food three days oh crabby patties huh fightness under the sea cringe gen z is the generation of limitless options they were never forced to just listen to the radio they could pick from any song ever created and listen to it whenever they wanted and because so much variety exists uniqueness is highly valued on the flip side of that idea mainstream content is despised [Applause] once popular trends like dabbing the harlem shake and fortnite were all completely ruined by their mainstream use in media such as being featured on major news networks and being referenced by their parents so when a song or meme that they've seen before is used by say a company to promote a product it immediately becomes untouchable and at this point it's no longer cool to like it even ironically but now even in social circles if someone has seen a meme before it no longer has value you've had to seen it somehow at the point of conception and if you're late to the party you automatically suck so if trends like video games and celebrities and songs and even meme templates are hated just because they're mainstream how can any humor exist at all any joke or style that's been around is now considered completely invalid by gen z so they're forced to constantly adapt to a new idea of what is considered funny take a look at this picture this was for a brief time considered the embodiment of gen z humor but wow what is the significance of the statement me and the boys at 2am looking for beans what even is this image well this is considered funny for a few reasons for starters it takes a phrase used frequently me and the boys and then subverts the direction of the joke that you would as the reader suspect it adds an odd time to be doing anything 2am and an action looking for beans beans existed for a brief time as the universal funny word in the early 2000s the funny word was potato and so the use of the word in the food itself and images inherently added an air of randomness to catch the reader off guard in a vocal sense of humor the image itself being frightening adds a sense of edginess while the poor quality in fact it's completely unrelated to the caption and creates a sense of rebellion to the standards of modern humor which brings us to our next topic [Music] also has some of the highest mental health issues of any generation they're plagued with things like depression social anxiety and thanks to growing up with access to endless information existential dread so how does this relate to humor well these problems and fears are all directly influencing this generation's sense of comedy take for example the popular subreddit called to me irl for me irl nearly every post is about depression suicide loneliness or social anxiety and so even for the members of the generation not experiencing these problems their humor is equally influenced by it merely due to the exposure caused by the memes being in circulation however some would argue that the millennial generation started the trend of depressed humor but whether generation z adopted it or not jokes about mental illness are still incredibly present throughout gen z humor if not somewhat more subtle i'm currently back in my favorite place the porta potty that i was at last week [Music] you say peacock and no one bats an eye but you say poop [ __ ] and everyone loses their minds since this generation is between the ages of 25 and 0 most of the humor is meant for its own age group gen z has an inherent drive to be counter to the popular culture but while earlier generations might have gotten mohawks dyed their nails black dance publicly or worn skirts above the ankles generation z has to be much more covert about their rebellion being as they're constantly being shut down i matter get up meg you don't matter because gone are the days where a guy named chad would come up to you flick you in the chest and call you a dork now that everyone is on the internet all the time they have thousands of people constantly telling them what they should wear watch eat and that what they like is something they should be ashamed of do you deserve rights based off your favorite anime and if they aren't told directly others might be publicly shamed or embarrassed leaving the people of gen z to be more self-conscious hoping that they don't one day end up on a fail compilation twitter page or harassing subreddit how can you look like that and not be insecure this kid needs cancer to hit him and his whole family uh thank you for thinking of me and my family i love this recipe it would be fun to show people how to make it so that they can enjoy these cookies were not good nobody gonna mention how she's using a liquid measuring cup and not a dry ingredient cup i made them and they sucked here's an actually good recipe this constant fear of rejection has caused a generation to resort to introversion and thusly awkwardness and most of all they've had to resort to different ways of expressing themselves and fighting societal norms such as distorting the audio of the punchline which is funny because i said so no but actually this trend of low quality equals funny is incredibly popular purely for the reason of subverting comedic norms such as distorting audio so what have we learned if it's popular it's no longer funny if it was popular a long time ago it's funny again if you can get away with saying that it's ironically funny it's funny if the punch line doesn't inherently make any sense it's funny if something's considered incredibly unfunny it's funny but also remember that there's nothing that gen z likes more than changing and hating things so this video is likely to become obsolete within a couple of weeks but until then here's your guide to generation z's humor i hope you enjoyed it and as always don't stop party rocking or you might make me spill my beans all over the place comically large spoon my friends uh have a good one

Channel: Mister Sweet

Views: 1,783,980

Rating: 4.9208808 out of 5

Keywords: Gen A, Gen Z, Generation Z, Generation X, Gen X, Millenials, Boomers, Humor, Zoomer Humor, Zoomer Humour, Boomers vs Millenials, Boomers v Gen Z, Fortnite, Depression, Sad Boy Hours, Tik Tok, Cursed Images, garfield, jacksfilms, mister sweet, ironic humor, so bad its good, neil breen, red letter media, Video essay, cinematic lighting, i just wanna feel something, emplemon, E;R

Id: oVlspd9hxFA

Length: 10min 44sec (644 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 19 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/reader197382]

It's just "random = funny" like everyone had at some point.

I remember in elementary school laughing at "knock knock, who's there? INTERRUPTING COW... MOOOOOO!"

[u/ProofUniversity4319]

Seems to be mainly absurdist humor

[u/JoshicusBoss98]

Interesting

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[u/LemieuxFrancisJagr]

Memes in general are still a foreign language to me

[u/ClassicRockSocialist]

Aw this is helpful since I don't get a lot of their humor and I feel more like an old cat lady lol

[u/MayflowerKennelClub]

everyone: i'll never get it

people who watch 30 Rock: what's there to get?

[u/SweatingSerpent1]

Lol is that a Doki-Doki ost music near the end of the video?