Coping Through Comedy: How Gen Z Turns Crisis Into Memes

As global chaos unfolds, young people are laughing their way through anxiety—and finding solidarity online.

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

By Rodolfo Gonzalez 

From a pandemic to the seemingly constant threat of global war, Gen Z has grown up surrounded by crisis, and they’ve learned to cope with it through memes. 

So when a TikTok user joked, “Wdym ww3 just started? I wanted a summer glow-up, not blowup," it wasn’t just humor, it was a coping mechanism. 

For Gen Z, social media is how they process the world. Growing up online, they turn to platforms such as TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram to view and react to news in real time.

The term "meme," originally coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book ‘The Selfish Gene,’ described how ideas spread, long before it meant a funny photo on Instagram. While the word was created almost 50 years ago, the birth of the internet has enabled memes to thrive today. 

The online platforms blur the lines between hard news and parody. 

“News outlets and meme pages are on the same platform... it’s two sides of the same coin,” says Carlos Soto-Angulo, an 18-year-old Christopher Columbus High School alum.

In the same feed, headlines emerge alongside memes, offering a more relatable and digestible take on current events, and in the face of immense global change, Gen Z reshapes headlines into viral jokes. 

“When we get drafted to WW3 and our squad leader is ChatGPTing our battle plan,” one TikTok user writes, layering humor over real fear. Another joke, “When I was trolling Iran on Instagram in their messages, and they replied.” 

The absurdity of these posts is the point. 

Experts say there is a psychological value with Gen Z’s approach. Reframing this generation's anxiety as something laughable, even if only for a few seconds. 

Psychologist Dr. Lori Mashcke explains, “I think the bite-sized, easy sort of morsel… it’s bittersweet—it’s funny and also reminds you, oh yeah, there’s this bad stuff happening. When you can laugh in the face of what is the worst thing… it provides a distance, a sense of control.” 

This style of dark humor is not new. The Onion, a satirical publication known for its absurd headlines, is a professional example of what Gen Z is doing today through memes. 

In an interview with John Hopkins University, Jocelyn Richard, an editor at The Onion, stated, “You’re exposing or criticizing something. You’re punching up, you’re ridiculing something, you’re exposing the truth behind power... You’re taking an issue and allowing people to access it through humor… peeling away all the layers of bureaucracy or conceit. And you’re exposing something that’s really important to people.” 

This type of coping isn't without controversy. While many turn to humor for relief, others warn that some jokes can cross the line. 

Dakota Montalvo, an 18-year-old graduate from South Dade Senior High School in Miami, says memes sometimes cross the line.

“That’s when it stops being funny and starts feeling wrong," she said.

Even within the tight-knit meme communities, there is an unspoken boundary: Jokes about fear are one thing, but making light of a real tragedy sparks debate. 

Yet despite this fine line, these trends aren't going anywhere. These jokes allow digital communities to mollify some of their fear and anxiety, and with these memes making current events so widely known, they can create entry points for deeper awareness. 

Gen Z is using humor not to remove stress from their lives, but to confront them on their own terms. And at a time when news is reported and seen instantly as it happens, satire becomes a way for Gen Z to pause, absorb, and keep going. 

As Carlos puts it, “It’s just how we process things now. If we didn’t laugh, we’d probably just panic.”