Why is Millennial Humor So Bizarre?

Memes are an integral part of the lives of college students. As strange as it is to admit that, it’s true. Most college students have undoubtedly seen a meme online that makes no sense whatsoever. Most know that the lack of sense makes memes all the more funny. The strangest thing is that if you show someone from an older generation one of our memes, there’s a good chance they won’t find it at all funny. Why is it that millennials and younger people all appreciate online jokes that make absolutely no sense?

I’m sure we all remember what memes were like ten years ago. Maybe even 15 years ago. Those memes made sense. It was a generic caption that everyone could relate to alongside a picture of the Trollface Guy or the Forever Alone Guy. We all know what they look like. Your parents have undoubtedly seen those kinds of memes. Then, there’s the kind of memes that your aunt posts on Facebook where a minion (made famous by the Despicable Me franchise) stands next to black text on a white background that reads, “If you could read my mind, you would run away screaming,” (complete with proper punctuation and grammar). But, those memes are no longer funny to us.

You could go in depth with an analysis of millennial humor, but it would take you hours and you would never get any answers you seek. That is exactly what makes millennial humor so unique. You would come to the conclusion that none of these jokes have any substantive meaning at all; they lack structure and sense. But that is precisely what makes them so relatable to us young folk. Millennials and even younger generations are living in a world today where nothing makes sense and everything seems structureless. We were told all of our lives that if we work hard, we would go to college and then grow up, have 2.5 kids, and work at our normal job until we retire. We were told that if we do our due diligence, everything would work out fine.

However, you and I both know that our society today isn’t as cut and dry as that. I, for example, was raised by two parents and lived with a younger sister. I was always at the top of my class throughout grade school. I played sports and had friends. My life was perfect. And yet, I can recognize that the government in America is corrupt, that our planet is going to be destroyed by global warming if something doesn’t change very soon, and that people in this world are treated unfairly despite how hard they work. Here I am in college now, and I still don’t know what I want to do with my life. And even if I did know what I wanted to do, who’s to say that I would be successful? I could try my hardest at everything I ever do, only to be destroyed by a seemingly unavoidable World War III that could come at any minute. Or I could die in a California forest fire. Or my city could become submerged in the ocean’s rising waters. Or I could end up out of a job when the economy crashes next time. Or I could be the target of an act of violence in a school shooting. The list goes on and on.

Existentialism and negativity aside, I’m sure that you, Reader, recognize that these are all possibilities for you too. All millennials seem to. Thus was born a type of humor that’s as chaotic and nonsensical as the world around us. And as there are new problems that seem to arise every other day, so too do the memes of today’s youth continue to change and cycle out. There seems to be a new batch of popular memes every month.

You may be familiar with an art style called Dadaism. For those of you that aren’t, Dadaism is a strange type of art style that emerged from the turmoil that Europe was in around the time of World War I, a sort of art that was viewed as anarchist and nonsensical. We seem to have entered a period of neo-Dadaism. Memes on the Internet are how a lot of young people express themselves, as was the artistic style of Dadaism in the early 1900s. I mean, why create an oil painting on a large canvas, something that takes time and effort, when I could instead create and post a meme on Twitter where the cartoon character Arthur is clenching his fist or where a small green frog is riding a unicycle? Why should I write a 500 page book expressing my feelings if I could just write, “do you know de wae?” and everyone would still laugh?

With today’s technology, communicating is easier than ever. Information travels at speeds never before imagined. I can post something online and have it be seen by someone across the globe two seconds later. Nobody takes time to express themselves the old fashioned way anymore. I’m not bashing the Internet, of course, nor am I criticizing my generation’s way of communicating with each other; I love memes, and I’m sure you do too. Be honest: when was the last time that you picked up a book to read for fun? Or the last time you went to look at the exhibits at an art museum? I’m sure it’s been a while. For many of us, we just don’t have the time to do those things anymore. We’re too busy thinking about our future (or lack thereof). But you know what we do have time for? Looking at a meme.

In short, the millennial sense of humor is derived from a lack of trust in the world. We view the world as cruel and almost surreal, and our humor reflects that. We make jokes that are confusing and exclusive to outsiders that have never seen or heard them. But a big theme that reveals itself with the creation and analysis of more and more millennial humor is the palpable darkness and tangible nihilism. We portray our views of the world with humor that reflects it: surreal and ever-changing and existential. It’s a way of coping with the darkness of the world. It’s easier for us to laugh at the Breakdancing Hot Dog Snapchat filter and the entire script of The Bee Movie than it is for us to face the problems of the world around us. And, in a sense, we’ve gone numb to the darkness of the world. Bad thing after bad thing after bad thing dulls our ability to care about bad things. The only way to catch someone’s attention now is to show them something new that they haven’t seen before, which is why all of our memes are strange and outlandish. Many memes are ironic twists on other memes, which add a thick level of surrealism. For millennials now, the fact that we can give meaning to anything and everything provides us hope that our futures aren’t pointless. If we can give meaning to the words, “Burger King Foot Lettuce,” or “Hey Beter,” maybe there’s a possibility that we can restore meaning to our lives.