Youth use humour to cope with tough times

Washington

CLIMATE change, debt, mental health struggles and now the coronavirus: life is no laughing matter. But for under-30s, the best way to stay sane is often to wisecrack.

"We joke that we post because none of us can afford therapy," says Chuck Wentzell, 26, a member of Twitter group chats where gallows humour is the order of the day.

"Posting about it or making the jokes about it makes it feel somehow less real but also more manageable," the high school science teacher said.

The tone of the humour isn't to everyone's taste - some may find it a little on the nail, and not exactly laugh-out-loud funny.

But for younger social media users, a gag that others could find flippant is sometimes a howl of frustration over the powerlessness of a generation unable to jam on the brakes in a world heading for the cliff edge.

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These callow comics have been particularly prolific during the pandemic, which has infected over six million people, killing more than 370,000 and laying waste to the global economy.

"Guys will stand 5'8" from you and call it six feet," tweeted a woman in New York, taking a sideways look at social distancing - and men's tendency to exaggerate their physical attributes.

Another meme of uncertain provenance, but widely shared among millennials, displays the caption: "Looking at the map for some weekend travel ideas." The image underneath is not of some faraway tropical paradise, but a floor plan of a three-room apartment.

The jokes, says academic Peter McGraw, are largely the product of "psychological distancing" - a mental retreat that gives the keyboard comedian the perspective to see through life's ridiculousness.

For him, a joke "makes the moment more bearable, the bearable moment makes the joke more likely, and so on".

Ultimately, the weird memes and the inappropriate jokes are a way for younger people to express their frustration with the world at large.

By poking fun at problems, people achieve a sense of control, deflating their crisis into something less overwhelming.

"One of the things that is incredible about the human condition is our ability to find moments of levity, even in the worst situations," said McGraw.

"The fact that people are making jokes is a good sign, because it means that they're being connected." AFP