Ep. 6 Why Memes Are SO Different Between Gen Z & Millennials

0:00 Hey everyone! It's Reese, and thank you so much for deciding to adventure with me today! On adventure with me, we look at creations and experiences in art, music, media, and even video games to explore exactly why we think the way we think question what we believe and learn something new. And what better way to explore popular media than with memes!

Have you ever wondered why younger people tend to perceive older people as "not funny" bland, boring... And younger people are perceived as really weird and absurd? For example older people literally tend to not understand a younger person's meme. Have you ever showed your parents a meme and they ask "who is that?" They need background. They're asking questions because they don't understand what's supposed to be funny! And this has a lot to do with the metamorphosis of ironic humor, needing to have an understanding of cringe culture, coupled with the understanding of how sincerity (or in gen z's case the lack of sincerity) works in the generational divide of comedy.

So let's get into this! Let's talk about our grandfather of memes Richard Dawkins. Contrary to what you might assume the concept of a meme or meme culture isn't super new. So Richard Dawkins who was a professor of public understanding at the oxford university in 1976 coined the term "meme" in his book the selfish gene. His full book is available for free and the link to the pdf is on Reesegrey.com.With the rest of the sources from this episode!

1:39 Richard Dawkins is a biologist who wanted to explore how culture transmitted between humans, like a gene! He stated that we need a name for a noun that conveys the idea of a cultural unit transmitting--- or a unit of imitation. So mimeme comes from the greek root, but dawkins change the spelling from m-i-m-e-m-e to just m-e-m-e he denoted that m-e-m-e should be pronounced to rhyme with cream. Which is hilarious. Because i along with a lot of other millennial when we first found memes on the internet at about like 14 or 15 years old.... I and everyone else pronounce them as may mays :(. So originally, Dawkins defined memes to include songs, slang, fashion trends, and style--- and overall behaviors. Religious ideas etc. And the popularity of a meme is what ensured its survival! So memes exist as a cultural survival of the fittest. So cultural darwinism. Cultural competition, where only the strongest most prosperous memes live. Internet meme extends his original conception of the meme. Dawkins says quote "internet memes are altered deliberately by human creativity". So when you think about that, think this metamorphosis of memes coming from boomer humor on facebook uh using pictures of minions that complain about their wife, you know? Wife is bad. Facebook posts. To absurd deep fried memes from gen z where there's a blurry image of a cat with impact font stating "soup time" It can be a cultural testament to the socio-political environment of each generation.

3:29 anyone who has a sort of online presence, ever. No matter their age... is aware of this deep need to feel like they're genuinely expressing themselves coupled by a fear of sincerity. And each generation handles this reality differently. So now, memes aren't just a piece of art in themselves transmitted from one mind to the other the same exact way like passing around a picture passing around a polaroid passing around a magazine... but they're a dynamic individual and collective expressions. People change the text on memes to mean something different towards their situation to express something unique or other similar life events of a particular age group. It's a way of self-expression! So comedy can be expressed through each different generation differently. So, for example millennials are faced with the harsh reality of being pressured to get degrees that they didn't necessarily need, training for jobs that didn't exist, they're in a world where housing prices are exorbitant... it's impossible to buy a home. And they don't feel like adults but they have to be adults... and they're trying really hard but they're getting nowhere.

4:43 the comedy reflects the feelings of hopelessness, with tinges of bitterness... toward quote "adulting" and a sarcasm of adult duties. Knowing that there's not much of a possible way to do anything, so they sarcastically celebrate filling out excel spreadsheets, and having a glass of wine after a corporate job, and celebrate a regression to more childlike fond memories such as disney merch, harry potter, or being able to afford an expensive coffee from starbucks... because, why not we can't afford a house anyway.

5:17 So transitioning to gen z humor who are born into a world that i hear described as a world on fire and they weren't tricked into having hope to begin with like millennials were there kind of wasn't any hope to begin with and that's kind of a trope that you hear generation after generation so boomers told gen x that if you work really hard anything is possible and the world doesn't always deliver that way the premise of each generation growing up into adulthood and adulthood being hard is widely similar from generation to generation every generation experiences that but the coping mechanism is expressed differently through comedy

But why did comedy get weird why has comedy come to have layers so first let's talk about the use of layered irony used in comedies most popular with memes we have verbal irony or sarcasm so we have a irony comedy chart the following graph if you're watching on youtube was popularized and explained uh by j reg's video that is linked in the source notes so we're going to go through it now.

6:30 So there's zero one or two layers of irony used in comedy layer zero would be sincerity. Where the speaker just means what they say there's no irony there. So a sincere statement would be "i love it when you hang out with me." And then sarcasm this first layer of irony would be speaker says one thing but means the opposite. "I love it when you hang out with me. Sarcasm. I mean, it's not the best sentence... i'm-- yeah it's not super funny but it's a sarcastic sentence. Two layers of irony would be a post irony, so the speaker says something sarcastically but returns to sincerity. This has a lot to do with context. So, "I love it when you hang out with me." So, you have a friend and they drop water on you, but they're known for being clumsy, and so you just say "I love hanging out with you." "I love it when you hang out with me. lLke you you know that they know that you mean it in jest. So it's fine.

7:33 Then we have this type of meta irony which is also two layers of irony where the speaker says something sarcastically and then returns to sincerity--- maybe. So, "I love it when you hang out with me." But nobody knows what the intention is. Nobody knows. Nobody knows the speaker--- what the speaker's intention is. Nobody knows how they're supposed to take it. It's just a statement that exists on its own, that's supposed to be funny---that makes no sense. So everyone's just like oh okay.

8:09 o on its own meta irony is confusing. And the comedy can get lost. So as someone born in 94, i wanted to understand this new level of absurdity that i didn't grow up with. Because i grew up with comedy that was quote "edgy" or "nihilistic". Hopeless, with pockets of randomness here and there. nd i wondered where the meaning was coming from, when my little brother would show me memes i felt like i was missing a joke. There were surreal memes deep fried memes i just i didn't get it. And i thought i was missing something. But the point is is that it it's not supposed to make sense. So why is this type of comedy something that is newly popularized in comedy with younger people? Why is it funny and comfortable to be confused?

8:57 So gen z are the first generation to be born with social media. Social media for gen z means a categorical documentation of of their entire lives. Which didn't exist before. lder generations had the privilege of finding themselves and establishing an identity before proclaiming it to the world whereas gen z wasn't born with that inherent option. So, this complex webbing of irony allows younger people to morph and change while they're under observation. If nobody knows if you're being sincere, you're safe. But this type of comedy still allows you to push boundaries in a social climate that is intensively scrutinizing your every move. As we all know, public opinion weighs heavily and cancel culture. So if you're never sincere and nothing you say ever as meaning or make sense... it allows you to participate in the social culture of needing to perform on social media, needing to perform everything online. But it gives you a safety net.

9:59 So i think the thing that has changed the most between millennial and gen z humor has to be the concept of cringe and also political correctness. So most notably, millennials and gen z handle concepts of cringe and political correctness very differently. So for millennials there was this extreme fear of being cringe... Because the internet was new so we took that time to laugh at people who were cringy or weird or people who stood out too much. But for gen z i've noticed i've noticed that there's an embracing of cringe and sincere ironic enjoyment is a big part of the way of life. It's argued that gen z doesn't bully each other nearly as much as millennials did actually. I'll link an article below that asserts that these unique experiences influenced by social justice movements and social media actually encouraged younger people to want to understand things that they don't already understand and try and take the perspective of others. So it's actually a generational trend to be more open-minded which leads them to be nicer which changes their comedy right?

11:15 So younger people tend to cope by just making fun of themselves instead of others. And they tend to gas up people who are unique where millennial culture once constantly made fun of cringy behavior, now gen z admits that we are all cringe and it should even be celebrated. But this also slips into this meta irony sometimes uh where we loop around to being quirky and chaotic and different like if you're trying to be too quirky and different you're called out on it.... For example, the you're being such an emily meme i'll insert a clip here.

[TikTok Audio Plays] "oh my god emily you're such a crackhead! emily is legit so pretty! Oh my god, guys, look how pretty emily is!!! Emily it's a video--- not a picture. Running with my eyes closed challenge! Emily look out!!! Are you guys recording for the private story??? Yes! Guys watch this we can't take her anywhere!

12:25 So even for gen z being weird for the sake of being weird... is weird. But being kind of weird and lame on its own, is now accepted. For example, the phrase "i am cringe but i am free". And i've heard people also express that they unironically enjoy cringy fan fictions and find them enjoyable because--- although, you know, some creations in art and memes aren't the best--- and can make people cringe, because of the quality, and low production quality--- it's not the best. But they see an admirable amount of dedication that someone puts into something that they like. And instead of laughing at somebody we laugh along with them... because it's endearing! And they end up enjoying that so for example people unironically liking the minecraft american boy remix.

[Minecraft American Boy Remix Plays] "okay guys this is just a disclaimer you can't hear pretty much any of the words"

13:46 So even memes themselves like kind of hit it right on the head. Like there's this literal meme this literal quote "in order to achieve happiness you must kill the part of yourself that cringes not the part that is cringe". So it's just a funny silly way just to point out to not take yourself so seriously, right?

14:08 And then we veer more into the political correctness and how comedy has changed. Because gen z on average is more tolerant than the former millennial counterparts. And again i'm not using this to generalize, these are our literal studies on like empathy and stuff. And how the culture has changed. So that's just something to be talked about like of course you could have been different. And more tolerant if you're a millennial and there are gen z's who are less tolerant as gen z, i'm not trying to generalize, i'm just trying to denote a cultural shift.

14:45So, for example, there are jokes between zoomers and millennials that are kind of similar. So we have gen z jokes about "kissing the homies good night". It's a it's a good example with just one sentence it can either be: sincere, ironic, post ironic, meta ironic, all the same time! In the same sentence, with no additional words. Compared to what millennials used to say "no homo". These jokes in early 2000s. "No homo" implies that you want to do it--- without being gay--- but it was still homophobic... because it still implied that you didn't want to be gay. Often implying that it would be weird if you were actually gay. But with gen z "kissing the homies goodnight", you don't have to know which one they mean... if they're actually gay, or if you know, they're just friends. You don't need to know what it actually means because it doesn't really matter if you're gay or not... because both are fine. The lack of sincerity isn't a big issue anyway. Because the joke itself wasn't actually mean-spirited. So if we read between the lines the jokes are different but the statements themselves seem the same, but the culture that surrounds that phrase is very different.

16:00 So, who knows where it'll really go from there. Maybe looping back around to this extreme sincerity that we see maybe from like nathan for you?

Nathan 4 U Soundbite: This is nathan for you. From the outside, this building may look boring, but there's actually something pretty cool inside burns logistics. The plan? Ship smoke detectors tax-free by rebranding them as musical instruments. All right the l.a based rock band the "bonsai predicament" protesting the petroleum giant shell today by giving away a tanker full of gasoline.

16:38 Where he's being completely sincere, and people are used to hiding behind comedy... So this extreme sincerity that is uncomfortable. But so relatable. That's why it's so funny! Let me know if you're watching on youtube in the comments where you guys think comedy will go next.

16:57 We all know that humor is a really personal, and subjective thing. So we shouldn't necessarily divide us. In dividing up memes and humor with a generational divide... as we know led to a literal vilification of different age groups. For example, the ridiculous gen z versus millennial war thing. hich the majority of people didn't care about. But a very weird loud minority of people engaged in. So if you're not familiar with that it was a time where on tiktok where gen z (a very minority group of gen z) made fun of millennials for being kind of lame. Used to mock uh you know outdated unfashionable aesthetics typically associated with millennials. Because, we're kind of lame. he live laugh love sign, wearing out of fashion style trends---like starbucks labels, fedoras, anything with a brand label on it...like hollister or abercrombie shirts. Things like harry potter, coffee, using the word "doggo" and describing adulthood as "adulting".

18:05 This happened mostly in the us and canada if you have no idea what i'm talking about... because i know from my analytics this podcast is viewed mostly from asia... so... hey guys! So as we know, sweeping generalizations for any group largely dismisses and misrepresents groups. So when i group humor in terms of age group or generations... it's not to say that other generations aren't capable of understanding another generation's humor or that one is better than the other. ut because of similar age groups and shared experiences there are general patterns of humor from generation to generation.

18:44 So not all elements of these generational wars are manufactured. Some go beyond cultural divides into real social and economic disparity. Millennials and gen z together they're financially worse off than their boomer counterparts. That's just a fact. The price of education the price of housing it's so high. And it's so much harder than the older generation yet there's the stereotype that young people waste their money on expensive coffee. We all know the avocado toast memes and that resonates a lot with older age groups because they feel like younger people don't want to work hard. What this comes to show us is that the coverage of the gen z and millennial battlefield achieves to distract us from working together. Sometimes generational wars and conversations distract us from caring about each other. And it sounds kind of corny but you know what... you know what.... people are mean. Super mean to each other on the internet all the time. So i'm just going to try and be genuinely super loving okay? Even though it's kind of lame. But i'll say, i can only speak for myself... that i love i-- i --love gen z like all my little cousins, and my little brother and stuff. And a lot of the people who like follow me on twitch, you guys are really kind, and you you care about the world.

20:20 A lot of gen x ,and boomers understand that the world is different and in some ways harder economically for those trying to stick their roots down somewhere. And as someone who works like in the professional world, like in a hospital. There's a lot of compassion and understanding from older people, more than there is people just believing that young people don't work hard. And if you're watching this video, or you're listening to this podcast, and you made it to this point... you're definitely in that group of people who just want to understand some of the things that you don't understand. To find out why things are funny, and maybe now you can jump in on the jokes from other generations because you get them a little more! There's a lot of joy in trying to understand what different generational humor can bring.

21:07 So thank you for adventuring with me today! And i hope this encouraged your curiosity to learn what you don't understand, instead of just not understanding it. And of course if you're watching this on youtube... let me know what i missed! Because this is a little bit shorter than some of my other videos. And it was very subjective, it talked a lot about my own experience and how i experienced comedy from my lens. So i'm sure there's a lot i missed and i would love to hear what you think about this! Even if you're from a different country and you experience this kind of generational divide in comedy differently. I would love love love to hear it. I would love to hear your stories in the comments.

Also before you go! Wait! Hold on! Make sure you like and subscribe so you can keep adventuring with me! And we can keep the conversation going if you would like to on mental health mondays! So, mental health mondays will be a segment of the show where we talk about any questions that you have about love, life, for a prior video essay on reese grey analyzes. You can submit your questions anonymously on reesegrey.com r-e-e-s-e-g-r-e-y dot com or if you would like to be notified if your question is chosen for a future episode leave your email or another social handle in the submission box! And we will let you know. Also, anonymously... we're not going to like just to throw your social media handle out there saying that you asked this question. Always anonymous, always with genuine enthusiasm, i'm here. hank you guys so much for joining me today and...

okay love you bye