“You’re so Funny! Thanks, this Traumatic Event Happened to Me” | Why Dark Humour is Rising Among Gen Z

Dark humour is a comedy genre that makes fun of serious, traumatic events or taboos. While some people find dark humour offensive, there has been an increase in users sharing content about their traumatic experiences in humorous ways. Whilst #traumatok has over 646.4k posts on TikTok, #trauma has over 7.4 million posts on Instagram. Similarly, #darkhumour has over 1.3 million posts on TikTok. The rise of dark humour can also be seen in social media trends, for example, pictures with the caption “You’re so funny! Thanks, (insert traumatic event that happened to the creator with a 5 Seconds of Summer song playing in the background)”. Another example was when users captioned photos “rating things person X did to me”, followed by a trail of traumatising experiences this person caused.

Is the rise of dark humour online related to growing mental health problems? Mental disorders have nearly doubled since 1990, affecting 1.2 billion people worldwide. This number is largely driven by anxiety and depression-related disorders. Is Gen Z experiencing more mental health problems than older generations? Mental disorders are increasing for various reasons, including the growing cost of living, financial instability, the impact of social media, and many more. Could these be related to the rise of dark humour in social media?

Psychology points to many reasons why users share their traumatic experiences online. These include the comfort that shared experiences bring and the support that online communities offer. Dark humour provides coping mechanisms for victims through frame shifting, conceptual blending and maintaining sanity during tough times. However, dark humour also doesn’t address these issues. While dark humour can be beneficial short-term, it doesn’t necessarily deal with or process the severity of situations. Many people turn to dark humour as a way to cope, and do not actually learn to deal with their emotions.

The Importance of Shared Experiences and Online Communities

Many creators detail their experiences with various traumas or illnesses online. Not only does this raise awareness of these issues, but users also create communities of people who have experienced similar events. This creates social support from online friends and feelings of connectedness, which is vital for promoting healthy development in young people. In a cross-sectional study from 2022, perceived social support on social media after sharing something difficult was associated with higher well-being. Similarly, a 2021 study found that videos whose creators were more attentive to the topic and showed greater emotional expression and sentiment received the most likes and comments. Social media creates supportive environments for users to share their traumatic experiences and relate to each other. In turn, this can help Gen Z open up about their traumas, reduce feelings of isolation and create positive experiences in speaking out.

Why do Users Turn to Dark Humour?

When do shared experiences turn into making fun of traumatic experiences? Why do some users find dark humour insensitive or believe it belittles serious issues, while some enjoy it? Different coping mechanisms may play a role in whether people appreciate or dislike dark humour. Memes use humour, relatability and visual-textual interactions to engage audiences in the digital world. Memes are popular for their ability to make people laugh or because they are relatable. With mental health problems on the rise, is it really surprising that memes about traumatic experiences have become popular, particularly when humour makes difficult subjects easier to approach?

Humour plays a critical role in mental health, with many studies showing that humour has positive effects on anxiety and coping. Through humour, people can frame shift. Frame shifting is reacting differently to the same situation depending on how it’s worded or framed. In traumatic situations, adding a humorous, sarcastic or a mocking aspect may alleviate feelings of sadness and allow the victim to view the event in a more positive or funny light. Seeing posts in shared communities putting a humorous twist on a traumatic event could help community members to view the event in a less stressful way.

Similarly, conceptual blending is often used. This is a series of cognitive operations for combining words, images or ideas into a mental network to create meaning. Seeing memes about traumatic events can help users to change the words or ideas they have about their traumas into something more humorous, and therefore make meaning of them as something funny or less serious than they previously thought it to be. Meme culture has undergone rapid transformations over the years, and recently may have helped alleviate feelings of isolation or anxiety for social media users who have traumatic experiences.

Lastly, dark humour may be used as an attempt to maintain a sense of psychological continuity after a traumatic event. Through making jokes, the victim may view the event as less serious and allow themselves to continue with their lives. In an online survey with US veterans, using dark humour was positively associated with their subjective well-being – the more a participant used dark humour, the more positively they rated their own well-being. On social media, some dark humour content might be made to try and stay in the same mental state and show the world that what they have been through is not that serious. In some cases, however, humour may become a way of avoiding deeper engagement with difficult emotions.

The Limits of Dark Humour as a Coping Mechanism and Why Young People May Choose It Over Mental Health Support

While dark humour can alleviate symptoms for a short period, it does not deal with the trauma. When online communities are created, online hate also increases. Victims can be targeted and the rise of hostile online communication has been a worldwide concern for more than a decade. In 2019, more than a third of young people in 30 countries reported having been cyberbullied. Online hostility has been associated with overconsumption of social media. Writing about traumatic events can make victims a target, and in turn may worsen their feelings of stress.

Similarly, dark humour isn’t for everyone since everyone has different coping mechanisms. For someone regularly consuming content that turns experiences similar to their own into jokes, this may increase feelings of anger or stress and even make them feel more isolated.

Lastly, dark humour does not necessarily address underlying problems, but may instead push them aside. To heal from trauma, it is important to seek help from a general practitioner or health care provider if your symptoms have a significant impact on your life after one month. However, there are many barriers to seeking help. According to the United Nations, the main barriers are under-resourced health systems, mental health stigma, poverty and violations of human rights. These barriers may help explain why some young people turn to dark humour and online communities as accessible ways of coping with difficult experiences, even though humour is not a substitute for professional mental health support.