Why Gen Z is laughing through the global crisis with witty memes on social media

As missiles fly and geopolitics spirals, Gen Z has reached for an unlikely coping tool in the form of meme sharing.

Across social media, young users are responding to global conflict with a mix of anxiety and absurdist humour. Posts riffing on the idea of an impending war have flooded timelines: “I’m a bit overwhelmed guys, this is my first war. Like, what do I wear?” asked one. Another wondered: “Do we have to bring our own water bottles?” A third quipped: “Facebook is going to be lit in about a month when our parents realise what’s going on.”

At first glance, the jokes can look flippant — even callous — in the face of explosions, invasion footage and images of soldiers and first responders circulating online.

But psychologists say the humour tells a deeper story: a generation trying to cope with a relentless stream of frightening content, death and destruction.

According to counselling psychologist and digital behaviour expert Dylan Benyon, the memes are less about trivialising war and more about managing emotional overload.

He said young people were being exposed to intense material on their phones.

“They are seeing explosions, devastation, and scenes involving soldiers and emergency responders in real time. That level of exposure can be overwhelming,” he said.

For a generation that consumes news primarily through social media feeds rather than traditional news broadcasts, the experience is immediate and constant. This means war footage can appear between a dance video and a makeup tutorial.

Humour, Benyon says, can function as a psychological pressure valve of sorts.

“Making jokes is a way of deflating the intensity,” he says. “It helps people contain the experience. Instead of the fear expanding unchecked, humour gives it boundaries.”

So the memes were not so much intended to mock, attack or dismiss events, and more about emotional self-defence.

Psychologists have long recognised humour as a coping mechanism in times of crisis. Doctors, paramedics and soldiers themselves are said to rely on gallows humour in high-stress environments. Gen Z, raised online, has just taken it public and on a global scale.

Memes also serve another crucial function, according to Benyon, who noted that a person posting a joke about a frightening global situation is signalling to others that they’re feeling the tension. The humour becomes a way of expressing their anxiety and having it validated without having to articulate fear directly.

“In many cases it’s about reaching out,” Benyon said. “People are trying to find others who feel the same way.”

That sense of shared experience can be particularly important for younger users who may feel powerless in the face of global events they cannot control.

Humour also transforms fear into something manageable. Turning a looming threat into a punchline briefly reduces its emotional weight.

“It’s not that young people don’t care,” Benyon says. “It’s more of a case of them using humour to deflate the intensity, it’s a way of softening their fears rather than diminishing disaster.”

The volume of conflict imagery and the speed at which information sharing happens add more layers. Previous generations would encounter war through TV news bulletins, radio reports or newspaper headlines. Now young people with a phone can watch events unfold minute by minute through livestreams, clips and commentary.

This constant exposure can intensify feelings of anxiety and helplessness, with memes serving as a way to regain a small sense of control by turning a frightening reality into a joke.

“This isn’t about diminishing the seriousness of what’s happening,” Benyon said. “It’s about softening the emotional impact so people can cope with it.”

One widely shared meme summed it up as: “I don’t know what’s going on, but emotionally I’m bringing snacks.”