When Luigi Mangione was arrested for shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk in December, Gen Z quickly turned the tragedy into memes across Instagram, X and TikTok. The online reaction — ranging from grief to celebration — sparked debates about the appropriateness of such dark humor.
“[Dark humor] can use language or things that have happened that you shouldn’t be joking about, but that’s what the jokes are sometimes,” said Garrett Balok, a general studies major from Utah Tech University.
For Gen Z, individuals born between 1997 and 2012, this type of dark humor serves a purpose beyond mere entertainment, often functioning as a coping mechanism for mental health challenges. According to Harmony Healthcare IT, 42% of Gen Z have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.
“For young people who’ve grown up from the recession in 2008 and 2009 to all the chaos that’s happened since then, it’s been a long time,” said Dannelle Larsen-Rife, professor of psychology at Utah Tech University. “They feel this helpless and hopeless [as they try] to grapple with these really big, big issues.”
There has been an emerging pattern of reflecting tragedy through humor amongst Gen Z. Mental health experts and sociologists say this is caused by an increasingly chaotic world, where younger people use a combination of dark humor and digital culture to face these unique challenges.
“Mental health problems are very high among Gen Zers right now, and perhaps, that is also being played out in the types of humor that they’re making,” said Bethany Gull, instructor of applied sociology at Utah Tech.
Incidents like the Luigi Mangione case or the Titan submarine implosion quickly became subjects of memes and jokes across digital platforms.
Social media platforms have played a significant role in how Gen Z processes serious social issues. Incidents like the Luigi Mangione case or the Titan submarine implosion quickly became subjects of memes and jokes across social media platforms.
As intense events take over the news cycle, from the 2024 election to the LA fires, Gen Z turns to humor using memes to both acknowledge and cope with them, according to a study by Abilene Christian University.
While the American Psychological Association reports Gen Z is more likely to report experiencing mental health conditions than previous generations, Gen Z is one of the first generations who have improved in expressing their emotions.
Joshua Henrie, a population health major at Utah Tech, said he’s leaned on dark humor as a coping mechanism.
“It’s something people use to get through hard things and mentally straining things,” Henrie said. “It might not always be appropriate or anything like that, but it’s how people get through things.”
This phenomenon isn’t exclusive to Gen Z. Weslie Janda, a general studies major at Utah Tech, noted experiencing similar humor with her parents, though she acknowledged it is “more common and severe” among her generation.
The increased usage of social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube over the last decade has allowed Gen Z to connect through shared humor in unprecedented ways. However, this connectivity also comes with unique challenges.
“We used to graduate from high school, get a job, get married, have a child and buy a home,” Gull said. “It doesn’t look the same way that it did 30, 40 years ago. I think some of this humor is just a reflection of how there are very few absolutes anymore.”
Even historical tragedies like 9/11 have become subjects of memes for Gen Z, which raises questions about when humor crosses boundaries of appropriateness, as discussed in an issue of “The Criterion.”
Some members of Gen Z view this humor negatively. Jimmy Thurston, an electrical engineer major at Utah Tech, said he finds it annoying and irritating.
“People do it because they want to test boundaries. They want to test limits. They want to see how badly or how much can [they] push this, [and] how much further can [they] go with this,” Thurston said.
John Jones, professor of psychology at Utah Tech, said it allows people the “opportunity to be irreverent.”
Janda pointed to internet anonymity as a factor enabling boundary-pushing humor without consequences.
“You can kind of just say whatever you want and it doesn’t have impacts on your real life, day-to-day situations,” Janda said. “So, you can make those kinds of jokes with no real repercussions.”
Jones added that online environments can encourage less empathetic behavior.
“It’s essentially easier to be cruel online,” Jones said. “And that could be one manifestation of online cruelty.”
Alyssa Bayles and Ives Hong reported and produced this story as English and psychology students at Utah Tech University.
