“Slow down, Satan.” “Why flirt when there’s life alert?” “It’s free real estate.”

To Gen-Z people reading this, you are very likely to have heard and seen these multiple times, and happen to find them downright hysterical. However, everyone else is most likely going to need some explanation.

What Are Memes?

First, we should answer a very important question. Just what are memes? Of course the majority have seen them, we just need more of a dictionary definition. According to Google, the word “meme” was coined in a book “The Selfish Gene,” written by Richard Dawkins in order to try describe how cultural information is spread. Memes can be videos, pictures, or sayings. In some cases, teens consider people and/or characters to be memes. The term “dank” refers to exceptionally odd or unique memes. Cursed images are another form of meme, similar to dank memes, but seem to make even less sense (If at all possible). They are random nonsensical images that have no deep meaning or explanation. Some popular examples of each meme type are: Shrek, The past tense of sleep is SLOOP (accompanied by a picture of badly photoshopped waluigi), Welcome to physics (a vine), and a picture of an injection needle filled with hot sauce.

Memes vs. Adult Humor

Now that we have a deeper understanding of what memes are, and what types there are, we can dive deep on differences between Gen-Z and Adult humor. It doesn’t make sense for people to still be laughing at the same knock-knock jokes forever, but who knew humor would change so drastically?

Freshman Erick Ascencio describes Gen-Z humor as “dark and meaningless” and says a lot of memes right now have to do with depression.

“They’re funny because they’re relatable. I do think teens now have more mental issues, and joking about it seems to be more enjoyable than crying about it, especially with other people,” Ascencio said.

If not that, the memes either seem to be extremely nonsensical or extremely complicated.

“We’ve become so numb,” said freshman Ayrianna Franklin. Far off the rails of earlier jokes that were popular. Mr Jackson, a coach and teacher at Frontier Middle, says he likes some newer memes.

“If they are in [good] taste,” Jackson said. But overall, he leans more toward adult humor. According to him, adult humor is “more clever.”

Memes are popular due to the fact that the internet and social media allows for us to spread information faster than ever before. More teens are spending more time on the internet, allowing for memes to become more popular.

¨We don’t have anymore interests, we use it to mask our true emotions. All comedy is derived from fear¨, says Ayrianna Franklin.

However, due to how fast they spread, they tend to die out very quickly.

“Only the really, really good ones are gonna stick around,” Ascencio said.

Some of the good old memes that are forever in our hearts will continue to be a huge part of our childhood.

“I really like the Kermit memes, they’re the best,” Ascencio said. Some new memes developing are tik toks and shaggy memes. But whatever new ones there are to come, one thing is for certain. We will not be letting go of our beloved vines anytime soon.

Memes seem to have seeped into every social media platform, internet site, and even into our daily lives. We all have our favorites, and even the dead ones stick around in the end. Even if in the very back of our minds.

“They connect us somehow, it’s like one huge inside joke,” Ascencio says. Who knows what kind of jokes will be arriving in the years to come, but you’d better be sure they won’t be the same old memes as today.