Dark humour, desensitisation, and the Gen Z disconnect

These are the most interesting of times we are living in now. Where the most defining themes are pervasive ironies and paradoxes.

Interestingly again, the resolution of these conflicts presents perhaps the most powerful opportunity to industry leaders, influencers, writers, film makers, or even brands trying to forge a strong connect with their interest groups. Even if we can’t do much by way of actually resolving these simmering, beneath-the-surface socio-cultural tensions, we can surely derive a cathartic sense of appreciation of the swirling Human Signs around us.

This brings to mind a recent incident.

"Abey suna, wo mithai tenth floor se tapak gayee?" (Hey, did you hear that the sweetmeat dropped from the tenth floor?) said one of teens sitting at a table next to us in a café. And then, amidst guffaws another one of his peers added, "Arey wo third year wala gay tha na, he committed suicide." (Hey, that third year student was gay, he committed suicide.)

I cringed, yes, but more than that I was totally at a loss, at understanding this naïve brutality against humanity.

This isn’t an isolated incident. You can see it in the way the younger generation devours dark memes and insensitive jokes; it's everything in their everywhere.

Remember the YouTuber who recently got slammed by the Supreme Court for a crass joke about joining parents during sex? I wouldn’t be surprised though if many of youngsters thought it was cool.

Give the respect you expect to receive

I used to think the young gen was just being disrespectful. But perhaps that’s the last of the reasons.

Is it that they’ve grown up seeing so much messed-up stuff we adults produced? Violence on TV, online, all-around. Maybe they're desensitised and are using this dark humour as a way to cope and process all the chaos around them. Laughing at the absurd and the horrible is probably their way of dealing with the anxiety and anger they feel.

Or is it the anti-Disney effect? We had been putting on this perfect facade online, and maybe the young are rebelling against that. They want something real, something raw. They see all these curated, happy lives, and they're like, "Nah, that's not how it is." They're drawn to the darkness because it feels authentic ad unfiltered, the opposite of the sugar-coated world they see online.

Moreover, the algorithms we created don't help. They push the most shocking and disturbing stuff out, because that's what gets clicks. So, kids are constantly bombarded with this dark content, and it becomes their normal.

Growing in the new abnormal

The dust never settled during the last few decades of their growing up, did it? Financial meltdowns, wars, pandemics, more wars and more hate. 

Did that incessant onslaught on the tender years build-up a desensitisation to trauma, making them revel in the gore? Is that why they applaud the blood-bath in Ranveer Kapoor-headlined movie, Animal, that violent, raw movie; or blood-chant early Sunday morning at the new gladiatorial cage-of-death called UFC. 

These new set of powerful global leaders openly talk about conquering other countries, about using violence to get what they want, not apologising for anything. And the young see that, and maybe think, ‘That's just how the world is.’ Maybe they are just reflecting the ugliness they see around them.

Or is this whole ‘masculinity’, the scruffy beard thing; a pushback against the erstwhile pink-shirted metrosexual? Is the resurgence of the long-shunned patriarchy among the young an implosion of the ill-done gender-neutrality and its oft joked about nomenclatures?

The world, it is a-changing

Looking back, when they were kids and we handed them iPads and remotes to keep them busy while we ran our professional and social races; I used to think we were failing them. Maybe we did. And now we are judging the new gen changes with the old-world morals.

May be its just the world we brought them into. A world that's dark, chaotic, and even a little bit hopeless. And maybe, they're not the ones who are broken. The world they're living in is. 

If we see it that way, perhaps we will begin to frown lesser, and appreciate how a fair number of them, in spite of all the darkness cast into their fragile years, still are doing remarkably well. Being themselves, being responsible, being fair. Doing the new and the right things, they figured themselves.

- Ashish Mishra, CEO, Interbrand India and South Asia