THIS NEEDS TO STOP…

Maybe The Real Ohio Are The Friends We Mewed Along The Way…

M. J. Kim

I MIGHT ACTUALLY LOSE IT. See, every night, I seem to knock four quick times on the door of unhappiness, and I think it’s finally taken its toll on me. Night after night, I scroll through reels, and every morning, I wake up to the overwhelming sense of dread that my brain has atrophied once again. I am a husk of what I used to be. Whenever I hear “skibidi” or, heavens forbid, “sigma”, my chest heaves with convulsive laughter, tears of joy streaming down my face like rivers of anguish. Every chuckle, guffaw, chortle, snigger, hoot and titter pierces through the veil of my sanity, a reminder of my own pitiful state.

There is no doubt that you’ve noticed it too. Children appear to be getting dumber, or at the very least, literacy and expression, and a sense of humour, appear to be declining rapidly with each successive generation. To see what I mean, I’ve compiled a list of modern vernacular. Try to understand even one modicum of what is being said (or try not to laugh if you’re like me!!!):

“W rizz skibidi toilet L sigma level 3 gyatt adin ross stream among us sussy grimace shake in ohio, this content is very educational Mr Beast fanum tax kai cenat max prestige griddy reddit funny story only at miller grove…”

Most people will see this and naturally point to YouTube shorts, Instagram Reels, or TikTok as the main perpetrators. Now, before you call me a “sussy imposter” and “fanum tax” my right to speech, there might be more to this “goofy ohio brainrot” than being a product of some global IQ shortage.

“I opened myself up to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself – so like a brother, really – I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again.”

– Albert Camus, The Stranger.

Why is there anything at all? Why do terrible things happen to good people? Why am I here, now? Albert Camus (SIGMA ALERT🚨🚨🚨), building upon the predecessors of thought that are nihilism and existentialism, recognised a paradox in the human condition. That is, human beings are hungry for meaning and purpose, but powerless to find it in a universe that is unpredictable and apathetic. By recognising the nonsensical nature of life on earth and surrendering to the harshness of existence, there exists a particular liberation that comes from continuing to live in spite of this. But I don’t write this to offer you my trite analysis of Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger from my studies in Year 12 English (thanks NESA). Surprisingly, this philosophy is making its profound relevance to the modern audience known in its comeback within the dumpster fire that is known as social media.

Nonsensical and dark humour has been around since the dawn of time, and art and fiction are known to tend towards surrealism during times of crisis. For example, Dadaism emerged after WW1, questioning the conventional premises and infrastructure of art at the time in order to create ‘absurd’ works that challenged societal norms and expectations. Similarly after WW2, through the Theatre of the Absurd, writers challenged structures of linear storytelling and sought to denounce the absurdity of the human condition. In 1976, Richard Dawkins coined the term ‘meme’, a unit of cultural transmission, or a self-replicating chunk of information. With the onset of the digital age, the exploration of the human condition has become more prominent through such memes, particularly as the first generation born with phones in their hands begins to emerge.

Growing up in the absurdity of a post-9/11 world, living through the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst also facing the seemingly insurmountable tsunami of issues that lay ahead of us, such as climate change or rising costs of living, Gen Z has taken to coping with their existential uncertainties through a new avenue. But the accessibility of smart technology coupled with social media has hit the world hard and fast. There’s something to be said about how the present is always the craziest, and most nonsensical period of history, particularly as problems become increasingly complex. As these changes impact primarily the youth, adaptations are necessary in response to this chaos. Without adequate education and research in place to help assimilate individuals into the digital world, the more confused, isolated and overwhelmed individuals have become, and the more they have taken to Internet culture as a means of processing the absurdity of life through humour and irony.

In its explanation of Gen Z humour, Insider cited the “grimace shake” trend that went viral last year. TikTok users filmed themselves drinking McDonald’s purple milkshake, before abruptly cutting to clips of the same individuals incapacitated on the ground in eerily empty locations. Like most trends nowadays, the non-sequitur is the punchline. Absurdist philosophy pervades modern humour, and the futility of trying to explain these ultimately meaningless jokes is what makes internet absurdism so funny. It’s quite fitting, then, that the “One must imagine Sisyphus happy” meme originates from an essay by absurdist writer Albert Camus. One must also consider whether we’ve gone too far, as our attempts to satirise a meaningless reality inevitably contributes to our perception of its absurdity.

Whilst I don’t think we’ll be analysing Instagram Reels in English any time soon, the fortuitous rise of absurdist philosophy in social media as a coping mechanism is certainly an interesting one, the value of which shouldn’t be overlooked. That being said, the next Year 7 I overhear saying anything remotely ‘absurd’ might just be the end of me…