While that has some truth to it, I wonder if it is based on some intrinsic properties of the respective generations, or rather just on their current age and stage in life.
E.g. GenX has been the dominant parent generation for the past 20 or so years. Naturally they are doing dad jokes.
While GenZ is young, experimental, and rebelling against the perceived conventions.
But I clearly remember a time when Millenials were as avant-garde as GenZ is now.
And my Millenial wife has been on the track to slowly convert to the slightly stupid but harmless GenX-type of humor for some time now.
So maybe within a few years your meme will be almost the same, with the only difference that the generation captions have each moved one place, with GenAlpha superseding GenZ in the lower right corner…
I do agree partially to your line of thinking. When I as a young millenial was the age of today’s young to middle gen Z (~late teens to early twenties) peak humor were ten hour long loops of Nyan Cat, Epic Sax Guy/Gandalf or Cantina Band with a side of Cheezburger Cat memes. Weird shit from a 30-something year old perspective.
My siblings and I are telling Dad Jokes to my niece at every opportunity and I can imagine those are your dominant form of humor when you have your own kids taking over your whole life.
However, there is another component to it, displayed by an oversimplified, slightly sarcastic analysis:
Boomer humor: I hate my wife.
Millenial humor: I hate my life.
GenZ humor: E
Of course, GenX is forgotten in this but from my experience, there is some credence to and a reason behind this.
Over time, relationships not lasting forever, divorces and marrying later in life has become more accepted socially, so elder folks might more often be stuck in unhappy relationship than younger people.
Meanwhile Boomers (and GenX) lived through Wirtschaftswunder, were less exposed to news and mostly had an overall more hopeful and positive expectations for life where Millennials grew up with the emergence of social media, more information available generally, being more exposed to crisis news and an increasing awareness about climate change and other threats to society.
This is not universal, there obviously was the Cold War and the looming nuclear destruction and this is mostly a western, often privileged white perspective, but still an influence on pop culture, memes, satire and humor.
Meanwhile Boomers (and GenX) lived through Wirtschaftswunder,
Assuming Gen X to be from 1960 to 1980, and that the post-war boom ends with the 1973 first oil crisis, I don’t really see how Xers would have lived through it.
Current stage in life setting the general tone/direction (edgy young, sense-searching youth, family-focused middle age, backwards-directed old).
And the time of upbringing determines the content to focus on and the specific type of execution (e.g. when reaching the “old” group some time soon, I will probably bitch about completely other things than current boomers and my memes will be more high-quality due to better skills, but I won’t be doing TikToks…)
While that has some truth to it, I wonder if it is based on some intrinsic properties of the respective generations, or rather just on their current age and stage in life.
E.g. GenX has been the dominant parent generation for the past 20 or so years. Naturally they are doing dad jokes.
While GenZ is young, experimental, and rebelling against the perceived conventions.
But I clearly remember a time when Millenials were as avant-garde as GenZ is now.
And my Millenial wife has been on the track to slowly convert to the slightly stupid but harmless GenX-type of humor for some time now.
So maybe within a few years your meme will be almost the same, with the only difference that the generation captions have each moved one place, with GenAlpha superseding GenZ in the lower right corner…
GenX also passed school without google so that works too.
Naa, we’ll be bitching about AI instead when it’s our turn! ;-)
I do agree partially to your line of thinking. When I as a young millenial was the age of today’s young to middle gen Z (~late teens to early twenties) peak humor were ten hour long loops of Nyan Cat, Epic Sax Guy/Gandalf or Cantina Band with a side of Cheezburger Cat memes. Weird shit from a 30-something year old perspective.
My siblings and I are telling Dad Jokes to my niece at every opportunity and I can imagine those are your dominant form of humor when you have your own kids taking over your whole life.
However, there is another component to it, displayed by an oversimplified, slightly sarcastic analysis:
Of course, GenX is forgotten in this but from my experience, there is some credence to and a reason behind this.
Over time, relationships not lasting forever, divorces and marrying later in life has become more accepted socially, so elder folks might more often be stuck in unhappy relationship than younger people.
Meanwhile Boomers (and GenX) lived through Wirtschaftswunder, were less exposed to news and mostly had an overall more hopeful and positive expectations for life where Millennials grew up with the emergence of social media, more information available generally, being more exposed to crisis news and an increasing awareness about climate change and other threats to society.
This is not universal, there obviously was the Cold War and the looming nuclear destruction and this is mostly a western, often privileged white perspective, but still an influence on pop culture, memes, satire and humor.
Assuming Gen X to be from 1960 to 1980, and that the post-war boom ends with the 1973 first oil crisis, I don’t really see how Xers would have lived through it.
Their first years fell into relative wealth due to an economic boom in the 50s and 60s.
I guess it is a superposition of both.
Current stage in life setting the general tone/direction (edgy young, sense-searching youth, family-focused middle age, backwards-directed old).
And the time of upbringing determines the content to focus on and the specific type of execution (e.g. when reaching the “old” group some time soon, I will probably bitch about completely other things than current boomers and my memes will be more high-quality due to better skills, but I won’t be doing TikToks…)
I’m millennial and I love both Gen X and Z humour. Millennial humour just makes me depressed. Boomer humour makes me uncomfortable