9/11 Used to Be Off Limits. Now Gen Z Has Turned It Into a Meme

9/11 was never off limits. "The World Trade Center is an insatiable bottom", the most legendary post on this board, was posted while the towers were still burning! I was here!

Very true R1 but the difference is that at the time of the attacks the gallows humour was used as a coping mechanism to an unspeakable horror.

" The sky was so blue that day."

Just tell Gen Z these memes are triggering. Problem solved.

And not a moment too soon. So tired of earnest essays here about how that day impacted them. It's like gurl, it's been two decades, move the fuck on. This year seems like the first time we didn't get at least three unironic threads about t.

“American Airlines—first through the Towers.”

I disagree, R5. That was the day everything changed. Gen Z doesn't get it because they were born after the changes took place.

All humans delude themselves into thinking they live in the most important time in "history". It's the same old shit.

I have a friend whose Gen Z stepson believes a bunch of 9/11 conspiracy theories.

9/11 crossed the 22.3 year rule threshold last December

It is okay to laugh now

Boomers discover irreverence for the first time again.

Well won’t they be splitting their sides when they learn that NYC was beset with multiple anthrax mailings and a plane crash in the Rockaways while downtown was still a smoldering pit, and not long after there was a complete citywide blackout.

This is clearly a whitewash of the terrorist attack to benefit a certain religion.

Yesterday's heart breaking tragedy is today's punchline.

The documentary Too Soon:Comedy After 9/11 did a good take on 9/11 related jokes and humor

It will never be funny.

I remember hearing lots of tasteless jokes immediately after 9/11, we just didn't have Twitter back then.

"American Airlines - See New York Up Close!"

"American Airlines - Fly From The Bronx To Battery Park In Ten Seconds!"

R7 I wasn't around during WW2 but I don't joke about nazis.

[quote]I wasn't around during WW2 but I don't joke about nazis.

There's nothing wrong with joking about Nazis, you putz.

On Halloween, 2001 one of my friends up like a guy running away from the building collapse by carrying a briefcase, wearing a suit and tie with papers stapled to it and covering himself head to toe in talcum powder. Nobody was visibly offended and it honestly surprised me. Shit was still solemn as hell back then

R15 my sides!

Other than in New York, 9/11 has lost its relevance and concern. It's merely a day that's on the news every year.

Thousands of people trapped in a burning building, their last moments an unimaginable horror, some so desperate to survive they jumped to their death. Countless widows, widowers and orphans.

Hysterical.

Can we turn that Palestine situation into a meme ?

The Gen Z progressives would probably throw fits if Palestine was made fun of.

OP time to move on Paw-Paw

The Gen Z conservatives would probably throw fits if Israel was made fun off

The spell broke when I saw a clip of a billboard for Glitter by Mariah Carey which then panned up to the to the burning towers. On Twitter, someone played We Belong Together over it.

"Aside from that Mrs Lincoln how'd ya like the play?

OP pissing her britches in 1969

Thank you, R22.

Nothing funnier than schoolchildren being mowed down by an AK-47!

It's gallows humor and has always been around. There will be tasteless jokes about it...just like there were tasteless jokes about WW II. And Nazis have been prime for ridicule and satire..."The Producers" and "'Allo, 'Allo!" are two such. Today, however, I'm not sure we'll see a caricature of an Arab terrorist like we had for the Gestapo in Herr Otto Flick.

And of course we've arrived at a point where a new generation has been born and grew up after 9/11.

As for the commemoration of 9/11, it's been trivialized beyond measure...politicized too.

r31 - There's gallows humor and there's ignorance and cruelty.

Gallows humor is for people who experienced the tragedy. People who didn’t, just make memes.

More FDNY members have died from World Trade Center illnesses than killed on 9/11

Twenty-three years after Sept. 11, 2001, illnesses linked to the World Trade Center terrorist attack have now killed more members of the New York City Fire Department than were killed on 9/11 itself.

On the day the Twin Towers fell, 343 members of the FDNY were killed, according to officials.

In the 23 years since, more than 360 FDNY members have died of World Trade Center-related illnesses, the department said. Twenty-eight of those FDNY deaths were over the last year, according to the FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association.

To that generation, laughing at the horrific death of over three thousand people is okay, but the humor of the TV show Friends is “problematic”. Dressing as a Mexican bandito for fun will get you cancelled.

The generation may be the worst one the country has ever had.

It’s hilarious because of everything so obvious and predictable that happened afterward. The ultimate eyeroll of everything America in one event.

Bravo, R35. Generation Garbage. Useless narcissists addicted to attention with no code or core beyond what TikTok tells them to think.

As unfortunate as this story is, it provides excellent leverage the next time they’re “triggered” by something innocuous to demonstrate what phony posers they actually are.

[quote] It’s hilarious because

Because it isn’t. Three thousand people vaporized while screaming is not fucking funny.

Contrarian assholes like you think they’re so sophisticated and above it all when in reality you just sound like a heartless piece of shit. Because you are.

Arguing on the internet is fun because it feeds our childish desire for some kind of objective truth in the world, perhaps some kind of God to come down and punish people who think or do things differently than us

Have they started memeing the Holocaust yet? Because if not, what a great minefield of material there!

She’s in the attic, R40.

[quote]On Halloween, 2001 one of my friends up like a guy running away from the building collapse by carrying a briefcase, wearing a suit and tie with papers stapled to it and covering himself head to toe in talcum powder

Is he dead yet?

"Y2K" stuff is real popular now on the shopping sites.

Does no one remember Let’s Roll Cinnamon Roll?

[quote]“I had this moment of realization within myself that this should be having an impact on me and it weirdly isn’t,”

Are these people brain dead or just that narcissistic that if something doesn't direclty involve them, they are unable to comprehend.

Other than the obvious that she's clearly too stupid to realize the enormous impact 9/11 had and continues to have on her - from the curtailment of civil liberties to absurd TSA regulations - it wouldn't necessarily have an "impact" on her daily life that someone so brain dead would recognize.

But, that doesn't mean she can't have basic respect for the people for whom it has deeply affected.

[quote]She’s in the attic, [R40].

[quote]—Yes they have

That's not a good example, r41. That isn't making light of the Holocaust or Anne Frank, it's a dig at the actress playing Anne Frank.

Anyone have examples of Gen Z's memes and light humor about 9/11. I am suspicious that they come up with ZILCH. Not funny, not satiric, not light. Just vulgar and ignorant. Prove me wrong.

Joan Rivers called a friend on 9/12 and asked if they wanted to have lunch at Windows on the Ground.

R32, you're right...there is ignorance and cruelty, but shouldn't we blame ourselves too. First, our government told us after 9/11 to go about our business ("Go shopping," as Bush said) as if nothing changed. But they were also saying the world had changed. It's schizophrenic. Then, we're at war for twenty years against a non-state entity in two countries, but less than 1% of the citizenry serves in the military. The 99% others largely ignore and forget the wars. We should have required the government to be more responsible to us and perhaps Afghanistan and Iraq would not have become such complete failures.

This generation, too, has grown up with the reality of mass killings at schools year after year. Nothing changes...not one fucking thing from one mass shooting to the next since Columbine in 1998! Except perhaps first graders are among the victims.

And 50% of the country elected a nincompoop who regularly makes cruel, vulgar, and ignorant jokes about women, the disabled, and just anyone.

What do we expect from a generation when all around them is violence, apathy to it, and indifference to the plight of suffering?

Look, I remember hearing tasteless, ignorant and cruel jokes about the Holocaust, Helen Kellar, and Black people when I was a kid. They were wrong. It shouldn't be so surprising when these memes show up.

[quote] Have they started memeing the Holocaust yet? Because if not, what a great minefield of material there!

The Producers” was released in 1968, 23 years after the end of WW2.

Same distance that we’re now from 9/11

R38 thank you, I agree.

All of the gen z people who think the whole thing is a hilarious meme should listen to the 9-11 calls of people saying they can’t breathe and that people are jumping out the windows.

Most of the people that were murdered were parents of small children. Ask these “influencers” on tik tok and x how they would feel if they could get on YouTube and watch endless videos of their parents being slaughtered.

No one is surprised, r49. They're free to do it and we're free to have an opinion about it.

The Hindenburg and Titanic have been routinely used for jokes for decades. It was going to happen to 9/11 as well.

Get a sense of humor people.

Shortly after 9/11, Achmed and Abdul were terrified of what Muslim men had done to their adopted country and were aware of the new era of hate crimes and racism. They shaved their beards, changed into western clothes, and made a pact to meet in a year’s time, and see who had the most “American life.”

So a year goes by, and the two men meet at a bar, and they began to discuss the events of the past year. “I married a white woman, bought a Ram pick up truck, joined a softball team, and converted to Christianity… do you think you can be more American than that?” Abdul challenged.

“Fuck you, towelhead!” Achmed responded.

Springtime For Hitler isn't making fun of the Holocaust. It's about making fun of the "worst" idea for a musical. You could substitute 9/11 and I'd have no problem with it.

[quote]But when he used 9/11 as an example, and described to the class how hectic things seemed that day, she realized just how she felt — or rather, didn’t feel — about the attacks.

[quote]“Being terminally online is wild [because] someone mentioned 9/11 in my class today and I genuinely forgot that not everyone thinks it’s funny now,” she subsequently wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter), favorited more than 10,000 times.

They're laughing at the event itself.

[quote]The Hindenburg and Titanic have been routinely used for jokes for decades.

How are those comparable to terrorists purposefully and horrifically murdering almost 3,000 people, r53?

R53 imagine yourself in this situation

Did you hear about Hitler's microwave?

It seated 400.

R53 imagine this

[quote]Get a sense of humor people.

Your only post, r53? I was living in NYC when it happened. It wasn't funny then, it isn't funny now.

The Onion determined it was no longer “too soon” by 2013.

Do you think sinking in a steel coffin, and drowning in cold, COLD water was any better R56? Or burning alive on the Hindenburg?

Yes, you are right, both were accidents, and on a much smaller scale, but they are still horrible ways to go, and are now used as punchlines.

I'm not saying I find it funny one way or another, but I'm sure many people have chucked at some Titanic joke in their day, so unless you are calling out those memes, get over it.

Follow the money. Who's benefiting from this indecency? What's its origins? Social media and clicks for dollars?

[quote]I'm not saying I find it funny one way or another

Yes, r62, you did.

[quote]Get a sense of humor people

The dancing Israelis made my day

Are you on Reddit calling out Titanic jokes R64? Policing Twitter for Hindenburg memes?

It actually just occurred to me all the horrible Challenger jokes that I heard in my tween years.

You are right, they shouldn't be funny, but ... sometimes they are.

I'm more interested in the hypocrisy of people, like you, who give passes to some events but not others. If you had someone close to you die in 9/11, I totally get it. I'd call out people left and right too, but everyone on the Hindenburg, Titanic, and the Challenger had a parent. Most had spouses, siblings.

Don't pick and choose your outrage.

So I say again, get a sense of humor people.

Gen Z suffers meltdowns when they receive unexpected phone calls, I've heard. They probably find the Holocaust amusing, as well, because they equate Jews with "oppression of Palestine," and also were taught nothing about WWII. Instead, their entire history instruction focused on slavery and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Nothing of importance isn't tweeted or posted as a short on Instagram or TikTok. This is the result.

Are you outraged r66?

Too soon?

What does NASA stand for?

Need Another Seven Astronauts

R62 Yes, except that everyone who was on the Titanic or personally knew someone who was on the Titanic is dead. There's no one to offend. There are still millions of New Yorkers (and former New Yorkers, commuters, tourists, etc) who directly experienced that day that are still around, and that's not even counting the surviving tower victims or the family/loved ones of those that died, or the tens of thousands of traumatized/maimed/killed first responders and their mourners...

People have been saying "This is my 9/11" since October 2001. Only Gen Z would think they thought of this stuff first.

? No I am not R68. That is my point.

Humor is very subjective, and can be (and sometimes should be), inappropriate.

Many events in human history have been used for comedy (however horrible). You don't have to like it or find it funny (though others will), but going all in FRAU over it, is not going to go well on the long term. Everything gets made into a joke at some point. It is just the way it is.

[quote]Yes, except that everyone who was on the Titanic or personally knew someone who was on the Titanic is dead. There's no one to offend

So it is all about you and not the memory of the people who died.

This really kind of pissed me off.

"Fuck those people. They are all dead, as are their relatives who knew them. Their existence isn't as important because ... MEEEEEEEEEE".

An ... unpleasant (trying to be tactful) death (murder, drowning, burning alive) is not great no matter who the person is. It doesn't matter if they died in 9/11, the Hindenburg, or murders in Tulsa in 1921.

It sounds harsh but you being "close" to it, don't make the 9/11 deaths any more important (in the grand scheme of things - they are of course important to you) than any other.

Once you accept that any untimely death sucks (and it does), then you have to accept, because people are ... people, it will probably be a punchline for something at some point, and that you should just roll with it.

You don't have to like it, but at some point you have to let go.

My friend Tommy made us go to a gay bar in Philly the evening of 9/11. Tommy’s theory was that gay guys with ties to Wall Street or finance would be mourning and more vulnerable. He ended up getting a Goldman reject to go home with him that night.

My point? The gays were early to shitting on 9/11.

They probably believe the official story too. And yes, it was planes, not explosives, and it was al Qaeda, but there is more to it...

There was so much hooking up in NY in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. It was nuts.

Apocalyptic fear is the ultimate aphrodisiac

This thoroughly tasteless music video came out shortly after the 9/11 attacks and, at the time, I initially thought it was a parody.

It’s still cringeworthy, especially the part where the singer rubs the Black kid’s head.

I was Zooming with Barb Olson and Berry Berenson when they crashed.

Lol to that, but, you know. George blowing clouds on a Webcam is something I bet he has actually done.

I think the reason they clown 9/11 is because so many people get all MARY about it.

Especially flyover types who weren’t here and probably hate New York.

I was here, in midtown, and didn’t know for many hours whether my partner, who worked in the WTC, was alive. And even I find the sentimentality surrounding it to be preposterous.

Nah, they clown cause they are dumbasses.

Remember this terrible thing?

[quote]I think the reason they clown 9/11 is because so many people get all MARY about it.

[quote]Especially flyover types who weren’t here and probably hate New York.

THIS.

I agree that the snark is a reaction to the flyover sentimentality and "God Bless the USA" maudlin crap over 9/11.

As an above poster said, it was Americana at its eyerolling worst.

Grief Nazis never let go. Hilarious.

[quote]That was the day everything changed.

It will be remembered as a pivot point for sure, but if what we're living through right now ends badly and god help us (((shudder))) Shitler wins, the real day everything changed will be recognized as December 12, 2000 when the SCOTUS intervened in the election and chose Bush, setting the precedent for the courts to change the outcome of elections. If you believe in Karma (and I do), 9/11 was just the universe throwing the fact that we let the right steal an election back at us.

[quote]They're laughing at the event itself.

No, I think they're laughing at our reactions and over reactions to the day. It was a defining day for anyone over the age of 3 or 4, but we've let it be far more than it was. For Gen Z, recall many of them became politically aware with the pandemic, and so the loss of 3000 people in a day is just another day among the hundreds between November 2020 and March 2022.

I don't think 9/11 (or any other tragedy) is funny or something to laugh at or mock. But I can tell you that sometime around 2012 or 2013, I was kind of over it. The annual grief-fest was getting tiresome. Social media was always filled with cringy, gloopy memes every year. How many times does one need to see an image of an eagle soaring over the towers, a single tear streaming down its face like the Indian in the anti-pollution ad, with the words "NEVER FORGET!" emblazoned across it? Never forget? Of course we'll never forget. Because you grief addicts will never let us.

Every generation believes their generation has a monopoly on disasters and tragedies. Most DL'ers are still rending their garments over the Chicago Fire.

People do not look know the definition of "meme."

Oh, dear x 683,290,191

The cumulative effect of all the years since it happened makes 9/11 seem like it happened 50 years ago. To me, I feel detached from it, even though I was working in a newsroom and it was utter chaos. I was rattled at the museum in NYC and cried at the Flight 93 site in PA. But I can laugh at “the sky was so blue” because I got over it.

R83, if that is indeed your full response, you’ve misidentified the dumbass.

Survivor stories!

[quote]r92 = But I can laugh at “the sky was so blue” because I got over it.

Well, aren't *you* special?

[quote] People do not look know the definition of "meme."

(Oh, dear x 683,290,191) x 2

Inside.

[quote]Especially flyover types who weren’t here and probably hate New York.

9/11 didn't only affect New York.

100% to what R1 said.

I wish I never experienced 9/11 and felt that it was a blessing that it was a horror that those born after that date wouldn’t have to be encumbered with. If the visuals and our reactions to that day are alien to their capacity to absorb with the compassion we feel it is due, then that is a failure on our part to appropriately convey. It’s our sacred, generational wound. Maybe they’ll learn, God willing they’ll be spared. As is, they’re presently like people who gaze at holocaust footage for the nudity. If and when they evolve, they will be adults and better people.

R79 wow I’ve never seen that video before, it almost defies belief.

You could imagine that as a sketch in The Simpsons , not that they would have done it. It is so bad, so cringy and so camp I can’t believe I’ve not seen it posted on DL until now.

If memes existed in the 70s, you bitches would be saying "This was my Pearl Harbor..."

If Gen Z were alive in the 1970s, they'd be protesting against the suffering of the Japanese, R102.

Zoomers praise bin Laden.

People have been making dark jokes about 9/11 since it happened. It just wasn’t really acceptable before.

It definitely made surveillance and traveling an ordeal. I still feel like it was a world changing event.

You have to be clueless or very young to think it didn't significantly change the US (and to a lesser extent, the world).

In a couple of years I think we'll have a grief porn shitshow for the 25th anniversary but then it will begin to taper off. After the 25th anniversary of a tragedy that kind of thing usually happens.