How are you feeling today, Taylor? Are you feeling
good, bad? Pretty sure this is bad. Are you feeling
uncertain, like an update? I'm feeling good.
You're feeling good, hey? Yeah. Okay. This isn't
feeling good. I'm not sure why it's in feeling
good. Maybe you were feeling good at the time
of reading. It may again call into question my
filing system, but I'm just going to read it
under the assumption this will actually be feeling
good. This is from the Rolling Stone of all places
titled How 9 -11 Became One of the Internet's
Most Popular Memes by David Mack, September 9th,
2024. This is old. A 21 year old college student
was sitting in an English class at her Minnesota
school last week when her professor began talking
about the challenges in writing about traumatic
events. 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. 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 to
favorited more than 10 ,000 times, quote, I had
this moment of realization within myself that
this should be having an impact on me and it
weirdly isn't end quote. Olivia recalled to Rolling
Stone asking that her last name not be used due
to the sensitivities around 9 11. She has since
taken down the tweet, quote, I think it's been
watered down a lot for our generation. moment
of levity, this very heavy moment. For our generation,
it's very almost casual." Olivia is not alone.
To be on social media in 2024 is to be swimming
in jokes and memes about 9 -11. Things that might
once have been whispered among friends are now
shared by meme accounts with hundreds of thousands
of followers. On TikTok, videos contrasting the
year 2024 with 2001, often ending with someone
reacting to the plane's hitting towers, frequently
went viral. Well on X, a famous photo of President
George W Bush being informed by his chief of
staff that the US was under attack is now frequently
used to mock everything from Ozempic to JD Vance
to the Drake Kendrick Lamar beef. Want to be
overly dramatic about a minor event in your life?
Why not use a video or gif of Caitlyn Jenner
standing in a sea of American flags solemnly
saying 9 -11? or you could keep things simple
and just say this was my 9 -11." As the world
marks 23 years since the attacks, the ways in
which people talk and joke about the tragedy
have evolved dramatically, especially on the
internet. For some people, the passage of time
has reduced the trauma associated with it and
allowed them to feel more comfortable using humor
to process the past two decades in a different
light. For other younger Gen Z internet users,
black comedy is a tool they use to discuss something
they've only ever read about in history books.
Social media, which didn't exist at the time
of the attacks, has also given rise to a digital
space for these jokes that is steeped in irony,
rewards outrageous humour, and encourages others
to join the trend. The few 9 -11 memes in the
past decade mostly involved mocking conspiracy
theorists such as Jetfuel, Camp Meltz, Beats…
damn it, that was a really important quote when
I fucked it up. Quote, jet fuel can't melt steel
beams and quote or Bush did 9 11, both of which
surged in usage around 2015. These gags drew
their shock value humor by juxtaposing something
innocent with something extreme, like when the
words were frosted onto a cake or said by a cartoon
pony. That's one of my favorite cartoon pony
things. Jet fuel can't melt steel beams. I do
like that one. It goes on and on and on. Obviously
you get the idea of what it's talking about.
I just thought it was kind of interesting and
it kind of comments on the place we are culturally.
It's an interesting space. Does it talk about
where we are as X users culturally? Because that's
that's where it draws back to as opposed on X.
it does and x from what i hear about what goes
on there is not a place that i want to be a part
of so it could very much be that it could also
be i don't know why the media still treat it
as like a real place that has real things going
on it has hit a shithole that needs to just like
We need to stop treating it like that's where
everybody is because it's just where the racist
people are for the most part Oh, it's so true.
And I don't also know if it's what are these
gen z's? Uh, those would be gen z's. Yeah zoomers.
I don't know. Maybe they're you know Twitter
users to do things like this. I don't know could
be a lot of things that the commentary is on
but to be fair I don't think you can connect
to the George Bush meme of him being informed
or reading like a kid's storybook Directly to
like this weird joke about 9 -eleven that meme
speaks for itself. It's great No, I don't think
it would be the same thing as like meme of like
the plane flying into the building. Yeah, but
I mean, you look at things that happen. No, I
mean, there's some things I probably wouldn't
do a meme about, but some things I might have
happened long enough ago, depending on what it
was. Yeah. I mean, like, yeah, the death of 3000
people is a hard one to meme about even today.
And you know what I think about that. And I'm
like trying to come up with an example. And all
of a sudden I forgotten everything I know about
history. There's not a lot of mass killings that
seem meme worthy later on. Yeah. No, it really
doesn't. than even though I can't think of any
right now. I will thoroughly stand by George
Bush reacting to being told about it is meme
-worthy, not the thing itself. Oh yeah, totally
different situation, I would say. Those are different
things. I should use that more, definitely. Maybe
I will. It is great, yeah. Maybe I'll forget
about it, hard to say. It's Wednesday. Anyhow,
you guys got 48 hours, forget about it. And maybe,
I don't know, make a good George Bush meme. Those
are coming in like hotcakes now. Oh yeah, yeah,
send them to us, thanks. Okay, bye. Make our
Wednesday better, bye.