The jolly jesters who joke the most in their friend group often come from a place of having seen some stuff. Everyone goes through some monumental moment in their lives, more often traumatic than uplifting, but these moments help shape them into who they are. If the internet has proven anything, it’s that making light of a grim situation is an innate trait for us humans, and that’s because it’s easier than realizing just how messed up the world can be.
A grim sense of humor has been the comedic norm, specifically on the World Wide Web, for the last two decades. That’s thanks to honest conversations pertaining to mental health online. Users start conversations, both through seriousness and humor, and open up the floor for others to speak about the difficulties they’ve overcome that molded them into the person they are today. It’s important not to discount how immensely significant this transparency is for internet users, especially in a digital age where folks are slowly detaching from reality.
However, another innate human characteristic is competitiveness, and sometimes these silly trauma dumps can turn into a strange rivalry of who is the most damaged. Y’know? The thought that mental trauma adds an edge to you that makes you more «interesting.» So many folks are taking a chance on oversharing so they can get a piece of the «I’m sadder than you» cake. It’s a sense of one-upness that is in the air, and we can’t deny that we’re all participants.
The «You’re so funny» trend on TikTok is soundtracked by 5 Seconds of Summer, a boy band that was the pillar of stan culture in the mid-2010s. Stan culture is a little different from simply being a fan of someone—a stan lives and breathes their idol. The trauma-dumping trend opens up the floor for folks who want to air out intimate life moments from a childhood pet passing away to what their fathers went to jail for, and everything in between. It’s starting to feel a bit ranty, like r/TrueOffMyChest, except not anonymous and more vying for attention in a culture that upholds trauma as social and comedic currency. Where do we draw the line? At the end of the day, talking about it is better than sweeping it under the rug—but everything requires a balance.
