Gen Z Has Become the Master of Comedic Deflection
In response to the Israel-Hamas war, young people are going viral for their satirical “draft playlists" on TikTok. We’ve seen this before, and it may not be a bad thing.
A generation defined by crises laughs it off.
Photographer: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images
“Can we get a cute drink and snacks after this?” reads the text on a recent TikTok image of men with machine guns in army gear. It’s intended to depict the attitude of young female US soldiers while storming a building in Gaza. The post, created by a Gen Zer whose popular feed abounds with Taylor Swift lip-syncs and dance videos, is captioned: “I love this trend #thedraft #war #foryou #fyp #funny.”
It’s one of scores of “funny” posts that have collectively racked up hundreds of millions of views on TikTok in the two weeks since the Hamas attacks on Israel triggered a brutal war in the region.