World War 3 memes have taken over social media — but not everyone is laughing

A slew of World War 3 memes are dividing people on social media 

If, like me, you ventured onto social media over the weekend, you may well have thought the world was ending.

Apocalyptic images showing the devastation caused by Australia’s bushfires saturated our feeds. Other sad stories began to filter through from around Europe, and all you could do was feel helpless.

Then, there was America.

On Friday, news broke that Iran’s top military general, Qasem Soleimani, had been killed. President Trump later confirmed that he had ordered the airstrikes that killed Soleimani. The act spurred fears of potential retaliation from Iran and a possible subsequent World War 3.

These rumblings aren’t without some plausible reasoning — Iran has said it will strike back. The US has told American citizens to leave Iraq following the attack. And with the daughter of the murdered general warning President Trump that the US faces a “dark day” for its actions, the situation seems only to be escalating.

Humour

As the situation unfolded, social media users on platforms like Twitter and Tik Tok used the unique medium of memes and comedy videos to display their horror at the threat of war. They also cracked a lot of jokes. If there is something that Millenials and Gen-Z kids are good at, it’s making the best of a very bad situation through funny anecdotes and pictures of Baby Yoda.

Saw this on tik tok and think it deserves to be in Twitter #WWIIl pic.twitter.com/UqFpnRKKGb

— Isabel Benavides? (@isabelcb97) January 5, 2020

Laughing at all this #WW3 Memes but stop to wonder why the sun is coming out again at 9 pm. pic.twitter.com/gicBAu9sgu

— Rooh Kinzoku (@beast_rooh) January 4, 2020

Me explaining to Iran that I don’t have any problems with them and my beef is with America too pic.twitter.com/xHtI7Kh4iq

— Anthony Moore (@AllThatandMoore) January 3, 2020

Yo tiktok joined in with the #WWIII memes quick af ??? pic.twitter.com/UGy4SFx1bB

— Juan (@Juanakillmyself) January 4, 2020

Of course, others thought it was inappropriate and insensitive to make jokes about a possible World War. They argue that it undermines the severity of the situation, one which could cause great hurt and devastation. It’s a divisive subject — and these angry counter-posts demonstrate the wildly different points of view at play.

 

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A post shared by grindhard..shinehard simple… (@kiing_johnson) on Jan 4, 2020 at 12:37pm PST

Pls, don’t take WorldWar 3 as a joke. It’s not really cool and it’s a serious matter. Just because we’re not directly involve in it doesn’t mean that we can make fun of the issue. Have some respect guys, other pple are suffering so pls do care and let us just pray instead.?????

— ?????? (@carl_fajarito) January 6, 2020

I’m usually all about memes and comedic relief but literally millions of lives are at risk so please stop with your world war three jokes. If you lived in a war zone or had family and friends who lived under these conditions you would not be making light of the current situation.

— Amy Fallas (@Amy_Fallas) January 6, 2020

To all those individuals creating memes about World War Three, stop it. War is not a joke. End of.

— The Mystery Poet Blog ???? (@the_mysterypoet) January 3, 2020

What do you think? Are jokes about impending war off-limits? Or can humour help us cope with uncertainty?

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