Crisis Hotline
In a desperate scenario, many adults’ first phone call is their romantic partner. Once you’ve cut the umbilical cord of parental emergency contacts, you’ve officially been kicked out of the nest and into the skies of adulthood. However, many of us are scared to fly alone. While we still go to our parents for advice, they’ve been effectively replaced as our protector by our partner in life. Does that make us grown ups yet?
Taryn Nielsen, a lifestyle expert for Medium, says “Being in a happy and stable relationship [promotes] a feeling of security, trust, and emotional connection that brings joy and contentment to your daily life.” We love our partners, but being in a stable relationship doesn’t mean both parties involved are technically mature. I’d argue that we become our most vulnerable and childish self in front of our other half, showing them our greatest weaknesses, our stupidest ideas, and our soft, puff-pastry filling that we normally shield from the harshness of the world. With that in mind, the more time you spend with your partner, the more ridiculous it seems that this immature, light-hearted human being is next of kin.
How could someone who still forgets to change out their musty towels be ‘the responsible one’ in a life or death scenario? Frankly, we’re just two 20-year-old kids tackling the turbulence and uncertainties of the future, one seemingly insurmountable task at a time. While Gen Z is coping with the realities of adulthood, they have also embraced dark and absurd humor as a survival strategy. Luckily, Heather Lonczak, a doctorate in psychology, says, “Humor distracts us from our problems and promotes a lighter perspective. [It] just feels good.” By blending irony, detachment, and a pinch of satire, Gen Z is combatting the uncertainty of the future with humor—most recently, through ‘the emergency contact trend.’
This TikTok trend laughs-off the silliness of people’s partners as they share their most preposterous, weirdest, and funniest moments, juxtaposing foolhardy behavior with adult responsibility. For example, u/briona.mariee shares a video of her boyfriend putting a doctor’s glove on his head to look like a chicken, dryly pointing out that this man—this ex-class clown—is her new ‘emergency contact.’ Although he may seem unqualified for the job, the trend jokes that nobody is ever truly fit to be an emergency contact, and we must remain youthful and silly despite the crushing weight of adulthood. Otherwise, without our favorite goofy goose by our side, we’re doomed to drown in self-doubt, incessant anxiety, and dismal predictions.
Via u/briona.mariee
In an increasingly topsy-turvy world where the future seems grim and prospects are dwindling, mocking our fears makes them more palatable. Lonczak says, “Many of us may relate to high-anxiety situations where a joke feels like a much-needed outlet.” Not only that, but when you’re able to link arms with your partner and step out into the unknown, at least you can skip down the yellow brick road through the haunted forest alongside your closest confidante. Strangely, there’s a comfort in tackling life with another human being to back you up, no matter how juvenile they are.
Laugh Away the Pain
Gen Z has a knack for undercutting serious topics by “goofifying” them. When something is funny or made fun of, you can literally laugh away the dread. With many trends and memes, Gen Z has proven their grit against a precarious future, looking their anxieties in the eye, mocking fear’s power, and strengthening their resolve to carry on. Sharing darkly relatable humor online through trends like post-apocalyptic fit-checks, comments on paychecks going straight to your landlord, and videos of outrageously unserious emergency contacts are just a few of the ways that Gen Z is doing the only thing they can: coping.
As some of you may remember, in Harry Potter, the professors try to teach the kids to combat their worst fear, manifested as the shapeshifting Boggart. By learning the Boggart-Banishing Charm, ‘Riddikulus,’ young witches and wizards magically turn something scary into something silly, thus crippling their terrorizor’s inherent scariness. Parents take a similar approach when soothing sleepless young children. Imagine if the monster under your bed wore a rainbow helicopter hat instead of grabbing your feet at night. The monster wouldn’t be nearly as menacing—he’d be funny!
Gen Z in particular has been dealt a strangely dismal hand in life, but they’ve found fresh ways to lean into it. Ewan Morrison, a journalist with Psychology Today, says, "When [Gen Z] sees problems as too huge to mend, they can lose all sense of agency and hope.” In spite of their circumstances, Gen Z is seizing a page out of the dark humor handbook, turning trials and tribulations into LOLs, slapping a bandaid on intimidating adulthood woes. Weakening their fears with a helicopter hat and a Hogwarts spell, life goes on for Gen Z, perhaps with a little less anxiety.
Not the Only Ones
Gen Z isn’t the first generation to turn their fears into jokes, nor will they be the last. Morrison continues, “As a result of living under this ambient fear, Gen Z is… anxious of the future.” And of course they are! Likewise, Millennials reacted the same way, harnessing the terror of the scariest morning of their lives into a dark-humored joke, effectively turning one of the darkest days in American history into a meme over the last two decades. Coining the ‘I’m dead inside’ jokes and kickstarting FML (‘F’ my life), millennials have also roasted their own mental health decline, exposing themselves in a wry commentary of their own plights. Similarly, Gen X has turned their worries into apathy by eagerly accepting the grim fate they were promised despite surviving multiple ‘end of the world’ scares like the Cold War duck-and-cover era and Y2K Internet doomsday. Humor is the common thread of coping mechanisms that links every generation’s coming of age story. As Lonczak says, “Humor may function as an adaptive defense by enabling people to perceive the comical absurdity in highly challenging situations. In this respect, humor serves as both a defense mechanism and a way of coping with adversity.”
The “goofification” of one’s worst fears is not uncommon in human nature and every generation has dealt with their own brand of cynicism, but for Gen Z, a generation that’s turning terror into absurdity, the ‘emergency contact’ trend actually has a wholesome angle to it. Despite the looming adversity of the future and the uncertainties of the path ahead, Gen Z is confident that they can still laugh about it, tackling the world alongside their downright goofy partner, laughing their way into the end of the world… Together.
Lonczak concludes, “It makes sense that those with a good sense of humor will be in a better position to weather difficult situations, enjoy more cohesive relationships, find humor in all sorts of experiences, and benefit from more positive mental and physical health.” For that reason, Gen Z may seem forever young, but the positivity gleaned from immature jokes is what’s keeping them going.
Peter Panning
Many young folks get thrown into the deep-end of life without any sort of safety net, training manual, or any clue how to be an adult. Because adulthood may be daunting, people have found coping mechanisms to laugh the pain away, and Gen Z, like every generation before them, has discovered their own way to laugh in the face of adversity. In an ever-changing climate of uncertainty, insecurity, and tumultuousness, Gen Z finds humor in commenting on the absurdity of adulthood, particularly with ‘the emergency contact trend.’ Instead of being fearful of the future and what it may hold, Gen Z is taking a stab at their plights by jokingly reacting to their partner’s goofiness and fundamentally unserious nature while proudly claiming, “This is my emergency contact.” And as Nielsen says, “Being in a happy relationship is like having a personal cheerleader, therapist, ninja, and best friend all wrapped up in one.”
Funnily enough, as we change our emergency contact from our parental guardians to the goofball boyfriend or girlfriend who stole our hearts, life becomes a little realer—you’re on your own now... But not completely! Life’s uncertainties become a little less terrifying because at least if you fall down a cliffside and get crushed by a rockfall, the first one at the scene will be your emergency contact: A silly, lovable person with Peter Pan syndrome and the heart of a child—just like you.
May we never truly grow up.
Via u/halarni