Date of Award
Spring 5-9-2026
Document Type
Honors Project
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Communication and Digital Studies
Department Chair or Program Director
Whalen, Zach
First Advisor
Crosby, Emily
Major or Concentration
Communication and Digital Studies
Abstract
This paper examines how young adults use dark humor memes to cope with collective trauma, and whether that humor helps people process painful experiences or gives them a way to avoid dealing with them. Using qualitative content analysis and Huntington's (2013) visual rhetoric framework, three memes from Instagram were analyzed across topics including the COVID-19 pandemic and school gun violence. The analysis found that dark humor memes do not function uniformly. Some help people name and sit with fear, while others package trauma in ways that make it easy to consume and just as easy to ignore. The paper argues that dark humor meme culture occupies a genuinely complicated space between coping and avoidance, and the difference between the two depends on specific rhetorical choices that most viewers scrolling past would never consciously notice.
Recommended Citation
Abbas, Rusul, "Laughing Through the Pain: How Dark Humor Meme Culture Normalizes Collective Trauma Among Young Adults" (2026). Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects. 691.
https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research/691
Rights
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Social Media Commons, Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons