Lady Gaga Back to the stops? This is an indicator of recession. Coupons and displays of canned products in supermarkets? Definitely recession indicators. And the return of tennis All Star Converse Even the knee? Possibly the most obvious recession indicator of all.
According to the Internet, any social change that evokes the Great recession Or means an effort to save or make extra money is a potential recession indicator.
My theory that Lady Gaga peaking is a recession indicator is growing stronger
— Gwen (@hiitsgwen)
We are not really in a recession, at least not yet. But this distinction is not really the point.
These ironic observations suggest that vibrations are not good. And in the face of an economy in deterioration, a Commercial War And growing chances of recession, users of social networks cannot avoid sending memes while laughing nervously.
Behind these jokes there is a very real anxiety. And this anxiety tells us a lot – both about how we depend on humor and where the economy can really go.
A recession would cause damage to the economy, causing possible mass layoffs as companies reduce costs and a drop in the stock market. Between 2007 and 2011, more than half of US families lost at least a quarter of their wealth due to the great recession.
Today, in the midst of an erratic trade war, consumer confidence has been at its lowest level since May 2020.
None of this is funny. But the internet cannot avoid – memes are omnipresent.
Facing one of the worst financial crises in almost two decades, all people on social networks seem to do is laugh. This is not the first time jokes have materialized online after a serious event.
Last year, memes about the social timelines, while users expressed their complaints about health insurance (“thoughts and prayers are out of the network,” said a popular joke).
More recently, amid the repression of Trump government immigration, immigrants played at Tiktok about self-support.
In the midst of agitation, suddenly everyone is comedian. Phrases like “all you can do is laugh” or “laughing is the best medicine” underline our longtime trends to resort to laughter when confronted with difficult situations, Dustin Kidd, professor of sociology at Temple university, said.
“The more serious things get, the more we depend on humor as a way of dealing with them,” said Kidd.
Thanks to television, humor has become a key ritual in how we deal with the circumstances, he said. P
Comedy rograms such as “The Carol Burnett Show” and “Saturday Night Live” gave comedy a national audience, with the last specifically mocking politicians and political branches to this day.
Likewise, the sitcom “Maude”, which aired for six seasons in the 1970s, gave Americans a way of thinking about difficult feminist issues, Kidd said, more controversially portraying the holder Maude deciding an abortion two months before the ROE V decision. Wade.
“TV and other forms of popular culture, including social networks, are often misunderstood as escapism,” said Kidd.
“On the contrary, when we are confronted with difficult questions, jokes and entertainment are useful ways to examine and answer difficult questions.”
But many still feel powerless in the face of economic problems, Kidd said, so they can use humor rather than a more active solution to solve problems.
You may be concerned about sudden drains on your 401 (K) – as Kidd said it is – and recognizing that possible tariffs can be part of the problem. But can you really prevent tariffs? Probably not, Kidd said.
“I wrote to all my representatives about how my retirement economies are being impacted. But besides sending these emails, I feel like I’m stuck,” he said. “I don’t know how to fix this thing that is hurting my life so much. So I end up using jokes.”
People want lightness at this time, Kidd explained. These collective jokes about recession indicators provide this, at least during the 30 seconds it takes to watch a Tiktok.
Humor also abounded in the midst of the great recession, but the jokes assumed different forms.
The host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart, famously debated with Jim Cramer of CNBC – a maximum example of satire and humor colliding with real financial comments.
In other evening programs, Jay Leno from “The Tonight Show” made more than 850 jokes in eight months about the crisis in his monologues, according to the Associated Press report.
Noble time sitcoms have also incorporated the collapse into their programs – in an episode of “The Office,” aired in October 2007, Michael Scott tries to literally declare bankruptcy by entering the office and shouting “I declare bankruptcy!”
What is new now is the current scenario of social networks, which essentially massified these jokes and made them accessible to everyone, all the time. Simply because you are online, you are probably involved with these jokes, whether or not.
You see them on Tiktok, you can send one to a friend, and later even referencing her in a real conversation.
And so the cycle continues – instead of dealing with the difficult issues of life, everything becomes a meme. In the case of the economy, this can become a self -realizable prophecy, said Kidd.
When people make jokes about feeling negative about the economy, it can make others feel the same way. This would mean more people moving away from the market – bringing us closer and closer to an economic recession.
This retreat is illustrated by other economic indicators not related to jokes.
The male underwear, coined by economist Alan Greenspan, postulates that men will stop buying underwear when they think the economy will fall and will buy them again when the economy stabilizes-metrics that proved true between 2007 and 2009.
“Memes are mainly ideas tests,” said Kyla Scanlon, author of “In This Economy? How Money and Markets Really Work.”
It’s like sending a smoke signal, she explained. They ask, “Hello? Is everyone okay?” The echo of “no” comes as a relief – they are not alone in their stress or their preparatory instincts.
Observers have noted for years that the lines between sincerity and irony are becoming indistinct. In the current world obsessed with social networks, the “MEMIFICATION” machine works 24 hours a day.
As concerns increase – making obsolete jobs, the continuous climate crisis, inability to have a home of their own, etc. – Everything becomes too much to endure.
And when people give up, said Scanlon, everything becomes a joke. “I think a lot of people think, ‘Nothing more matters,” she said. “And that’s sad.”
Some are adopting a more serious approach to the possibility of recession. .
Others are posting videos on how to protect their life from recession, from starting a vegetable garden to cheap meal ideas – all in different degrees of joke.
Not everyone gave up, then, but the omnipresence of these indicators underlines how it is difficult not to give in, at least a little, a catastrophe feeling.
The jokes, at least temporarily, are our national relief.
