- "When the US government asks
for my birth certificate
so they can draft me for World War 3.
I'm 12."
- (both laugh)
♪ (punk rock intro) ♪
- (reporter) World War 3
is beginning to trend...
- Oh, no.
- Yeah, I've seen a bunch
of World War 3 memes
on social media.
- (reporter) ...to a new level.
Soleimani was the leader...
- I realize we haven't
talked about this.
I feel like we've probably
individually seen a lot about it,
but we haven't really
talked about it.
- (reporter) In 2018,
President Donald Trump
broke the Iran nuclear deal.
- Yeah, that was kind of
a big thing, wasn't it?
That was definitely a bigger move
by Trump himself.
- (reporter) Trump then reinstated
financial and economic sanctions...
- He trying to reverse
everything Obama did. (chuckles)
- I know.
- (reporter) ...a
terrorist organization.
Iran attacked...
- Yeah, this has been going on
for a while.
- (reporter) ...in the Gulf region
among other things and the tit-for...
- This is...
Yeah. (sighs)
- (reporter) ...the US killing
of Soleimani.
- I need all the details I can get.
It's kind of hidden
under all the memes
that I see instead.
- Kind of misinformed basically.
- Yeah, I'm very misinformed,
because all I see
are the Twitter memes.
- I feel like there might
be something, but it's not gonna be
as big as a whole world war, you know?
Maybe a little bit of fighting,
but I doubt in hell
that there's gonna be
a whole world war
just based on this.
- (FBE) So, that was a video
briefly explaining the recent events
that have occurred the US and Iran,
which have obviously stirred up
a lot of controversial conversations,
including discussions
about the possibility
of a World War 3.
Many people quickly turned
to the internet to make
and share memes about it,
so we're gonna get your thoughts
on some of those today.
- They're pretty funny too,
some of them.
- "Iran versus USA.
2020 is gonna be my year.
World War 3 is trending
on the third day."
- Yeah, that was--
that was literally the first meme
of the decade.
- Wow. So much happened
in the first three days,
it just seemed like, "Okay,
this year is not gonna be very great."
- I mean, they're funny,
but then again still kinda scary.
I mean, that's the way
we feel about it,
and none of us wanna go to war.
- Kids just don't understand
the seriousness of it, I guess,
because I think they're
just misinformed
and they don't know
the reason behind it.
- (Khloe) It's not my fault...
- "Me and the girls
when we steal a tank
in World War 3."
- (chuckles)
- Oh my gosh! That is so funny!
- Dude, TikTok is so good.
- (chuckles)
- (laughs)
- (Kim) Oh my god! Oh my god!
Oh my--
- Oh, Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
That's funny.
- It was such a quick meme
that it just blew up so fast.
I was like, "Whoa."
My whole "For You" page on TikTok
was just all World War 3 memes.
- "Me having no [bleep] idea
what I'm doing in #WWIII."
Oh my god.
- He's a clown.
He's like, "I'm a clown.
I don't know what I'm doing."
(laughs)
"They just recruited me."
- It's like these memes
have a little truth.
- It's humorous, but is it
making fun of our military?
What do you think?
- It's true. Eh.
- No?
- But he's just saying he has no idea
what's going on.
- I think it's less scary
for Americans, because a war
doesn't feel like it comes here.
We always-- it always goes there.
So, imagine the people--
it always breaks my heart
for the people in foreign countries.
- These kinds of memes seem
to take over social media platforms
including Twitter, Instagram,
Reddit, and TikTok.
And at some point,
meme creators started to explore
the possibility of a military draft,
so we're gonna show you
some of those memes now.
- Draft.
- Okay, draft, draft.
- Those are the best ones,
especially the TikToks.
(chuckles) Those are funny.
- (man) Ha-ha.
- (both laugh)
- I've seen that.
- He said, "I'm laughing
at the memes, but low-key
I'm scared as hell." (laughs)
- (man) Ha-ha.
- That's very funny.
- This one is probably
the most appropriate.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. I think that illustrates
exactly what the problem is.
Right now, everyone's just kind of
laughing and confused,
but when the reality hits,
if the reality hits,
the joke's over.
- I'm almost within that age range.
- I don't see a draft happening.
- I mean, it could.
- Eh, I don't see it.
- That's why everyone's scared.
- I'm not old enough,
so it's not really
that big a deal to me.
But I would want to just protec--
- You would want to what?
- To protect the country.
- Okay.
Well, there's-- you still have...
- When I'm 18.
- ...the opportunity to do that.
You don't have to be drafted.
You can volunteer.
- Yeah, that's true.
- "Gays when we get drafted."
- I saw this! (claps)
- Oh my god! That's so hilarious.
- (squeals)
- (both laugh)
- That's a really good one!
♪ (upbeat music) ♪
- (snickers)
- God bless America.
- (laughs)
- All right. So, the topic
is certainly sensitive,
but that was a damn good dance.
- They'd probably be making TikToks
in World War 3 to be honest.
- That's a good one.
- (chuckles)
- "When the US government asks
for my birth certificate,
so they can draft me for World War 3.
I'm 12."
- (both laugh)
- I'd make a fake ID
and be like, "Yo, I'm 11." (chuckles)
- It's kind of true, though!
We don't wanna get drafted!
And a lot of the people
that are making the memes
are actually the ones that...
- That are scared.
- ....that are really scared.
They're just like,
"Please stay away from me!"
- Ah, bench warmers.
Well, I just feel like
they don't have that much--
they don't really care what happens,
'cause if they cared,
they would go out
and protect the country.
- "If World War 3's starting
and women want equal rights so bad,
we should start drafting them too."
And then--
- Right?
- And then-- (chuckles)
- (laughs)
- I saw this one.
(claps) I did one like this!
This is one that I did!
- Be like, "You know what?
We're gonna do it,
what the wives and the women
are supposed to do then."
- (both laugh)
- "We'll listen to y'all."
- "We're gonna get to work."
- No hate on anybody
who's creating memes
about this or anything,
but personally, I can't
just joke about something like this.
- Memes have evolved,
'cause it's always been in response
to whatever's popular, and that's how
you're gonna get viewed
just because it's
on a popular subject.
And it's become so common.
It's like, "Okay, this is trending,
this is trending. Make a meme.
Something's funny,"
that an event like this
falls into it and the machine
just continue to crank.
I don't think the filters apply
for people to realize
this requires focus.
This is very serious.
- Yeah.
- Instead it's just, "Okay,
what's going on this week?
What have we got on the list?"
And so, they're just cranking it out.
- (FBE) The reaction to these memes
has been mixed with many saying
that they are using humor
to cope with their fears about war
while others have expressed
their concern about making light
of such a serious situation
as seen in the following tweets.
- (both) Okay.
- "Yeah, not gonna lie,
this 'We joke to get us
through trauma' thing
ain't applicable this time lol.
It's not your trauma to joke about."
Yeah, I get this.
So, for some people,
it's definitely way more real
than we assume it to be,
but I think telling people to stop
isn't really gonna do much.
- It's different times, you know?
It's just 2020, man. People--
- The internet.
- People are gonna joke
about everything, you know.
- People don't take stuff
seriously nowadays.
- If we're afraid, whatever works
at this point.
- Actually, I agree.
If you're afraid, whatever works.
- It's just going over
their heads right now.
They're not processing it correctly,
but that's like every teenager
in the world to be honest.
- "Americans are making a joke
out of something that will kill
millions here in the Middle East.
Our lives are in danger.
We are worried about our future.
This is disgusting."
"Gays on their way to the trenches
(chuckles) during World War"--
I feel bad for laughing. (laughs)
- It's a joke for a reason.
It's made to laugh at
not take seriously in most situations.
- You can imagine if you're
on the other side
that they have...
- Yeah, because they have--
- ...you know, their own concerns
about how something serious
could be looked at so lightly.
- True.
- See, us in America,
you know what I mean,
we see what's going on
in the news and we hear that,
but we really can't feel
their pain like they are.
They're like, "We got family there.
I've been there."
- And seeing these things
is just scaring me even more,
because I'm like, what do I do
about this situation
that's going on right now, though?
- I can tell you this.
I can remember when I was
a senior in high school,
and Bush Sr. was escalating
what was going on
in the Middle East
at the time with Iraq.
I had a history teacher
who came in just cackling
in the middle of the afternoon
and said, "Boys,
I hope you like picking
sand fleas out of your boots,
'cause you're all going to the east."
- That joke, terrible as it was,
actually made us all suddenly realize
the significance of the situation
that we were in.
Fortunately, the pendulum swings,
and things balanced out.
I know that it feels like
there's a possibility of World War 3,
but I have some confidence
that this will balance out again.
- (FBE) We wanna start off
by saying that this topic
has been very polarizing online,
but we have a unique opportunity today
to get the perspective
of both teens and their parents.
As you can see,
the topic of World War 3
has been one of the most talked about
and memed things to happen
this year so far.
Obviously, the possibility
of a new world war
is scary and dangerous.
Why do you think so many people
turned it into a humorous meme?
- Well, I just think it's a way
to cope with the situation,
because obviously we know it's awful
and it's possible that something
might happen.
But if we can make light
of such a dark subject,
then it'll at least get us through it.
- Because here we go about our lives
on a regular basis
and don't see bombs, you know,
exploding in front
of us or near us,
everything turns into
a joke to Americans.
And this is actually kind of
a serious thing that's happening
in the world.
- They don't wanna face reality.
Yeah, there's a possibility
of a World War 3 going on,
but that's scary to think about it,
so let's not think about it.
- We make a joke out of everything.
Like SNL, they're making jokes
about all this stuff,
you know what I mean?
People are laughing, carrying on,
laughing about Donald Trump.
"Oh, Donald Trump,"
you know, this stuff.
Like, yo, he's the president.
All he gotta do is push
a couple buttons
and say a couple things,
and we gonna shoot
a couple missiles off.
- We don't know.
We don't know the situations
that supposedly led to the moment
we're in right now.
We don't know what's going to happen
two days from now,
and that makes it
even more uncomfortable.
But it also gives you a little license
to where you can make fun of it
or at least be humorous.
- I understand where these people
are coming from.
That's not how I personally
am trying to cope with this right now.
We're all just really trying
to just understand
what's going on
and figuring out
how to deal with that.
- (FBE) The United States has been
kind of going through this idea
of this war on terrorism
and this war for kind of
a long time.
- This has been going on
probably since the Biblical days.
- (FBE) Yeah.
- (chuckles) Before we was born.
This was going on
for all over hundreds of years.
- (FBE) As someone who has seen
how the United States and the world
reacted to those events,
how would you compare the response
to a possible World War 3
to the threats of war
when you were growing up?
- Well, I think the whole idea
of memes, I think, is just
because everybody has
access to it now.
So many people have access
to a computer and can generate
these memes, where we've probably
done similar things,
just didn't have the technology,
so we had till the nighttime comics
put together a routine.
And they reached a lot of people
by doing their thing on TV.
- We have to have some sort of comedy,
some sort of laughter
in this generation,
'cause the older generation
was definitely grieving
and depression was hitting.
And I think sometimes we have
to have some of the light.
- You see everything in a quickness.
Back then, we wouldn't know
until we turn on the TV or the radio.
You know, we wouldn't know anything.
And we'd only hear from the people
that are on the radio
or on the news.
Now, everybody has a say
about everything.
- (FBE) So, many articles
have pointed the anger
surrounding the memes
specifically towards Gen Z
as they are one of
the most active generations
on social media and are responsible
for a lot of the memes
like the ones you saw today.
As a teenager, how do you feel
about the blame being pointed
at you but also do you feel
that your generation just has
a different outlook on things
than your parents?
- It's stupid.
If something is awful,
we try to make light
of that subject.
We don't try to just say,
"Oh, this is awful,"
just look at it in an awful way.
We try to make light of it.
I mean, that's all we can really do.
- To blame our generation
for the jokes, yeah, sure.
But is it really
that much of a bad thing?
Deep down, we're kinda scared.
You know, just a little.
And the memes definitely
help reassure us.
- A lot of people in my generation
aren't as educated and don't know
a lot of the backstories
and how war actually works,
so that's probably
why we're joking about it.
And I feel like all the generations
or whoever should be mad at us,
because we probably don't know
as much as they do.
- For a lot of people my age,
we either weren't born for 9/11
or we weren't really old enough
to really be in it
and understand what was going on,
so this is kind of
the first real scare
of a global crisis
that I've really had to deal with.
- We definitely have
a different outlook
on what our parents do,
'cause if I show her a meme,
she'll always be like, "What?
What? I don't get it.
What does that mean?"
- You know that meme
that you guys would say,
"OK boomer,"
I feel like everything
that you guys do
that we don't agree on,
you guys are always gonna
be like, "OK boomer."
But I mean, there is a generation gap,
so I don't really blame them for it,
because we just grew up
in different eras.
- (FBE) So finally,
whether you agree
with these World War 3 memes or not,
what would you wanna say to the people
who are creating the memes?
- That's a tough one. (laughs)
- Just be a little more sensitive
when you create them
towards the people that are out there.
So, when you create 'em,
just think of both sides.
That's all.
- If that's what makes you happy,
then keep doing what you're doing.
I know there's people out there
that are very angry at you,
but if this is what's
helping you at ease,
then continue to...
- I say if you like making them,
keep making them.
- And I would just have to say
that one of the things
that makes our country great
is that we have the ability
to do these things
and we have the opportunity
to discuss our differences
and whether or not
we like them or not.
I suppose that if somebody
is creating things you don't like,
then you have the chance
to turn 'em off.
- Make sure that
you're happy right now.
Be with the people
that you care about,
like just spend quality time
with the people that you love.
This is a really tough time,
and this is a really big issue
to have to go through,
and you really shouldn't
have to deal with it alone,
so... yeah.
- I can't step on that.
That's perfect.
- Thanks for watching this episode...
- Of Teens and Parents React.
- If you liked this video...
- Make sure you give it a like.
- What are your thoughts
on World War 3 memes?
- Let us know in the comments.
- (both) Peace!
- Hey, y'all!
FBE producer Blythe here.
Wanna catch up
on all of our latest videos?
Well then, subscribe to our channel
and get here early
and you might even get to talk
to me in the first 30 minutes. Bye!
