Content warning: This story contains mentions of graphic violence.
There has been a resurgence of memes related to conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death since the one year anniversary of his assassination on Sept. 10, a continuation of the endless stream of memes created and reshared within the last year.
While some indicators point to memes as a coping mechanism, others view it as an engagement tactic, a bridge between politics and youth, or a sign of growing desensitization.
Leading up to Sept. 10, various Charlie Kirk memes and AI-content began populating on Instagram Reels and TikTok feeds, popularizing the term “Kirkiversary.”
In one video, red syrup poured over pancakes to the sound of the fatal gunshot at Utah Valley University, while another had images of Kirk clipped in between traditional fall-related images. An audio clip from Gilmore Girls was even parodied: instead of “I am an autumn,” it states, “I am a Kirky,” played over yet another fall montage featuring Kirk.
Immediately following Kirk’s death, AI videos of him alongside numerous figures including Jesus, Pope Francis, rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began circulating the internet. His face was superimposed onto every character imaginable, from founding fathers of the United States to the Mona Lisa and Spiderman. This phenomenon was commonly known online as “Kirkification.”
Mathew Cheang, a sophomore majoring in business administration, was on his internship lunch break when Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University. He saw the first memes soon after.
“I could see why some people find it funny, but it’s just so much,” Cheang said. “I think there was one week where I saw his face more than my own family.”
Dan Schnur, a USC Annenberg adjunct professor specializing in communications and politics, offered insight into the prevalence of the memes.
“Humor is one of the riskiest ways of getting people to engage, but when it’s successful, it can be one of the most impactful,” Schnur said. “Given such a highly polarized environment, it’s not surprising that a lot of people on both sides of the debate, in trying to reach a larger audience, are employing every tool at their disposal–including humor.”
It is not just the memes themselves, but their longevity in a rapid media cycle, that has students surprised.
“I didn’t think that Charlie Kirk as a meme was going to last as long as it did, especially since the cycle of things on the internet is so, so fast,” Ella Kopper, a junior studying Philosophy, Politics, and Law, said. “It’s like every week is something new, but even a year out, [the Charlie Kirk memes are] still very salient.”
Kopper tied satire and memes back to old political cartoons like Uncle Sam swallowing other countries.
She says that we have always used humor as a bridge to politics, and memes are just Gen Z’s version of shared social dialogue.
“It’s a very natural reaction, and satire in and of itself is social critique, which I think is how a lot of people reply to things that are political, topical, new, and ridiculous,” Kopper said.
According to USA Today, “these posts are actually a good example of how many young people today use humor to distance themselves from the emotional weight of reality.”
“These memes can give young people a small sense of agency in a political system they otherwise see as being largely out of their control,” Audrey Halverson, a political communication researcher at the University of Michigan, told USA Today.
For Cheang, memes can provide a sense of comfort. He thinks they are “a pretty good coping mechanism.”
One study published on the National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine website analyzed the use of memes as collective coping during COVID-19 in Puerto Rico. The study found that people interpreted messages from traditional media as “failing to provide them with answers on how to effectively face the crisis.” Over time, memes became a form of “collective coping,” helping individuals to navigate stressful situations.
However, Cheang also sees memes as contributing to growing desensitization towards graphic or violent content among Gen Z.
He described seeing disastrous events, like bombings or school shootings, then scrolling and watching a Charlie Kirk meme. The result? The previous event is put out of mind.
“That cycle just keeps repeating. And maybe at the end of the day, you don’t know it, but you’ve probably seen over 50 reels of these catastrophic events,” Cheang said. “It really does desensitize and dilutes our empathy a little bit.”
The meme response to Kirk’s death could be an indicator of this sensation. After constant exposure to graphic violence online, to many, Kirk’s assassination was just another scroll.
Kopper said she was opposed to seeing the unfiltered video of Kirk’s assassination, though she had friends who offered to show it to her. She intentionally avoided it, not wanting to become numb to violence online.
“When we’re more directly exposed to something [graphic], one of two things can happen,” Schnur said. “It can either bring that emotional impact even closer to us, or it can cause us to become more desensitized. On balance, more people emotionally invest after seeing a video. But at a certain point it really does have the opposite effect.”
As an avid social media user, Kopper agreed.
“I feel very conflicted because on one hand, I try to avoid these things because if we see things that are gruesome and unusual, we become used to them,” Kopper said. “But then part of me also says that if we see things online that are disgusting and unusual, maybe that’s the point. Maybe the point is to upset us into taking action, right?”
As the shelf life of Charlie Kirk memes extended past a year, his identity as it once stood has become more muddled.
“If I see a Charlie Kirk meme, I don’t even really associate it with Turning Point USA or the man who was shot in the neck during that debate,” Kopper said. “He’s established his own presence within the meme-sphere, if you will. So he almost has two different identities: one as the activist for Turning Point USA, and one that’s just an entire cultural meme entity.”