On the anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s death, many Gen Zers are sharing odd posts. Here’s why

On the anniversary of Charlie Kirk's death, plenty of Gen Zers are sharing odd posts.

Key points

• Crump first met the political commentator at Turning Point USA's Young Black Leadership Summit in October 2018.
• Rachel Hale's role covering Youth Mental Health at USA TODAY is backed by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners.
• Chandler Crump, 21, a Republican who grew up in Kirk's movement, notes he worries that Gen Z's indifference to violence has climbed since Kirk was killed.
• Coping mechanism would be the most straightforward way of putting it, notes Joel Penney, an associate professor at Montclair State University who studies media and political communication.
• Users remixed Spalexma's AI-generated "We Are Charlie Kirk" song, originally intended as a tribute, over other songs.

On the anniversary of Charlie Kirk's death, plenty of Gen Zers are sharing odd posts. Here's why. Rachel Hale USA TODAY. In August, something peculiar began happening on TikTok.

Charlie Kirk, the political commentator and Turning Point USA founder who was killed in September of 2025, began appearing in increasingly distorted, nonsensical and sometimes morbid memes and short-form video clips.

Sepia-toned photos of him smiling were featured in nostalgic, autumn montages between cuts of pumpkin spice lattes and "Gilmore Girls." His face was superimposed onto iCarly, Birkenstocks and Lana Del Rey. Users remixed Spalexma's AI-generated "We Are Charlie Kirk" song, originally intended as a tribute, over other songs.

Notably, the memes have ramped up in the lead-up to the one-year anniversary of Kirk's death on Sept. 10. It's something users throughout social media are calling the "Kirkiversary."

On its face, these posts may appear bizarre, tasteless and tone-deaf. But experts who study media and digital culture explain that as Gen Zers create sense of political violence, polarization and constant exposure to bad news, these posts are actually a good example of how numerous young individuals today apply humor to distance themselves from the emotional weight of reality.

As his image and death have been absorbed into the same internet culture that turns celebrities, songs and TV demonstrates into memes, the Kirk content is a striking example of that.

Coping mechanism would be the most straightforward way of putting it, notes Joel Penney, an associate professor at Montclair State University who studies media and political communication. There's all this anxiety around horrible things happening in our world. Memes seem to be a way of making it easier to handle those kinds of problems by turning them into a joke.

More: Charlie Kirk was a symbol for plenty of young residents. Now what? How 'Kirkification' became larger than Charlie Kirk.

While supporters sought to cast him as a cultural hero, donning his face on clothing and plastering his likeness throughout businesses and merchandise, in the weeks after Kirk's death, employers censured and fired hundreds of individuals for sharing distasteful remarks concerning Kirk.

Meanwhile, the initial memes surrounding Kirk were, in some ways, a blowback to that reaction.

"Memers on the internet immediately took his image and turned it into something else, literally into everything else. No matter who the celebrity movie character or meme character was, it became Kirkified, " explained meme researcher Aidan Walker in a TikTok. "Instead of turning into a justification for one group of Americans to take up arms against another, the image of Charlie Kirk turned into something that belonged to every American, to all of mankind."

For young individuals who increasingly encounter their news, entertainment and culture in the same online spaces, TikTok became an incubator for reactions, where unpolished moments and niche in-jokes can go viral swiftly.

Kirk was already a part of that ecosystem. His short-form video content and public appearances produced a plethora of footage that could easily be clipped, repurposed and remixed, into preexisting memes and trending audios.

At some point, Kirk became an aesthetic, sound and meme, moving, Penney notes, to the stage of self-referential humor.

By the first week of September, TikTok users were turning Kirk's name into a growing lexicon of wordplay.

"I wanna wish you a merry Kirkmas, From the bottom of my heart, " reads one post on X. "Will you be my kirkentinte?" reads another TikTok.

Others have brought the viral moment into the real world. Georgetown University students faced blowback after anonymous posts promoted a proposed Charlie Kirk lookalike contest scheduled for Sep. 10.

Some posts seemingly have no meaning at all – one video using a kaleidoscopic effect repeated images of Kirk's face into a seemingly endless tunnel that spirals toward the center of the screen.

"It sort of becomes the 'in joke' that young people are sharing with each other, " Penney notes, adding that it reminds him of "Six Seven." "Getting that the reference is stupid and has no meaning becomes the meaning."

All of Gen Z is larping. It's not what you think it is. How Gen Z uses humor to cope.

Gen Z, the cohort born between 1997 and 2012, is struggling with decreasing social infrastructures and disillusioned with the state of their finances, a growing political divide and a job market overshadowed by AI. They've grown up watching wars, natural disasters and a pandemic unfold from their screens.

For some, absurdist humor has become a way to cope with that uncertainty, and to turn their anxiety into a shared experience.

Audrey Halversen, a political communication researcher and Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Michigan, notes that unlike other forms of political expression, like protesting or getting involved in local politics, memes can serve as a low-barrier gateway, even for residents who are otherwise politically disengaged.

"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, " Halversen notes, adding that they allow young residents to channel "their feelings of anxiety, anger and disillusionment."

But that detachment can have a cost. Halversen notes that joking concerning a politically motivated murder probable additionally reflects a growing desensitization to political violence.

Crump first met the political commentator at Turning Point USA's Young Black Leadership Summit in October 2018. He was 14 at the time and notes Kirk inspired him to start an X handle and build an online platform. Over the years, they stayed in touch, and Crump continued going to Turning Point summits, eventually rising in the ranks enough to become a speaker at the events.

"There exist many people that want their ideology to prevail so desperately that they view those they disagree with as mortal enemies not deserving of life, " Crump notes. "Conservatives my age are taking the 'memes' as a reminder that there is still more work to do."

Rachel Hale's role covering Youth Mental Health at USA TODAY is backed by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Reach her at [email protected] and @rachelleighhale on X. SMS Facebook Twitter Email. Share your feedback to support improve our site! Share your feedback to support improve our site!

In short, on the anniversary of Charlie Kirks death, many Gen Zers are sharing is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.