How to explain TikTok humor to people over 40?

It's tough because a lot of TikTok humor is built on speed and reference layering that older folks just didn't grow up with. Like, you'll have a 15-second video that references three different memes, a sound bite from a movie, and some inside joke from a Discord server - and if you're not constantly online, you just see a weird video of someone doing something random. I try explaining it to my parents when I'm showing them something funny and I usually end up realizing I can't actually explain *why* it's funny without a 20-minute backstory.

The thing that helps most is just showing them videos and being patient about the context. Some humor is pretty universal - like physical comedy or animals doing weird stuff - and those tend to land. But the absurdist stuff, the ironic stuff, the "it's funny because it's supposed to be bad" stuff... that's harder. I've noticed that people over 40 often still think humor needs a clear punchline with a setup, but TikTok humor is often more about vibe and randomness. Maybe compare it to how their generation had inside jokes or references from TV shows they all watched - it's similar, just faster and more fragmented now.

My advice is don't try too hard to make it click for them. Some people get it eventually just from exposure, some never will, and that's fine. I'm way more into chess strategy than scrolling TikTok anyway, so I get not being plugged into every trend. Just show them the ones you think they'd actually find amusing rather than trying to explain the joke.