By Saba Hamedy - NBC News
At first, news that a submersible had gone missing during a trip to the Titanic's sinking site sparked a wave of shock and concern. The five people on board, now presumed dead, faced dwindling oxygen supplies and a harsh, unforgiving environment in the depths of the water.
But then more details emerged: the wealth of those on board, warnings made about potential safety issues from the Titan submersible, and comments from the CEO who seemed to ignore these alerts. And empathy gave way to crude humor, with memes mocking the victims popping up on platforms like Twitter, Tik Tok and Instagram.
"It's crazy to think that maybe we only have another 30 hours or so to be able to make fun of the people in the submarine," one TikTok user said in a video uploaded Tuesday that has 1.4 million views, an apparent reference to the hours of oxygen passengers had left. Many of the approximately 1000 commentators also made jokes about the tour. The user did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Throughout the week, criticism of memes about the missing submersible began to emerge. NBC News / Twitter
Research has shown that many use humor and memes to deal with tragedy. But as jokes about the missing vessel circulated online, some said they felt the black humor was ill-timed and in bad taste, given that the rescue operation was ongoing.
Then, on Thursday afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard said debris from the vehicle had been discovered and was "consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel." Everyone on board is believed to be dead.
[This is the last thing known after the confirmation of the implosion of the submersible Titan]
David Pogue, a CBS News reporter who attended a Titan expedition last year, said he saw "horrific" memes after the Titan news broke.
"Obviously, when it comes to what we know now, joking is inappropriate and a little sick," Pogue said. "Five people died. They had spouses, they had families. It's very sad," he added.
Jessica Myrick, a professor at Pennsylvania State University who studies the psychology of media use, suggested that the reaction to the lost submersible could be driven by schadenfreude, or the pleasure derived from the pain of a person or group we don't like.
"We feel it even stronger when we thought the people involved deserved what they got," Myrick, who co-wrote a 2021 study on COVID-19-related memes, said in an email.
This is the last thing that is known after the confirmation of the implosion of the submersible Titan
June 23, 202302:14
With the Titan, Myrick said, "the details of rich people making a dangerous journey in what looks like a can just for fun and just because they can might also evoke some disgust from people who could never afford to do that and probably would even if they could afford it."
A trip on the Titan costs each passenger $250,000, limiting the experience to those wealthy enough to afford it. But despite this steep fee, some elements of the submersible were poorly built, as Pogue described it, noting that it appeared that the company, OceanGate Expeditions, "took shortcuts."
Many memes showed photos of the interior of the vessel, with people pointing out how it handles with a video game controller and suggesting that passengers should have known not to go. Others began to use the expression "eat the rich."
"Making memes about this event, especially before the fatal outcome was known, is probably a direct response to the last decade of news coverage that advertised billionaire explorers with their own companies (think SpaceEx, Blue Origin, etc.) showing that money alone can't make someone a hero. smart or successful," Myrick said.
[The Titanic] was a luxury cruise ship that basically risked everything: it was too fast, reckless, and in the end it became a death sentence... Much like this Titan submarine."
Shane Tilton University of Northern Ohio
People are also drawn to this story specifically because "history repeats itself, basically," said Shane Tilton, an associate professor of multimedia journalism at Ohio Northern University, citing the sinking of the Titanic.
"It was this luxury cruise ship that basically risked everything: it was too fast, it was too reckless, and in the end it became a death sentence for those traveling on it. Much like this Titan submarine," Tilton said.
"Memes do themselves because you have a parallel story that makes it very easy to tell and very easy to communicate," he said.
As the search continued through the week, more memes emerged. Some joked that orcas could be to blame, referring to widely circulated reports of orcas apparently attacking and sinking ships in the southwestern tip of Europe in May.
Some created memes and posted videos as a way to add comments about what was going on, as evidenced by the more than 71 million people who used the #titansubmarine hashtag on TikTok.
[The young man who died in the submersible was "terrified" with the expedition. This is how they will recover the bodies]
"Since we also can't visually see any suffering, it's not a huge leap for many people to wryly poke fun at all of this and connect with other people who also find it funny," Myrick said. "It builds group cohesion among those who will never have the opportunity to explore just for fun," he added.
Still, criticism of black humor began to emerge over the course of the week.
"I don't know, I know we hate rich people, but I think if you're laughing at the idea of a person who isn't bad dying, maybe it's the scariest death you can imagine, it might be time to log out for a while," one Twitter user wrote.
"I know it's all 'eat the rich' reactions, but I also don't think I'm going to laugh at the possible deaths of several people just because they wanted what they spent unapologetically to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Even though they didn't investigate before paying," another user wrote.
Who were the five deceased who traveled in the submersible that descended to the Titanic
June 23, 202301:33
Myrick said the speech is not unexpected, given that "our society has even more income inequality than before."
Another reason the conversation occurred online is a little less surprising.
"The internet is generally not a hot and confusing place, and especially platforms like Twitter that don't moderate content much anymore," he said. "Black humor is a natural byproduct for some of the luckiest people in the world who are in an unfortunate situation and many internet users who want to talk about this really unusual event with others who have a similar sense of humor."