India, Pakistan and the meme-ification of war

ghazi52 · 2025-05-01T17:15:01+0500

India, Pakistan and the meme-ification of war

Why are jokes about a possible war between two nuclear-armed nations so darn funny?

Siham Basir
May 1, 2025

Men used to go to battle. Now, they head to X and Instagram to share memes. If that offends or confuses you, perhaps you’re not as chronically online as some of us who are following the escalation in tensions with India in the form of memes and jokes.

When the term ‘fifth generation warfare’ was coined, its creators would never have imagined it would come to include snide memes and videos mocking a country’s battle strategy. But here we are in 2025, and as India threatens to attack Pakistan and cut off its water supply vis-à-vis the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistanis are responding in the way we know best — with rather inane memes and jokes.

To the uninitiated, this may sound like another round of “the tea was fantastic” jokes à la Abhinandan, which now elicit nothing more than a side eye or a grimace. In contrast, these jokes are self-deprecating taunts more in the style of a class clown getting a rise out of riling up his opponent the way they know best — with a humour so self-deprecating, it gags your opponent and deprives them of a witty comeback.

Ironically, the jokes aren’t even always aimed at Indians — many of them are poking fun at Pakistan’s own problems — from lack of water to high PTA taxes on phones. In fact, the majority of the jokes are so ridiculous that many Indian netizens can do little more than scoff in amazement at just how unserious the Pakistani internet is and chuckle along. After all, if India cuts off Pakistan’s water supply, even Atif Aslam and Hania Aamir will be thirsty… but Indians wouldn’t know now that the superstars have been blocked too.

Whither the meme go-est

What is particularly striking is the ingenuity of the jokes — ranging from young Pakistanis bemoaning the prospective chapter to be added to the Pak Studies exam should the country go to war to sneaking water off from across the border for your favourite celebrity, phones magically starting to work once they’re out of the PTA’s jurisdiction and sniggers at the thought of India having to draft Babar Azam for the Indian Cricket Team in the unlikely possibility of it conquering Pakistan.

Not that anyone seems to actually believe India will be able to best our armed forces or even attack — these jokes are precursors to any actual events happening. They do, however, poke fun at the idea of a war, mocking it in a way only Gen Z can.

They come in all forms, from pictures of sad kittens pleading with India to “turn the water back on” so they can complete their skincare routine to videos of young Pakistanis running in the mountains as news of “Captain Ajay Devgan, Major Akshay Kumar and General Hritik Roshan” sneaking into the country spreads. Another favourite is the furious debate over just how troublesome it will be to have to say ‘j’ instead of ‘z’.

As perturbed Indians scroll through the inanity of Pakistani humour, many have decided to join in on the fun. While some are offering water to their favourite Pakistanis, others are planning side quests to Burns Road for Karachi’s famous kababs during the ‘war’ or meet-ups with internet friends in Pakistani cities.

They’re all laughing at the idea of a war in a way only Gen Z can — a generation mocked incessantly for its failure to take things seriously. But if there’s one thing they do seem to be taking quite seriously, it’s mocking the very suggestion that we could go to war.

Couple a failure to take things seriously with a general sense of disillusionment and a tendency to use humour as a coping mechanism and you’ve got yourself the perfect recipe for memes.

A meme a day keeps the war mongers at bay

Using memes in times of crisis isn’t new. Come what is thrown at Pakistan, its netizens have often responded in the form of memes and self-deprecating jokes.

From losing cricket matches to being threatened with actual war, Pakistanis pride themselves on their meme game — and making fun of everyone else’s atrocious sense of humour. We’ve heard of he who laughs last, but Pakistanis are masters at laughing first. After all, if you laugh first, you don’t leave the other with much ammunition.

And we Pakistanis love to laugh — at ourselves as well as at others — and meme warfare isn’t new to us.

On February 14, 2019, 40 Indian paramilitary troops were killed in Pulwama in Indian-Occupied Kashmir, and India lay the blame squarely on Pakistan’s shoulders. Pakistan was quick to deny the claim. Notwithstanding the denial, however, India retaliated by conducting an airstrike in Pakistan. Unfortunately for the Indians, they ended up destroying some trees instead of causing any real damage. Even more unfortunate for them was the subsequent capture of Indian Air Force pilot Captain Abhinandan Varthaman, whose plane was shot down after entering Pakistani airspace. He was soon sent back but not before being served a cup of “fantastic” tea that sparked an avalanche of memes that continue till this day.

The situation was indeed serious — further escalation between two nuclear armed countries is not something to joke about — but at the time, the majority of the jokes began after Abhinandan’s capture and when the danger of an outright war was all but over.

But even the jokes of 2019 couldn’t have foretold just how unserious Pakistanis would have become in 2025, joking about a war that could very well happen and the suspension of a treaty that is vital for the livelihood of millions of people in the country.

Therapy, one meme at a time

This self-deprecating form of humour isn’t unique to Pakistan, though the rampant mockery of a war through a never-ending barrage of self-deprecating memes could well be.

People have been using humour as a coping mechanism for decades and Gen Z, as a generation, is reportedly more depressed than the generations before it. Studies have shown that teenagers today see anxiety and depression as major problems among their peers, with many viewing their mental health as a source of stress.

This kind of humour — gallows humour, if you will — comes at a time when Pakistanis are going through an economic crisis to beat all others. Electricity prices are high — when you get electricity that is. If you live in Karachi, water’s an issue. No matter where you live, gas is an issue. If you stay in Pakistan too long, you’ll get a hefty tax bill from the PTA in order to use your phone. At the same time, people are finding it difficult to get jobs and there’s a general sense of insecurity in the country. Is it any wonder then that Pakistanis are fed up and turning to humour as an ever-reliable coping mechanism?

From adding comical video game music to videos of people doing parkour on containers placed to block protesters from entering Islamabad to near constant jokes about VPNs, many young Pakistanis are turning very serious issues into jokes, not because they don’t see the severity of the issues, but because they don’t seem to know how else to process these major events happening in the country and around the world.

They’re disillusioned and that is becoming all the more apparent in their jokes and memes.

Is this a healthy coping mechanism? Likely not. But it is a form of black humour that unites people in high-stress environments and allows them to process difficult emotions. Usually, that applies to medical professionals, journalists, law enforcers and sometimes even prisoners of war who all often use humour as a way to better their mental health, but today, most Pakistanis live in a high stress environment that’s enough to send their blood pressure rising regardless of their profession.

The kids are going to be alright

But there is something to be said for these young Pakistanis’ resilience and refusal to be blindly coerced into hating our neighbours. No amount of war-mongering or vitriolic speeches from across the border seem to be able to penetrate the dark humour-cloaked armour we are wearing. We are, effectively, the nonchalant kid in the back of the class who cracks jokes even at times when the situation doesn’t call for it, or the funny best friend in a 2000s movie, always ready with snappy one-liners, brushing off insults with a casual shrug of the shoulder.

As some Pakistanis sit wondering if this recent escalation could result in a war, scrolling mindlessly through Instagram and watching videos of people making self-deprecating jokes about Indians invading Pakistan and heading straight back after being buried in a mountain of debt and other problems, these jokes provide not only comic relief, but a sense of calm.

There’s no fear mongering or calls for violence here — just a reassurance that it’ll all be okay, come what may. And if living in Pakistan has taught us anything, it’s that no matter what is thrown our way, Pakistanis have a way of shrugging it off, laughing and moving on. And if that isn’t the Pakistani way, I don’t know what is.