One popular use of social media for Gen Z, who oftentimes forget that the internet is forever, is fan edits. These edits are typically videos of a user’s favorite couple, like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce or Zendaya and Tom Holland. Yet the most popular ships – the term used to describe a relationship that you support – are often of two people who are not together. For example, the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk and Dean Withers, a left leaning content creator. While Kirk and Withers certainly never hinted at any sort of romantic relationship, the two debated and talked about disagreeing with each other. TikTokers have run wild following Kirk’s passing. Is it just disrespectful or does this phenomenon shed light on Gen Z’s sense of humor as disguised homophobia?
Kirk and Withers first debated on a Jubilee video on the topic of abortion. Following the debate, Withers continuously called out Kirk for not agreeing to another debate. Up until Kirk’s death, the two exchanged comments about each other on social media. When Kirk’s death was announced, Withers posted a video to express how saddened he was, crying to the camera for minutes.
TikTok took this video of Withers crying and ran – no, sprinted with it. The edits were immediate. Users clipped together videos of Withers crying and Kirk – well, being Kirk – to romantically charged songs.
One video posted the two to the lyrics of Sombr’s song “undressed:” “And I don’t wanna learn another scent / I don’t want the children of another man / To have the eyes of the girl I won’t forget.” Some users even used modified images of the two men kissing in their edits.
Are these edits humorous, ironic and maybe almost funny? Yes, of course. The implication is everything that Kirk disagrees with, not to mention he was married with two children. Enemies to lovers is a popular trope on the internet so it is no surprise that the video of Withers crying over a man he was presumed to have hated was sure to trigger a slew of fan edits.
These edits are subjectively morally bad. When Withers was asked about how aware he was of the edits, he laughed and changed the subject. While Withers may appear to find humor, he is still alive to find the humor. Kirk is dead, so while no harm no foul, these edits would only be so much funnier had he been alive to see them. What’s the point now? Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, has not spoken about the edits or made any mention that she is aware of their existence.
These humorous, “harmless” edits are simply putting more trash onto the internet. These sorts of fan edits are great examples of the short serotonin boost that TikTok provides users that makes the app so addictive. The trend of Kirk and Withers will – and mostly has – passed, but a new inappropriate ship will certainly emerge. The tendency to ship queer couples that do not actually exist shows how desperate pop culture is for some controversy. Why is it that these ships are often queer? What makes the queerness funnier to the audience?
Other examples of these ships include “Hobama” the popular ship of Harry Styles and former President Barack Obama. Popstar Swift and her former friend Karlie Kloss have been shipped by a subset of Swifties who call themselves “Gaylors” for over a decade now. Despite Swift’s outrageously noticeable public romance with Kelce, the Swift-Kloss ship has been so influential on pop culture that it shifted the way Swift interacted with her entire fandom . The hashtag has over 35-thousand videos on TikTok. Additionally Twenty One Pilots bandmates Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun played into their fandom shipping them (their ship name being Joshler), despite both now being married (to different women).
While Hobama has been joked about by Styles and Joshler has actually been played into by the band, Gaylors were shut down once or twice. Rallying up your fanbase that you are secretly in love is one way to keep them interested.
Star crossed lovers are forced. The belief that all of these “couples” are tragically in love and just yearning to be with each other, stems partly for the commodity that the media has made of being gay. Shock factor is important in these edits – I mean, a popstar and a former president is pretty outlandish. Part of the shock factor that is used is the gayness of these ships. Are we so desperate for 15 seconds of entertainment that we want to imply two people are in love and laugh about how outlandish, or surprising it, would be if those two people were actually queer and in love? Does that not contribute to more internalized homophobia? So what if any of these people were gay? Why give Kirk even more of a platform than he already had?
Let the dead rest and let the ships rest with them.
