“This is a tough hurricane, one of the wettest we’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water.” This quote from President Donald Trump was one of many jokes for the Hurricane Florence meme revolution.

In an effort to cope with Hurricane Florence before she hit the Carolina coast, last week many millennials decided to take part in the sharing of various hurricane memes. These jokes included Florence Welch and Florence Henderson comparisons, Marvel’s “Infinity War” crossovers and classic self-deprecating humor associated with eating all of the hurricane snacks too quickly.

As someone who readily enjoys the online culture of memes, I found myself joining the comical movement. I had marked myself ‘going’ to a Facebook event titled “Do the hokey pokey at Florence so she’ll turn herself around.” Yet, taking a step back, I realized that this hurricane was actually no joke and was a serious issue approaching.

Over the past two weeks, Hurricane Florence has devastated the Carolina coast and deeply affected the lives of individuals living and studying in these areas. The News & Observer reports that the death toll due to Hurricane Florence has reached 43 and schools nearer to the coast such as UNC-Wilmington don’t plan on resuming classes until Oct. 1.

Therefore, the horrible loss associated with the tropical storm bears the question: how moral is it to make jokes about such a terrible situation? Especially in today’s heavily polarized environment, it can be easy to come off as uninformed or callous for making jokes about serious issues. However, humor during serious issues is exactly what we need to persist through difficult times.

Maddie Pence, an NC State graduate from the class of 2018, gave me some of the best advice when confronting difficult situations with humor, once telling me, “If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.” Humor is a coping mechanism to make the lows in life a little better. To take a situation that can be perceived as dark and negative and find a light-hearted spin can help make it much more bearable.

It seems clear that less controversial humor — the hokey pokey Facebook event for example — is not really problematic. The Facebook event doesn’t attack anyone, and it presents a light-hearted tone with its reference to a children’s dance.

With a case like this, Pence’s quote shines through. You have to be able to laugh off worry and anxiety that might be associated with the real world. Making light of a situation puts your mind at ease from what is happening around you and also builds a resilience within you to forge ahead through times of negativity, failure, and depressing occurrences within our life.

Additionally, laughter is truly the best medicine, as laughing off your worries is beneficial for your physical, mental and social health. Laughter and humor also improve problem solving and social relations which are crucial when working together with a community to prepare for or to manage a possible threat such as Hurricane Florence.

Even within the hokey pokey Facebook event, members were not only exchanging various memes about Hurricane Florence but were also sharing information about hurricane relief efforts, tips they had from Hurricane Hugo, and updates regarding the hurricane’s path. The optimistic attitude created by the humor helped the 27,000 interested in ‘attending’ through what could have easily been a difficult time without laughter.

Contrary to Freud’s analysis of humor veiling aggression and maliciousness, laughing at a joke does not mean you’re a bad person. If you got a slight chuckle laughing at a Hurricane Florence meme but you remember the devastation it caused to the coast, you don’t need to feel guilty. As long as you’re able to disconnect after the joke and understand that laughing at the joke does not belittle the effect the hurricane has had across the state, then you’re still a morally upright person.

So, go ahead and make a lighthearted Hurricane Florence joke, but you can also donate to NC State’s hurricane relief program. You’re not crossing any lines if the humor helps you cope and it’s able to rally the spirits of others to prepare for what’s to come. Maybe then the hurricane won’t rain on your parade.