‘Sleep with one eye open’: Gen Z mocks Melbourne’s crime crisis in viral trend

Gen Z has turned Victoria’s horror crime crisis into a viral social media trend as marketing experts warn Melbourne’s reputation as a real-life ‘Gotham City’ is threatening Labor’s re-election chances.

Victoria’s escalating crime crisis has become fodder for online content creators, prompting warnings to the Allan government that “voters don’t forget fear.”

Melbourne’s crime reputation has become prime material for online comedians, youths and influencers, with many labelling the city “Gotham” as part of a trend that PR and marketing gurus say could hurt Labor’s prospects at the state election in November next year.

This is despite the government introducing tougher bail laws and banning machetes to predominantly tackle spiralling youth crime.

Among a growing number of social media videos mocking the crisis is one posted by a former cop turned comedian.

In the reel, he can be seen getting into bed with a large kitchen knife before doing the sign of the cross, alongside the caption: “How Victorian people go to sleep in 2025”.

In another video a man walks outside Flinders St Station gripping his backpack and repeatedly checking behind him with the caption: “How we gotta walk in Melbourne to get home safe vs. …”

It then flips to him calmly walking outside the Opera House with the caption: “How we walk in Western Sydney”.

The social media trend has even seen one amateur football player dress up as a machete amnesty bin for his club’s Mad Monday celebrations.

One young Victorian dressed up as one of the Allan government's controversial machete amnesty bins for Mad Monday. Picture: Supplied.

Platforms like TikTok have also seen those impacted the most by the crisis vent their distress at how grief and violence have damaged their communities, taking a much starker tone than those “taking the piss”.

In one video, a young woman tells her followers that “Nobody wants to talk about the way our South Sudanese community has become so desensitised to all of the stuff that’s going on”.

@atongdeng22

We as a community share collective responsibility. #fyp#youthcrime#melb#southsudantiktokers🇸🇸#violence

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Describing the deaths of those she grew up with as “heartbreaking,” the young woman said she has “nieces and nephews, friends and family and young people I work with where I am fearful for their lives every single day”.

“We as a community are so numb to all the violence and the recurrence of death.”

Australian marketing guru Toby Ralph said the videos were proof that Victoria’s reputation as the crime state was not going away anytime soon.

“Crime’s gone cultural because when governments won’t act, Victorians cope by laughing,” he said.

“Once a state gets branded a crime capital, it sticks, and voters don’t forget fear.

“By the next election, the hardest job in Victoria won’t be policing crime, it’ll be convincing people it’s safe again.”

The South Sudanese community was rocked this year when Chol Achiek, 12, and Dau Akueng, 15, were killed in a machete attack in Cobblebank. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

He said some of the blame for the state of affairs in Victoria must be placed on the federal government for failing to shut down the illicit tobacco trade.

“Housebreakers, machete-carriers, arsonists, and even sex traffickers are all cashflowed by the same illicit nicotine trade the federal government refuses to choke off,” he said.

“It’s linked to hundreds of fire bombings, car theft rings that steal cars to order – often for ram raids – violent home invasions, blatant shoplifting, gun running, assassinations and ‘smoke-tax wars’ between gangs.

“Gangsters use malleable kids to carry out the crimes, knowing they won’t get sentenced.”

RMIT communications scholar Dr Xiufang Leah Li said the social media posts had the potential to damage Victorian tourism.

“This is obviously not what we want potential tourists to see when they search Melbourne up on TikTok,” she said.

“The best thing the state government can do is lay out a clear plan otherwise the social media jokes will just keep coming.

“There is plenty of empirical research that clear messaging from state actors is the best way to stop that kind of negative image from spreading.”

Premier Jacinta Allan has been under pressure to do more to fix the state’s crime crisis. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Political communication strategist Dr Natalie McKenna said when crime becomes part of popular culture through comedy and sporting references, it “signals a shift from concern to cynicism”.

“The narrative has moved beyond policy debate to cultural commentary, which is much harder for government to control,” she said.

“From a political branding perspective, this is damaging because it reshapes how Victorians see Labor — not through policy achievements, but through symbols of perceived failure amplified on social media.

“Once that kind of narrative takes hold, it becomes a reputational issue rather than a policy one.”

A Victorian government spokeswoman acknowledged that children were increasingly committing horrifying violent and brazen crimes.

“There’s more to do,” she said.

“Police say this is a new kind of crime that constantly requires new interventions, so we will always consider new ways to prevent this crime and protect the community.”

Originally published as ‘Sleep with one eye open’: Gen Z mocks Melbourne’s crime crisis in viral trend