Protesting against the leaks of exam papers is serious business – until it is not. In the middle of police lathi-charges, tear gas and breathless news reporters, demonstrators at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar (and their supporters around the country) have found the time to get India to find dark humour in the situation.

Over the past few days, social media platforms have been flooded with memes and videos about the situation from parodies of the Hindi film Dhurandhar to sly digs at those who support the government’s every action blindly.

The protests began on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began to demonstrate at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, claiming that he was responsible for the leaks of papers for national competitive exams.

On Sunday, thousands joined the protest in Delhi after the police forced activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike, into hospital. The protests soon spread to other cities.

A march to Parliament on Monday was met with a brutal crackdown by the police. Dozens were injured by police lathis and had to brave tear gas.

This made some who claimed they would like to attend the protests hesitant. Comedian Danish Sait took aim at them.

Tens of thousands of young people not only joined the demonstrations, some even uploaded snapshots of themselves getting ready to join the protesters.

More adventurous participants filmed themselves running from security personnel during a lathi-charge. While they were at it, some of them kept up their streaks on the Strava fitness app , and turned police barricades into obstacles from the mobile game Subway Surfers.

The signs being carried at the demonstrations provided lots of fodder for posts.

This one poked fun at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s council of ministers.

But how did those exam papers leak? That is what the Hindi film franchise Dhurandar 3 will explain, it seems, just like Dhurandar 2 provided a rationalisation for Modi’s disastrous decision to demonetise 86% of India’s currency in 2016.

Citizens who find creative ways to find excuses for the government were also the butt of humour.

Saloni Gaur channelled the spirit of Bharatiya Janata Party MP, actress Kangana Ranaut, to explain the situation.

The nation’s cartoonist chipped in with biting observations. Rakesh Ranjan took aim at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s penchant for being given obscure awards in foreign countries.

Sandeep Adhwarya weighed in on Bollywood’s silence on the protests.

The artist who goes by the name PenPencilDraw pointed out that the usual tactics employed to discredit protestors seemed to be ineffective.

Rachita Taneja reminded the protesters that India’s Constitution is the strongest weapon against injustice.

Follow updates about the youth protest here.