There isn’t anything remotely funny about Covid-19 or people suffering from it, or the prospects of a worldwide outbreak, or politicians only out for their own political survival.
And yet, we always find the humor. Even in the face of doom and destruction, there’s a punch line.
We’re wired that way.
While researching a vaccine for this particular strain, maybe someone should also do a study on why we find a way to laugh at the bleakest parts, much in the way Mary Tyler Moore laughed at Chuckles the Clown’s funeral.
As shelter-in-place orders and numbers of cases increase, my sense is that things probably won’t seem so funny so easily. And after being shut in for a month, maybe we won’t have any sense of humor left at all.
But for now, with nothing to do but text clips of what we’ve found on the web, the virus isn’t the only thing circulating.
The niche casting on the web is perhaps the best way to share a laugh and ease the feral anxiety, if only for a few moments. They’re not even from regular YouTube channels, and the spontaneity is perhaps the best thing about them, highlighting their essential human spirit.
Since everyone is working out a way to get his or her exercise in, cabin fever has spawned its share of indoor sports.
If you have a Roomba and a Swiffer, you are now fully capable of conducting your own curling match:
If your gym is shut down (and why would you go if it isn’t?), and you are missing the treadmill, a little dish soap and some water will suffice:
Or you can simply lean out the window with your neighbor in the next apartment for a brief volley:
Maybe the most uplifting example comes from Italy where a fitness instructor, at a safe social distance, conducted his own fitness class for the surrounding shut-ins:
And perhaps parents truly are the real heroes in all of this since they now are indoors with their kids, 24/7. This isn’t technically a sport, but you have to admire the ingenuity to finish this race: