George Carlin said you can joke about anything. It all depends on how you construct the joke, what the exaggeration is.
Tough times have always produced a plethora of jokes and the coronavirus pandemic is no exception.
President Herbert Hoover asked Will Rogers to go on the radio to promote Hoover’s plan to get local groups to help with unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Rogers took the opportunity to deliver a hit-parade of humorous sayings that helped soothe the souls of a disheartened public:
Bankers are likeable rascals. Now that we are all wise to ‘em, it’s been shown that they don’t know any more about finances than the rest of us know about our businesses... which has proved to be nothing.
World War ll brought a treasure trove of jokes, some directed at U.S. military leaders but most aimed at the Nazis: ”Hitler and Goring are standing atop the Berlin radio tower. Hitler says he wants to do something to put a smile on Berliners’ faces. So Goring says: ‘Why don’t you jump?’”
When it comes to humor, a health pandemic is a tricky landscape to maneuver for comedians. But humor is just what we need amid all of the worry and uncertainty.
Some professional comedians worry about the pandemic’s long-term effects on the profession itself. Longtime stand-up comedian Roy Wood Jr. wrote an article about his fears that stand-up, which requires packing people into small spaces, will be harmed long into the future, even after the health threat has passed.
Most of the COVID-19 humor has focused on the illogical actions of the public and cluelessness of some government officials.
”Every disaster movie starts with the government ignoring a scientist,” read a sign carried by one protester.
Early in the stay-at-home adventure, many jokes were focused on the sudden hoarding of grocery store items.
”If you need 144 rolls of toilet paper for a 14-day quarantine you should have seen a doctor long before COVID-19.”
A lot of jokes also featured how people were dealing with suddenly working from home with spouses and kids who were doing school online.
”Being cooped up at home I sat down and had a long conversation with my wife. She seems like a nice lady.”
One creative artist did an updated “Where’s Waldo” book, the series of intricately illustrated books that hide the red and white striped Waldo amid hundreds of other people.
One page of the Waldo coronavirus version shows a long stretch of empty beach with only Waldo and a single beach umbrella. Another panel features Waldo and four other figures spread far apart from each other in a park.
But my favorite bit of pandemic humor to date was delivered by a young cashier at a local grocery store.
She was chatting with the guy ahead of me, talking about all of the uncertainty and how so many things we once thought unimaginable are now happening. She paused a while, deep in thought, then looked up and in a somber tone said:
”The next thing you know, Betty White will die.”
Tim Krohn can be contacted at tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com or 507-344-6383.
The Link LonkJuly 05, 2020 at 07:11PM
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Finding the funny in a pandemic - Mankato Free Press
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