Hello All! I am looking for responses to this article, as there have been very few peer-reviewed articles on this subject matter. The topic is COVID-19 humour, and many examples have been embedded in it. It was written and published late last year, and it is the result of being under quarantine from COVID-19 for over a year now - not the usual kind of article I write, Here is the title and other details:
Online Humour, Cartoons, Videos, Memes, Jokes and Laughter in the Epoch of the Coronavirus. Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture Online Humour, Cartoons, Videos, Memes, Jokes and Laughter in the Epoch of the Coronavirus. Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture, (10), 274-318.
Here is the Open Access link:
https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.10.17
My question relates to whether or not this topic is simply too sensitive for many people at present. From my perspective it has been cathartic.
Thank you very much Freda, and I am now "following" you. I've looked through your profile and can see that you have a research interest in LAUGHTER, which is also of great interest to me.
I will try to check out any articles that you've written on that specific subject, and it was really key to my writing it in the first instance.
Best wishes, Christine Freda Gonot-Schoupinsky
I've just read one of your articles in which you discuss humour/laughter as a form of self-care, which I guess was the case in my article although I didn't want the article to be all about "me", but rather, a guide for others in need of cheering up if they were finding the going to be tough.
In actual fact a well-developed sense of humour provides a lot of resilience and I haven't been sitting or lying around feeling sorry for myself, for a minute. But that's largely because from a very early age I developed a strong sense of humour, but not everyone does - it depends a lot on their circumstances I think. And that is a pity because I see a sense of humour as being quite central to building resilience in hard or uncertain times.
I'd be interested in your view on this.
With best wishes Freda, Christine
Here is my own modest contribution:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Coronavirus_Humor-do_you_have_any_examples
Covid humor can be a purgative for some, purgatory for others. Does your personal cathartic perspective encompass the demise of any of your own loved ones? But no matter what the subject of humor, there will always be people who can find offence.
I guess it might make a signifcant difference if a joke directly pertains to the circumstances of death of a particular person of whom one and one's interlocutors are friends, relatives, or personal acquaintances. But then again maybe not: think of the portrayed reactions of the staff to the death of Chuckles on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuckles_Bites_the_Dust
Thank you Karl for your commentary, which is greatly appreciated. And yes, Coronavirus is a double-edged sword, and most certainly shouldn't be applied to any individual death from the pandemic, or be shared with any friends, relatives, or others one knows less closely . But it is a kind of (temporary) panacea for those who have survived thus far.
While I'm not really into Freud, I think it is a competition between the pleasure principle and the death drive (the name of the next article I'm writing), but the latter will eventually win, ultimately, regardless of COVID-19. So it can honestly only act as a temporary salve.
Again, many thanks,
Christine
I've added a file by the brilliant Polish cartoonist SKOP (a pseudonym)
Here is a PowerPoint on "Jokes, Practical Jokes, and Joke Cycles." You will notice that in this PowerPoint, Covid-19 jokes are a very significant type of "Joke Cycle":
Dear Don L. F. Nilsen,
What can we expect in the era of coronavirus? Anything. What can save us? Only humor. If you remember, in the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, the demand for toilet paper increased dramatically and people began to buy hundreds and thousands of rolls for, because there was a huge excitement. And here's a reason to remind you of this
https://zen.yandex.ru/media/oskanov/anekdot-pro-tualetnuiu-bumagu-i-inoplanetian-narod-s-takim-chuvstvom-iumora-ne-slomit--5e73441fb22d3c6dcc1e6fa8
An anecdote about toilet paper and aliens. People with such a sense of humor cannot be broken.
Earth. After some time from now. An archaeological expedition of aliens arrives on the planet. Aliens inspect the surface and ruins of human civilization. Dialogue between two extraterrestrial scientists:
- Yes, it's a pity, of course. But we have to admit that all the intelligent inhabitants of this planet died out from a sudden epidemic ... It was an interesting form of life ...
- Did you notice, colleague, how clean their asses were before they died?
However, I am very interested in the topic "Music in the era of COVID-19", because I have something to show and share. This is also important.
A very interesting topic indeed. I personally did not find this topic too sensitive. For, me your observation of and analysis of humour is a relief from simply experiencing the stress of the pandemic and people's reaction to it. Thank you for sharing.
Two of my favourite memes during the pandemic were these. The first appeared about the time facemasks had become compulsory in UK. The second I spotted in the winter when the Pandemic and the winter seemed to have lasted forever
Thank you so much Julia - these are wonderful memes, and I wish that I had seen them earlier. BTW, where do you live? (ie which country in the UK?) I really appreciate the fact that you have uploaded them.
All the best,
Christine