Recalling those dreadful days through humour in social media

The news of the deadly virus spreading its tentacles all across the globe started trickling in since January last year creating scare. However; the reality hit us really hard when the nation-wide lockdown was imposed on March 24 bringing life to stand still. It has been an exceptionally tough time marked by panic and anxiety, not just in India but all across the world as governments everywhere imposed lockdowns.

As millions across the globe faced the coronavirus induced lockdowns, there was a massive shared experience. Holed up in their homes, people took to social media in a big way to burst stress by sharing jokes, memes, witty one-liners and funny videos. Online humour emerged as a kind of collective therapy for the humanity providing respite from the grim situation, though temporarily.

The period was bleak but humour in social media was at its best. As people turned to social media for beating the pandemic and lockdown blues, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook came to be flooded with all kinds of jokes-subtle and sarcastic, endearing and wicked. Interesting was the way in which the content of online humour changed as the lockdown inched from one phase to another. Now WFH is normal but initially when work from home was yet to gain momentum, many jokes of the new trend started doing rounds.  Remarkable was this cartoon with panic-stricken passengers on an aeroplane. “This is your pilot speaking. I’m working from home today.”

Ever since the outbreak of the pandemic, there has been no dearth of self-styled experts giving unmasked advice on treatment of the virus. All kinds of cures -allopathic, homeopathic, ayurvedic, naturopathy- have been going round the social media. Let me recall a funny post, “I have just finished my post-doctorate on corona virus treatment from WhatsApp University.”

Many posts were quirky and slightly snide wordplays. An amusing cartoon read, “Villagers in Punjab are still wondering who the hell is Soshail Distan Singh (Social Distancing)?”Another one, “Xi Jinping’s message to the world: No Ming Ling” was equally interesting. A widely-shared one-liner with pun intended, “Corona virus won’t last long because it was made in China” In contrast to the dark jokes, there was an endearing one-liner, “Dear God, please reboot 2020. It has a virus.”

Weeks into the lockdown, a post read, “I have lost all count of days and dates. I don’t know if it is Sunday or Monday, March or April.  There is neither any inflow nor outgo of money. I have risen above materialistic pursuits. Have I attained salvation?”

Lockdown locked couples 24×7 for months without any break which became a subject of many husband-wife jokes. “I and my wife are working from home. I think we will kill each other before the virus does!”Another crisp one-liner read, “Couples in lockdown are in a dilemma if they MADE for each other MAID for each other.” All hell broke loose in most middle class homes in India when the domestic help stopped coming. The absence of maids during the lockdown became a subject of many killer jokes, viral memes and deadly pun.

When liquor shops opened, lovers of Bacchus were found standing in long serpentine queues that became a theme of many WhatsApp jokes as to how they were putting their safety at stake with the noble intention of lifting the economy. There was this cartoon depicting a wife objecting to her husband’s non-stop drinking that stole my heart. The distraught husband was shown pleading he not be stopped as he was an economic warrior consuming liquor to salvage the sinking economy.

Despite rising Covid cases, when lockdown restrictions began to be eased because of economic compulsions since the month of May, I was astounded to find a witty post in my chat-box brilliantly summing up the scenario. “In a way Corona is like your spouse, initially you try to control, then you realize you can’t. And you learn to live with it.

Well ! This is the reality. Lockdown is not a practical solution. but the pandemic doesn’t seem to be going soon .Hence we need coping mechanism, Covid appropriate behavior and vaccination to deal with it.

(Published in Momspresso on 23 March 2021)