Laughter really is good medicine
Humour is helping soothe our nerves during global coronavirus pandemic
NEW YORK People are employing humour as a balm to soothe nerves during the coronavirus pandemic, flocking to new Instagram stars such as Quentin Quarantino and sharing Facebook memes about taking off bras and pants and putting on weight in self-quarantine.
Late-night TV hosts and comedians are providing a mental health safety net too, and experts say humour is a vital part of surviving the situation.
“We’re just trying to find the lighter side of the crisis with articles that tell readers that this is temporary, let’s just get through it together,” said Jonathan Jaffe, whose New Jersey-based satirical newsletter, The Jaffe Briefing, has had a 40 per cent spike in readership since the first coronavirus patient died in the U.S. on Feb. 28.
Snarky but very positive, the daily bulletin updates readers on such news as Anheuser-busch’s efforts to switch production from beer to antiseptics.
Mental health professionals say humour is a balm for soothing nerves, not just by tickling funny bones but by decreasing stress hormones, and clinical evidence shows high levels of stress can weaken immune systems.
Jokes at a time of crisis, however, should be rooted in commonalities rather than in differences.
If not, they risk the resounding criticism directed at comedian Ari Shaffir after he tweeted sarcastic humour about the January death of superstar basketball player Kobe Bryant.
Comedy can also serve as mental armour, says psychologist Sean Truman of St. Paul, Minn.
“It’s a really powerful way to manage the unmanageable. Just to make fun of it and to gain control by laughing at it.
“That’s a really powerful psychological move we can make,” Truman said.
With New York at the epicentre of the U.S. crisis, governor Andrew Cuomo enlisted comic actor Danny Devito to drive home the very serious message about self-quarantining.
“Stay home,” Devito, 75, said in a public service announcement. “We got this virus, this pandemic, and you know young people can get it, and they can transmit it to old people, and the next thing you know — ‘Gghhhhkk, I’m outta there!’”
After production of their latenight television talk shows was shut down, comedians Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah are streaming their monologues online.
Millions watched as Fallon sat on his front porch and rewarded himself for landing jokes told only to his laptop computer by pressing a button that delivered canned laughter and applause.
A recent episode of The Light Show with Stephen Colb-air — We’re All In This Together, recorded on Colbert’s front porch, featured a mock horse race.
One thoroughbred named “Does This Cough Mean Anything?” vied for the lead with one named “Maybe This Will All Blow Over.”
And the winner “by three lengths!” announced the breathless sportscaster, was “Generalized Anxiety.”