Pandemic: What’s Making You Smile & Laugh?

Posted by David Duhr in CoronaVirus      45 comments

Apr
12

Discussion questions: We asked a few WriteByNighters what’s making them smile and laugh while under stay-at-home orders. Their answers, with relevant links, are below. What’s making you smile and laugh these days? Let us know in the comments, and include links to any videos or articles you mention.

While we’re cooped up inside, watching grim numbers climb higher and higher, gloom covers us like a blanket. We have a choice: pull it up around our shoulders and let it overtake us, or do our best to slough it off and find reasons to keep smiling and laughing.

In case you’re interested in the latter, and I hope you are, we asked a group of WriteByNighters what is making them smile and laugh during this bizarre and difficult time. Their answers are below, with links to whatever videos or reading material they reference.

We’d love to hear from you, too: What is making you smile and laugh? Let us know in the comments.

Mainly memes and videos. The physical distancing directive from Leon County struck my funny bone as a Floridian. I also follow Randy Rainbow’s YouTube channel and adore his parodies. There’s much else, but those are two examples.

— Elissa Malcohn

I sent this to my mom, who said something about people in New Orleans being good at making lemonade out of lemons. This is making me smile and laugh.

— Tom Andes, WBN coach & consultant

The Oh, Hello podcast is great so far — it just got started, but if you’re into those characters then it’s right up your alley. I also really love Two Old Queens, a podcast where two comedians talk to their friends (usually other comedians) and try to find the gayest movie of all time using a byzantine scoring system. So funny and complicated, Mark and John have impressive film knowledge and are hilarious at the same time.

— Aaron Block, Yak Babies host

I’ve loved videos of sports commentators commenting on everyday life, since there’s no sports at the moment. I recommend these two tweets from broadcaster Andrew Cotter:

— Adriana Cloud, WBN coach/consultant

The birds who come to my bird feeders all day long — the sparrows are frenzied with spring time, pushing each other out of the way, flying off in little flocks, fighting amongst each other for food and mating rights. Oblivious to our human woes. The goldfinches are molting their winter feathers and I’m waiting to see them transform from black to gold. The grackles patrol through the grass looking for fallen seed and worms, and I have more time to observe them. The greater quiet is palpable and soothing even though I know what it signifies. I laugh where I can, I guess, sometimes at the darkness we’re witnessing, because this seems like one way to process it and witness it and to keep from crying over it at great lengths.

— Cecily Sailer, WBN coach/consultant

I’ve gotten hooked on watching the late-night hosts do shows from their homes. Conan, Colbert, Trevor Noah. The funny thing is, I never watch these shows when they’re on TV. A few nights ago, Conan and Colbert did a twenty-minute… thing. It was fun. It’s stuff like this, humor in fifteen-minute flashes, that’s helping me stay sane.

— Joanne Walters

I smile in admiration for those persons in my circle of writers who are persevering in their work with determined courage. At the lock-down’s onset, our group immediately began asking how we could continue our critique work online (via Internet). I setup a framework for doing that using Dropbox as a platform. So our work is continuing, though at a reduced level and slower pace. The Dropbox work shows me that our writers, despite challenging conditions, are continuing their projects.

Recognizing the importance of this time (the curse of “interesting times”), some of us have taken to journaling or otherwise writing about it. Dr. Kasie, for instance, aired a segment on her radio program describing the types of stories you find written about COVID-19, especially on the Internet. And Danielle is keeping a VLOG about being shut-in with young children. I am making some notes in a private journal, but until now, haven’t been able to muster the morale to do such work for public consumption.

I am most happy that my own family is together and well. Icing on that cake is my writing family also being healthy and working.

— Ray Foy

The only thing that makes us laugh is cat videos and one with a turtle.

— David Lemke

There are some TV shows that I think are funny: Bob ♥ Abishola, Avenue 5, Vagrant Queen. My wife dislikes the Sci-Fi ones.

— Jerry Schwartz

Thank you for reading and contributing. We hope you’re staying healthy and staying safe.

This post is part of a series collecting the experiences of WriteByNighters during the COVID-19 outbreak. Here are links to the rest of these discussion posts:

What is making you cry (sad and/or happy)

What is giving you hope and encouragement

What are you reading?

What are you writing?

How are you writing?

General discussion

WriteByNight co-founder David Duhr is fiction editor at the Texas Observer and co-host of the Yak Babies podcast, and has written about books for the Dallas Morning News, Electric Literature, Publishing Perspectives, and others.

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