We’re all tired of COVID-19, and while joking about the pandemic can be a positive way of coping with our collective stress, we still must keep those who have lost loved ones to the virus in mind when crafting our memes.
Kissing the Coronavirus, one of the internet’s latest memes about the pandemic, is one such example of humour that has crossed the line into insensitivity. It sexualizes the virus in a way that can only be described as insensitive, and detracts attention from the more serious issue at hand—the millions of people who have lost their lives and continue to fall ill.
A story about a person falling in love with the human form of any other affliction than COVID-19 would be deeply troublesome to many people. Joking about kissing something that has affected—and killed—millions of people is just inappropriate.
A few jokes about our collective trauma at a time like this are expected. We are facing a global pandemic, a human rights crisis, an extreme political divide in many parts of the world, and a climate emergency. Sometimes all we can do is laugh—it’s even healthy for us.
However, there is a line between humour bred out of discomfort and a desire to return to normalcy, and humour that ignores the pain of others.
If there was ever a time when humour should ‘punch up’ (within reason), it is now. The world is facing an existential crisis, and many of those in positions of power have not handled it well. Satire about government officials who handle the crisis poorly can even be a fun way to enact change.
If anything should be joked about amidst the pandemic, it should not be the gravity of contracting the virus.
Featured graphic from file.
