|
 Late-night TV hosts and hometown comedians are providing a
mental health safety net for Americans living amid COVID-19
trauma, and medical experts say humor is a vital part of
surviving the cascading catastrophe.
"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 percent spike in readership since the first coronavirus
patient died in the United States 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.
"NEWARK – The Sultan of Sanitizer? The Highness of Hand Hygiene?
The Ayatollah of Antiseptic? Someone has to devise a new, snappy
nickname now that The King of Beers is mass producing hand
sanitizer."
Mental health professionals say humor is a balm for soothing
nerves, not just by tickling funny bones but also by decreasing
stress hormones. 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 humor about the January death of basketball
great Kobe Bryant.
MENTAL ARMOR
At an otherwise grim news conference to update on the state's
COVID-19 death toll and infection numbers, Kentucky officials
this week showed photographs of sidewalks chalked with
light-hearted sayings, and Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven
Stack told reporters, "Humor is healing."
Comedy can serve as mental armor to ensure safe passage through
tragic times, says psychologist Sean Truman of St. Paul,
Minnesota.
[to top of second column] |
"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 epicenter of the U.S. crisis, Governor Andrew
Cuomo enlisted comic actor Danny DeVito to drive home the very
serious message about self-quarantining.
https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/
status/1241841372849672196
"Stay home," DeVito, 75, said in a widely aired 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 late-night 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.
https://twitter.com/
FallonTonight/status/
1240835782950207489
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.
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=wPTTbTRxBsg
One thoroughbred "Does This Cough Mean Anything?" vied for the lead
with "Maybe This Will All Blow Over." And the winner "by three
lengths!" announced the breathless sportscaster, was "Generalized
Anxiety."
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Dan Grebler)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
