Zoom Call on SNL

Laughter Helps the Brain Relax.' How Humor Can Combat Coronavirus Anxiety

Laughter Helps the Brain Relax.' How Humor Can Combat Coronavirus Anxiety

A man walks past the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, R.I. on March 24, 2020.
William J. Kole—AP

BY WILLIAM J. KOLE / AP
MARCH 26, 2020


(BOSTON) — Neil Diamond posts a fireside rendition of “Sweet Caroline” with its familiar lyrics tweaked to say, “Hands … washing hands.” A news anchor asks when social distancing will end because “my husband keeps trying to get into the house.” And a sign outside a neighborhood church reads: “Had not planned on giving up quite this much for Lent.”

Are we allowed to chuckle yet? We’d better, psychologists and humorists say. Laughter can be the best medicine, they argue, so long as it’s within the bounds of good taste. And in a crisis, it can be a powerful coping mechanism.

“It’s more than just medicine. It’s survival,” said Erica Rhodes, a Los Angeles comedian.

“Even during the Holocaust, people told jokes,” Rhodes said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “Laughter is a symbol of hope, and it becomes one of our greatest needs of life, right up there with toilet paper. It’s a physical need people have. You can’t underestimate how it heals people and gives them hope.”

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

Those are scary words and scary prospects. But history has shown that its heaviest moments are often leavened by using humor and laughter as conscious choices — ways to cope when other things aren’t working as expected.

“There’s so much fear and horror out there. All the hand washing in the world isn’t going to clear up your head,” said Loretta LaRoche, a suburban Boston stress management consultant who’s using humor to help people defuse the anxiety the pandemic has wrought.

“Some people will say this is not a time for laughter. The bottom line is, there is always a time for laughter,” LaRoche said. “We have 60,000 thoughts a day and many of them are very disturbing. Laughter helps the brain relax.”

That explains why social media feeds are peppered with coronavirus-themed memes, cartoons and amusing personal anecdotes.

Here’s Diamond posting a video of himself singing “Sweet Caroline” with the lyrics altered to say: “Hands … washing hands … don’t touch me … I won’t touch you.”

There’s Fox News anchor Julie Banderas tweeting: “How long is this social distancing supposed to last? My husband keeps trying to get into the house.”

Here’s Austin restaurant El Arroyo, still smarting economically from the outbreak-induced postponement of the South by Southwest music festival, turning its outdoor message board into a mock dating app: “Single man w/TP seeks single woman w/hand sanitizer for good clean fun.”

And over here, see novelist Curtis Sittenfeld, sharing a photo of herself eating lunch in her wedding dress after her kids asked her to wear it “and I couldn’t think of a reason not to.”

For centuries, laughter in tough times has been cathartic, said Wayne Maxwell, a Canadian psychologist who has done extensive research on “gallows humor.” The term originated in medieval Britain, where hangings took place in parks near pubs and patrons told jokes at the victims’ expense.

“Even in some of the writings of ancient Egypt, there are descriptions of military personnel returning from the front lines and using humor to cope,” said Maxwell, of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

But, he warns, there exists a kind of comedy continuum: While humor can helpfully lighten things up, too much laughter and flippancy can signal a person is trying to escape from reality.

There are also questions of taste. No one wants to poke fun at medical misery or death. Quarantining and social distancing, though, are fair game, and self-deprecating humor is almost always safe — though LaRoche cautions that humor, like beauty, is always in the eye of the beholder.

“It all depends on how your brain functions,” she said. “Give yourself permission to find humor. It’s almost like a spiritual practice, finding ways to laugh at yourself.”

For those millions of parents struggling to work from home and teach their housebound children, she’s preaching to the choir. Witness this widely shared meme: a photo of an elderly, white-haired woman with the caption: “Here’s Sue. 31 years old, home schooling her kids for the last 5 days. Great job Sue. Keep it up.”

Michael Knight, a 29-year-old musician and a caseworker for people with mental disabilities, has been breaking the tension by posting memes like: “They said a mask and gloves were enough to go to the grocery store. They lied. Everyone else had clothes on.”

“It helps me decompress,” said Knight, of Plymouth, Massachusetts. “It kind of offsets the paralyzing effects of the bogeyman that is the pandemic.”

Rhodes, who’s out more than $30,000 after three festivals and her first taped special were canceled, is trying to see the humor in her own predicament.

She recently posted iPhone video of herself pretending to work a nonexistent crowd on an outdoor stage she happened upon during a walk. “How’s everyone not doing?” she cracks.

“The best material comes from a place that’s very truthful and somewhat dark,” Rhodes said.

Her prediction: When life eventually edges back to normal, “Saturday Night Live” and the latest Netflix standup specials will be powered by quarantine humor.

“Just a month ago, who would have appreciated being given a roll of toilet paper?” she said. “I mean, the whole world is upside down.”

The 16 Commandments of Growing Older

The 16 Commandments of Growing Older

1 - Talk to yourself, because there are times you need expert advice.

2 - Consider "In Style" to be the clothes that still fit.

3 - You don't need anger management. You need people to stop pissing you off.

4 - Your people skills are just fine. It's your tolerance for idiots that needs work.

5 - The biggest lie you tell yourself is, "I don't need to write that down. I'll remember it."

6 - You have days when your life is just a tent away from a circus.

7 - These days, "on time" is when you get there.

8 - Even duct tape can't fix stupid - but it sure does muffle the sound.

9 - Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could put ourselves in the dryer for ten minutes, then come out wrinkle-free and three sizes smaller ?

10 - Lately, You've noticed people your age are so much older than you.

11 - "Getting lucky" means walking into a room and remembering why you're there.

12 - When you were a child, you thought nap time was punishment.  Now it feels like a mini vacation.

13 - Some days you have no idea what you're doing out of bed.

14 - You thought growing old would take longer.

15 - Aging sure has slowed you down, but it hasn't shut you up.

16 - You still haven't learned to act your age, and hope you never will.

2020 Candidate Blowout

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April Fool's!

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Tracey Ullman - "Not Everyone Thinks Exactly the Same As You Do" Support Group

Socialism makes everything better?

How to Troll. First class of Troll College by Scott Adams

The trolls on NextDoor also troll this site. You know who they are if you are on NextDoor.  We are willing to engage with serious discussion but anonymous trolls will not have a platform here.  We welcome discussions of substance.

I love LA (Parody)

Champagne Taste (on a Beer Budget)

Senator Wiener's War to upzone every city with SB827 in Marin County is going well

#WienersWar to upzone every city in California with SB827 is going well. If only he had funding for a few more of these cyborgs.


SB-827 and then, please click HERE to sign our online petition entitled; "NO on SB-827 & SB-828! Stop Top-Down Planning, Unsustainable High-Density Housing, and Unfunded Mandates" and spread the news!

Those Darn Libertariams!

There’s Room At The Top in Sen. Scott Wiener’s (D-SF) Vision For An Upzoned Bay Area

Think rainbows. Think high rise. Think diversity, all inclusive. And you too will be loving it—-pending SB827 and SB828, the SF YIMBY party’s answer to jobs/housing imbalance. Just one caveat, though. Your backyard will likely become their backyard, in the YIMBYs’ (Yes In My Back Yard) new and radical vision of Bay Area TOD --mass Transit Oriented Development. Photo Credit: Seamus O’Ramus

Are You a Russian Troll?

Take this quiz and find out!

A. Barton Hinkle | February 26, 2018

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The federal indictments special counsel Robert Mueller handed down a few days ago confirmed that Russian agents did, indeed, use social media to interfere with the 2016 presidential election—and, even more than that, to sow political animosity, heighten divisions, and pit Americans against one another. Several workers at a Russian "troll farm" have now confirmed the thrust of the indictment.

As Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said when the indictments were announced, "the Russian conspirators want to promote discord in the United States and undermine public confidence in democracy. We must not allow them to succeed."

Absolutely right. But how to stop them? Lyudmilla Savchuk—a worker at the troll farm—has explained how Russian agents take pains to hide their true identity: "The most important principle of the work is to have an account like a real person. They create real characters, choosing a gender, a name, a place of living and an occupation. Therefore, it's hard to tell that the account was made for the propaganda."

That ability to blend in with online communities raises several troubling questions, the most disturbing of which might be: What if YOU are a Russian troll who sows animosity, heightens division, and pits Americans against one another—and you don't even know it?

The following quiz has been developed to help answer that very question. Let's play!

(1) When you see a post online that supports your political tribe, you

(a) treat it skeptically until its assertions can be independently confirmed;

(b) nod sagely and move on;

(c) pause to enjoy the sweet, sweet dopamine hit that comes from having your existing beliefs confirmed; or

(d) immediately share it with everybody you can think of.

(2) When you read something that makes you mad, you

(a) pause to consider the possibility that the author is right and you are wrong;

(b) forget it and move on;

(c) stop reading immediately to avoid being exposed to ideas you dislike; or

(d) leave a comment pointing out that the author is a despicable excuse for a human being who should die a slow and wretched death.

(3) Terms such as "libtard" and "rethuglican" are

(a) demeaning insults that inhibit the open exchange of ideas and prevent learning from others;

(b) kind of juvenile;

c) pretty witty, actually;

(d) literally true.

(4) An article about a person of the opposing political tribe who has said or done something really stupid and embarrassing is

(a) nothing but partisan clickbait;

(b) not surprising;

(c) further proof that all members of the opposing tribe are stupid;

(d) going up on your social-media account in 3... 2....

(5) A politician of your own political tribe has just done something really stupid and embarrassing. You

(a) find this dismaying, and say so;

(b) explain why it's not so bad;

(c) attack the opposing tribe for being jerks and making a big fat deal out of it;

(d) point out that it's not half as bad as all the stupid, embarrassing things members of the opposing tribe have done.

(5) As a member in good standing of your political tribe, you have always believed X. The leader of your political tribe has just come out against X. You

(a) call him or her to account for abandoning your tribe's principles;

(b) try not to notice;

(c) change your mind about X;

(d) change your mind about X and attempt to excommunicate any member of your political tribe who still has the audacity to think X is even defensible.

(6) People who disagree with you deserve

(a) an honest hearing;

(b) pity;

(c) scorn;

(d) to burn in hell for all eternity.

(7) Online memes are

(a) superficial and usually inaccurate characterizations of the opposing tribe's views;

(b) occasionally sharp critiques of the tensions inherent in any belief system;

(c) hilarious;

(d) stupid if they're about your side and brilliant if they're about the other side.

SCORING:

Give yourself one point for each (a), two points for each (b), three points for each (c), and four points for each (d).

7-10 points: America. Love it or leave it.

11-15 points: Both sides were equally to blame for the Cold War.

16-20: Hey, who doesn't get goosebumps listening to the Song of the Volga Boatmen?

21+: You live under a bridge and eat Vladimir Putin's table scraps.

Activewear

Welcome to 2017!

Free Art

The Funniest Take on 2016 yet by Dave Barry

Dave Barry’s Year in Review: 2016 — What the ... ?

BY DAVE BARRY



In the future, Americans — assuming there are any left — will look back at 2016 and remark: “What the HELL?”

They will have a point. Over the past few decades, we here at the Year in Review have reviewed some pretty disturbing years. For example, there was 2000, when the outcome of a presidential election was decided by a tiny group of deeply confused Florida residents who had apparently attempted to vote by chewing on their ballots.

Then there was 2003, when a person named “Paris Hilton” suddenly became a major international superstar, despite possessing a level of discernible talent so low as to make the Kardashians look like the Jackson 5.

There was 2006, when the vice president of the United States — who claimed he was attempting to bring down a suspected quail — shot a 78-year-old man in the face, only to be exonerated after an investigation revealed that the victim was an attorney.

And — perhaps most inexplicable of all — there was 2007, when millions of people voluntarily installed Windows Vista.

Yes, we’ve seen some weird years. But we’ve never seen one as weird as 2016. This was the Al Yankovic of years. If years were movies, 2016 would be “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” If years were relatives, 2016 would be the uncle who shows up at your Thanksgiving dinner wearing his underpants on the outside.

Why do we say this? Let’s begin with the gruesome train wreck that was the presidential election. The campaign began with roughly 14,000 candidates running. Obviously not all of them were qualified to be president; some of them — here we are thinking of “Lincoln Chafee” — were probably imaginary. But a reasonable number of the candidates seemed to meet at least the minimum standard that Americans have come to expect of their president in recent decades, namely: Not Completely Horrible.

So this mass of candidates began the grim death march that is the modern American presidential campaign — trudging around Iowa pretending to care about agriculture, performing in an endless series of televised debates like suit-wearing seals trained to bark out talking points, going to barbecue after barbecue and smiling relentlessly through mouthfuls of dripping meat, giving the same speech over and over and over, shaking millions of hands, posing for billions of selfies and just generally humiliating themselves in the marathon group grovel that America insists on putting its presidential candidates through.

And we voters did our part, passing judgment on the candidates, thinning the herd, rejecting them one by one. Sometimes we had to reject them more than once; John Kasich didn’t get the message until his own staff felled him with tranquilizer darts. But eventually we eliminated the contenders whom we considered to be unqualified or disagreeable, whittling our choices down until only two major candidates were left. And out of all the possibilities, the two that We, the People, in our collective wisdom, deemed worthy of competing for the most important job on Earth, turned out to be …

… drum roll …

… the most flawed, sketchy and generally disliked duo of presidential candidates ever!

Yes. After all that, the American people, looking for a leader, ended up with a choice between ointment and suppository. The fall campaign was an unending national nightmare, broadcast relentlessly on cable TV. CNN told us over and over that Donald Trump was a colossally ignorant, narcissistic, out-of-control sex-predator buffoon; Fox News countered that Hillary Clinton was a greedy, corrupt, coldly calculating liar of massive ambition and minimal accomplishment. And in our hearts we knew the awful truth: They were both right.

It wasn’t just bad. It was the Worst. Election. Ever.

And that was only one of the reasons why 2016 should never have happened. Here are some others:

▪ American race relations reached their lowest point since … OK, since 2015.

▪ We learned that the Russians are more involved in our election process than the League of Women Voters.

▪ F​​or​​ much of the year the economy continued to struggle, with the only growth sector being people paying insane prices for tickets to “Hamilton.”

▪ In a fad even stupider than “planking,” millions of people wasted millions of hours, and sometimes risked their lives, trying to capture imaginary Pokémon Go things on their phones, hoping to obtain the ultimate prize: a whole bunch of imaginary Pokémon Go things on their phones.

▪ A major new threat to American communities — receiving at least as much coverage as global climate change —emerged in the form of: Clowns.

▪ In a shocking development that caused us to question our most fundamental values, Angelina and Brad broke up even though they are both physically attractive.

▪ We continued to prove, as a nation, that no matter how many times we are reminded, we are too stupid to remember to hold our phones horizontally when we make videos.

▪ Musically, we lost Prince, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, George Michael and Debbie Reynolds; we gained the suicide-inducing TV commercial in which Jon Bon Jovi screeches about turning back time.

Did anything good happen in 2016? Let us think …

OK, the “man bun” appeared to be going away.

That was pretty much it for the good things.

And now, finally, it is time for 2016 to go away. But before it does, let’s narrow our eyes down to slits and take one last squinting look back at this hideous monstrosity of a year, starting with …
JANUARY

… which actually begins on a positive note with the capture of elusive Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who in 2015 escaped (for the second time) from a Mexican prison when authorities failed to notice the signs reading (in Spanish) “WARNING: ESCAPE TUNNEL UNDER CONSTRUCTION.” Since then Guzmán has been in hiding except for an interview with Sean Penn, a guest spot with Jimmy Kimmel and a series of commercials for Buffalo Wild Wings. Mexican police finally are able to track him down during his four-week stint as a guest judge on “America’s Got Talent.” He is taken to Tijuana and incarcerated in what authorities describe as “a very secure Motel 6.”

In health news, the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, responding to the spread of the little-understood Zika virus, cautions Americans not to have unprotected sex with foreign mosquitoes. Meanwhile the Flint, Michigan, water crisis worsens when samples taken from the city’s main water supply are found to contain traces of a Chipotle burrito.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article123321019.html#storylink=cpy