Name: Comic Relief From COVID-19: Leaders Really Meme It When They Say Stay Home
Brand: khn.org
SKU: khn-org-163
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Comic Relief From COVID-19: Leaders Really Meme It When They Say Stay Home

preview

[UPDATED on April 10]CHICAGO — As their city confronts a wave of COVID-19 patients, Chicagoans are managing to get some belly laughs. The source? Memes of their leader staring down would-be social-distancing violators.In one doctored image, a somber Mayor Lori Lightfoot peers down from the roof of the famous Superdawg hotdog stand alongside a pair of wiener statues.the best— kelly jensen 🐱🐰 (@veronikellymars)Others shared under the hashtag #whereslightfoot show her at an empty jazz club, from the reflective sculpture known as the Bean and in a treasured impressionist painting that hangs in the city’s Art Institute.Lightfoot memes proliferated after a March 26 order in which the mayor angrily closed Chicago’s lakefront and other major recreation spots that had become overrun with people.Rather than get defensive, Lightfoot has played up her hard-nosed image.Chi Party Aunt is not wrong.— Mayor Lightfoot #StayHomeSaveLives (@chicagosmayor)She made a lighthearted in which she bakes, sings, cajoles, bargains, talks astrology and fluffs pillows to reinforce her administration’s “Stay Home, Save Lives” mantra.“Here’s what’s up,” Lightfoot tells viewers in one clip. “If I make this shot, you gotta stay home.” She then dunks a ball into a basketball hoop attached to her fridge and does a victory cheer.Chicago’s mayor isn’t the only elected leader leveraging humor to prod citizens into complying with COVID-19 directives.Metuchen, New Jersey, Mayor Jonathan Busch starred in a playfulA short PSA to help stop the spread of germs in Metuchen.— Borough of Metuchen (@MetuchenNJ)New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ridiculed the notion that anyone could simultaneously practice and engaged in witty on-air with his little brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo.The governor also recruited comedian to do a PSA, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom tapped comic actors (a former doctor) and to put their personal spins on stay-home messaging.Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has encouraged riffs on his COVID-19 warnings, like a and a made by firefighters.“If it makes people smile right now, I’m for it,” Beshear said during a news conference.While humor may attract attention to the message, it’s not clear how effective it is at changing behavior. That is especially true with the current pandemic.“We’ve never had a crisis like this, and so it’s really hard to say that what worked in another setting might work in this setting,” said Susan Polan, associate executive director for public affairs and advocacy at the American Public Health Association.shows people respond more positively to messages about health threats when they are conveyed with humor.Funny content often gets shared a lot, which means the message reaches more people, Polan said. For example, an animal calendar caused web traffic to spike in the association’s disaster preparedness campaign.“The serious messaging is everywhere,” Polan said. The memes and videos constitute “an add-on that is going to appeal to some people.”However, using humor might be risky, according to , a professor of communication science at the University of Maryland.In a 2017 , she and a collaborator compared the short-term reactions of 303 undergraduate students to humorous and non-humorous messages about drunken driving and unprotected sex. They found that messages with sarcasm and irony generated more arguments against the implied health advice.Sarcasm, in particular, led to more pushback, maybe because people don’t want to be made fun of.Take the irate Italian mayors on a . “Where are you going with these incontinent dogs?” one shouts. “You are irresponsible idiots — colossal idiots!” Another threatened to use flamethrowers on partygoers.A witty approach “may get people’s attention, but that may come at the cost of decreased message strength,” Nan said. “I would tread with caution when it comes to using humor in COVID-19 messaging.”Kelly Leonard, executive vice president of The Second City, a Chicago-based improvisational comedy troupe that also does training, said it’s about context: “When there’s a need for cold facts in a crisis, you probably don’t want to be cracking jokes.”But people also need a release valve. “There’s a reason that all of our late-night shows are comedy shows, right after the news,” Leonard said.Leonard observed that Lightfoot is the first openly queer black woman to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city. She’s also short in stature. Those outsider traits may relate to her skill at wielding humor to deflate tension.“She’s had to live a life of such ‘othering’ and made it through,” Leonard said. “She IS the mayor of Chicago. It gives her a kind of power, and she’s using it.”Polan agreed: “She’s making fun of herself and using it to educate people, and that’s powerful.”[Correction: This story was updated at 12:50 p.m. ET on April 10 to correct the affiliation of Xiaoli Nan. She is a professor at the University of Maryland.]April 10, 2020[UPDATED on April 10]CHICAGO — As their city confronts a wave of COVID-19 patients, Chicagoans are managing to get some belly laughs. The source? Memes of their leader staring down would-be social-distancing violators.In one doctored image, a somber Mayor Lori Lightfoot peers down from the roof of the famous Superdawg hotdog stand alongside a pair of wiener statues.the best— kelly jensen 🐱🐰 (@veronikellymars)Others shared under the hashtag #whereslightfoot show her at an empty jazz club, from the reflective sculpture known as the Bean and in a treasured impressionist painting that hangs in the city’s Art Institute.[UPDATED on April 10]CHICAGO — As their city confronts a wave of COVID-19 patients, Chicagoans are managing to get some belly laughs. The source? Memes of their leader staring down would-be social-distancing violators.In one doctored image, a somber Mayor Lori Lightfoot peers down from the roof of the famous Superdawg hotdog stand alongside a pair of wiener statues.the best— kelly jensen 🐱🐰 (@veronikellymars)Others shared under the hashtag #whereslightfoot show her at an empty jazz club, from the reflective sculpture known as the Bean and in a treasured impressionist painting that hangs in the city’s Art Institute.Lightfoot memes proliferated after a March 26 order in which the mayor angrily closed Chicago’s lakefront and other major recreation spots that had become overrun with people.Rather than get defensive, Lightfoot has played up her hard-nosed image.Chi Party Aunt is not wrong.— Mayor Lightfoot #StayHomeSaveLives (@chicagosmayor)She made a lighthearted in which she bakes, sings, cajoles, bargains, talks astrology and fluffs pillows to reinforce her administration’s “Stay Home, Save Lives” mantra.“Here’s what’s up,” Lightfoot tells viewers in one clip. “If I make this shot, you gotta stay home.” She then dunks a ball into a basketball hoop attached to her fridge and does a victory cheer.Chicago’s mayor isn’t the only elected leader leveraging humor to prod citizens into complying with COVID-19 directives.Metuchen, New Jersey, Mayor Jonathan Busch starred in a playfulA short PSA to help stop the spread of germs in Metuchen.— Borough of Metuchen (@MetuchenNJ)New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ridiculed the notion that anyone could simultaneously practice and engaged in witty on-air with his little brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo.The governor also recruited comedian to do a PSA, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom tapped comic actors (a former doctor) and to put their personal spins on stay-home messaging.Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has encouraged riffs on his COVID-19 warnings, like a and a made by firefighters.“If it makes people smile right now, I’m for it,” Beshear said during a news conference.While humor may attract attention to the message, it’s not clear how effective it is at changing behavior. That is especially true with the current pandemic.“We’ve never had a crisis like this, and so it’s really hard to say that what worked in another setting might work in this setting,” said Susan Polan, associate executive director for public affairs and advocacy at the American Public Health Association.shows people respond more positively to messages about health threats when they are conveyed with humor.Funny content often gets shared a lot, which means the message reaches more people, Polan said. For example, an animal calendar caused web traffic to spike in the association’s disaster preparedness campaign.“The serious messaging is everywhere,” Polan said. The memes and videos constitute “an add-on that is going to appeal to some people.”However, using humor might be risky, according to , a professor of communication science at the University of Maryland.In a 2017 , she and a collaborator compared the short-term reactions of 303 undergraduate students to humorous and non-humorous messages about drunken driving and unprotected sex. They found that messages with sarcasm and irony generated more arguments against the implied health advice.Sarcasm, in particular, led to more pushback, maybe because people don’t want to be made fun of.Take the irate Italian mayors on a . “Where are you going with these incontinent dogs?” one shouts. “You are irresponsible idiots — colossal idiots!” Another threatened to use flamethrowers on partygoers.A witty approach “may get people’s attention, but that may come at the cost of decreased message strength,” Nan said. “I would tread with caution when it comes to using humor in COVID-19 messaging.”Kelly Leonard, executive vice president of The Second City, a Chicago-based improvisational comedy troupe that also does training, said it’s about context: “When there’s a need for cold facts in a crisis, you probably don’t want to be cracking jokes.”But people also need a release valve. “There’s a reason that all of our late-night shows are comedy shows, right after the news,” Leonard said.Leonard observed that Lightfoot is the first openly queer black woman to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city. She’s also short in stature. Those outsider traits may relate to her skill at wielding humor to deflate tension.“She’s had to live a life of such ‘othering’ and made it through,” Leonard said. “She IS the mayor of Chicago. It gives her a kind of power, and she’s using it.”Polan agreed: “She’s making fun of herself and using it to educate people, and that’s powerful.”[Correction: This story was updated at 12:50 p.m. ET on April 10 to correct the affiliation of Xiaoli Nan. She is a professor at the University of Maryland.]Lightfoot memes proliferated after a March 26 order in which the mayor angrily closed Chicago’s lakefront and other major recreation spots that had become overrun with people.Rather than get defensive, Lightfoot has played up her hard-nosed image.Chi Party Aunt is not wrong.— Mayor Lightfoot #StayHomeSaveLives (@chicagosmayor)She made a lighthearted in which she bakes, sings, cajoles, bargains, talks astrology and fluffs pillows to reinforce her administration’s “Stay Home, Save Lives” mantra.“Here’s what’s up,” Lightfoot tells viewers in one clip. “If I make this shot, you gotta stay home.” She then dunks a ball into a basketball hoop attached to her fridge and does a victory cheer.Chicago’s mayor isn’t the only elected leader leveraging humor to prod citizens into complying with COVID-19 directives.Metuchen, New Jersey, Mayor Jonathan Busch starred in a playfulA short PSA to help stop the spread of germs in Metuchen.— Borough of Metuchen (@MetuchenNJ)New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ridiculed the notion that anyone could simultaneously practice and engaged in witty on-air with his little brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo.The governor also recruited comedian to do a PSA, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom tapped comic actors (a former doctor) and to put their personal spins on stay-home messaging.Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has encouraged riffs on his COVID-19 warnings, like a and a made by firefighters.“If it makes people smile right now, I’m for it,” Beshear said during a news conference.While humor may attract attention to the message, it’s not clear how effective it is at changing behavior. That is especially true with the current pandemic.“We’ve never had a crisis like this, and so it’s really hard to say that what worked in another setting might work in this setting,” said Susan Polan, associate executive director for public affairs and advocacy at the American Public Health Association.shows people respond more positively to messages about health threats when they are conveyed with humor.Funny content often gets shared a lot, which means the message reaches more people, Polan said. For example, an animal calendar caused web traffic to spike in the association’s disaster preparedness campaign.“The serious messaging is everywhere,” Polan said. The memes and videos constitute “an add-on that is going to appeal to some people.”However, using humor might be risky, according to , a professor of communication science at the University of Maryland.In a 2017 , she and a collaborator compared the short-term reactions of 303 undergraduate students to humorous and non-humorous messages about drunken driving and unprotected sex. They found that messages with sarcasm and irony generated more arguments against the implied health advice.Sarcasm, in particular, led to more pushback, maybe because people don’t want to be made fun of.Take the irate Italian mayors on a . “Where are you going with these incontinent dogs?” one shouts. “You are irresponsible idiots — colossal idiots!” Another threatened to use flamethrowers on partygoers.A witty approach “may get people’s attention, but that may come at the cost of decreased message strength,” Nan said. “I would tread with caution when it comes to using humor in COVID-19 messaging.”Kelly Leonard, executive vice president of The Second City, a Chicago-based improvisational comedy troupe that also does training, said it’s about context: “When there’s a need for cold facts in a crisis, you probably don’t want to be cracking jokes.”But people also need a release valve. “There’s a reason that all of our late-night shows are comedy shows, right after the news,” Leonard said.Leonard observed that Lightfoot is the first openly queer black woman to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city. She’s also short in stature. Those outsider traits may relate to her skill at wielding humor to deflate tension.“She’s had to live a life of such ‘othering’ and made it through,” Leonard said. “She IS the mayor of Chicago. It gives her a kind of power, and she’s using it.”Polan agreed: “She’s making fun of herself and using it to educate people, and that’s powerful.”[Correction: This story was updated at 12:50 p.m. ET on April 10 to correct the affiliation of Xiaoli Nan. She is a professor at the University of Maryland.]Copy HTMLWe encourage organizations to republish our content, free of charge. Here’s what we ask:You must credit us as the original publisher, with a hyperlink to our khn.org site. If possible, please include the original author(s) and “Kaiser Health News” in the byline. Please preserve the hyperlinks in the story.It’s important to note, not everything on khn.org is available for republishing. If a story is labeled “All Rights Reserved,” we cannot grant permission to republish that item.Have questions? Let us know atThank you for your interest in supporting Kaiser Health News (KHN), the nation’s leading nonprofit newsroom focused on health and health policy. We distribute our journalism for free and without advertising through media partners of all sizes and in communities large and small. We appreciate all forms of engagement from our readers and listeners, and welcome your support.KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). You can support KHN by making a contribution to KFF, a non-profit charitable organization that is not associated with Kaiser Permanente.Click the button below to go to KFF’s donation page which will provide more information and FAQs. Thank you!Go Back

[UPDATED on April 10]CHICAGO — As their city confronts a wave of COVID-19 patients, Chicagoans are managing to get some belly laughs. The source? Memes of their leader staring down would-be social-distancing violators.In one doctored image, a somber Mayor Lori Lightfoot peers down from the roof of the famous Superdawg hotdog stand alongside a pair of wiener statues.the best— kelly jensen 🐱🐰 (@veronikellymars)Others shared under the hashtag #whereslightfoot show her at an empty jazz club, from the reflective sculpture known as the Bean and in a treasured impressionist painting that hangs in...

Comic Relief From COVID-19: Leaders Really Meme It When They Say Stay Home

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS