Are jokes persona non grata during Covid-19?

Coronavirus times. As the infection is sweeping across   country after country, toppling people, economies and virtually the world as we know it, it is being made clear to us that we need to recalibrate ourselves, our beliefs, our lifestyle.

But we also need to hold onto our sense of humour. There was a video recently doing the socmed rounds,   which featured an angry doctor shouting at viewers for posting light-hearted takes on this wretched virus. Coronavirus is nothing to laugh about, he raged.

And that’s precisely the point. We know Covid-19 is nothing to laugh about. We know there`s no known cure yet for this extreme pneumonia, and that a vaccine is about a year and a half away. We know that China is reporting the return of the virus. We aren’t idiots and we know the news is all bad, as of now.

However, humour in perilous times is basically our vent-hole, our way of staying sane.

I personally know people spending their entire lockdown days watching old Kapil Sharma reruns. Some  others are watching Chaplin, Tom and Jerry cartoons, Priyadarshan comedies, the Golmaal series. Yet others are reading PG Wodehouse, one book per day. This is their release from the tight bands of tension that Covid-19 has wrapped around all of us.

So, Angry Doctor, cut us some slack. We need our sense of humour to thrive,  alongside our inner resources, our innate courage, our indomitable spirit. What cannot be avoided has to be endured. And laughed at.