Death and the Fair

When I saw this combined headline from Minnesota Public Radio on Facebook, I laughed:


And it reminded me that a week ago, there were still funny jokes about the coronavirus, even though we all knew they were of the "whistling past the graveyard" variety. Now, I don't think I'm seeing jokes anymore, whistling or not.

One that I liked from back in early March was from writer Saladin Ahmed on Twitter:

the one good thing is now authors can't hold their chins pretentiously in photos

And then there was this thread about the intergenerational struggle and rewriting song lyrics about the pandemic... a very Twitter moment. It started with this:

Boomers: the Coronavirus is important, because it kills people over 60, let's close the borders

Millennials/Gen Z: It is called COVID-19 and its spread shows how connected the world is, how health is a social justice issue.

Gen X: Too ra loo ra too ra loo rye aye. COVID-EILEEN

Media critic Jenn Pozner got in the first set of "COVID Eileen" lyrics in response:

Covid 19
Oh, I swear I'm still clean
But in a moment
You'd ruin everything
Your germs I confess
Have me under duress
I will not touch
ANYTHING...

 But now, instead of jokes, it's all death and Mafia Mulligan lies and no fun at all on the way to the death State Fair.

Who can blame us.