There are things on this page which may breach copyright, which usually I try to respect. But these are funny! And very illustrative of the time. So I am putting them here, and my only excuse is that this is friendly, and I'm not making any money out of it. But if anyone objects to their copyright being infringed, please contact me and I will remove the item/s, and apologise unreservedly.
During lockdown, we were bored. And sometimes frightened. So people made jokes, and put them on social media, and they spread. And we laughed, which was good. I want to say a very big Thank You for everyone who provided the jokes below, and for everyone else who tried to lift our spirits. Soicial media isn't always bad, you know!
I do realise that some people had a hideous time during the pandemic. This is not intended to downplay their experience.
The dates given are when I saved them. They may be older.
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15 March 2020 - At first, we thought that this was a contact disease, and so washing hands was important. And you had to wash them properly, and for long enough. Singing "Happy Birthday" twice was usually suggested as a timing mechanism, but this was a very dreary thing to do, so people suggested alternatives:
16 March 2020 - This one is a little grim. It's a genuine Twitter trending:
26 March 2020 - on Twitter
Message from The Doctor (from Dr Who) during the Coronavirus crisis
My top tips for surviving a worrying situation
Here's what I do in any worrying situation:
Remember you will get through this... darkness never prevails.
Tell jokes, even bad ones - especially bad ones - I am brilliant at bad ones.
Be kind. Look out for each other you won't be the only one worried.
Listen to science and listen to doctors - they've got your back.
Stay strong, stay positive - you've got this.
29 March 2020 - this was, I think, the Indian police, enforcing lockdown:
5 April 2020 - this resonated at the time:
6 April 2020 - from Kenya:
"Social distancing means keeping a lion's length between you and anyone else.
But please don't use an actual lion. Keep four elephants lengths between you and a lion.
But don't use elephants either."
15 April 2020 - you need to read the titles in order:
15 April 2020 - A BBC weatherman has caused a storm on social media after he finished his forecast and filmed himself playing the drums to the BBC News theme tune. BBC North West Tonight presenter Owain Wyn Evans tweeted: "When they said try working from home I didn't realise they'd expect me to do the music too."
BBC story including clip of drumming
25 April 2020 - About Trump's comment on disinfectant (he suggested injecting disinfectant as treatment):
By Pam Ayres
At last, we have a cure for all!
Ailments large and ailments small,
Good health is not beyond my reach,
If I inject myself with bleach.
Radiant, I'll prance along,
Every trace of limescale gone,
With disinfectant as my friend,
Like him, I'm clean around the bend.
26 April 2020 - India again:
26 April 2020 - "2 metres, you tit!":
27 April 2020 - Feedback in New Scientist:
27 April 2020 - number 4:
14 May 2020 - we were starting to get tetchy:
18 May 2020 - Before the pandemic, we hadn't heard of Zoom. Now it was becoming important. Since, inadvertently, it meant you showed your home, people tried hard to produce interesting backgrounds, such as an impressive library behind you. This also showed that many people took the opportunity to clear out their houses of junk:
23 May 2020 - talking of Zoom...
23 May 2020 - This is a Cambridge story. WE have ducks on the River Cam, and sometimes they fly to Christs Pieces (a local park). Naturally they don't come into the city streets. Yet during the pandemic, there was a duck hanging around outside Sainsburys. I saw it myself, and the security guards outside Sainsburys (checking there were the right number inside) were politely asking it if it wanted to join the queue! I didn't have a camera with my unfortunately, but here is a photo by someone else, on a different day.
8 June 2020 - The Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge has a fine art collection. They started selling cards "reimagined for current times".
10 June 2020 - This looked like a fun game! We joined in.
14 June 2020 - number 4:
1 July 2020 - this was a fun series!
3 July 2020 - In Addenbrookes hospital, Cambridge
4 July 2020 - Hairdressers reopened. During lockdown, some tried to cut their own. Others didn't:
5 July 2020 - It may be referring to Trump as well as the pandemic:
9 July 2020 - from the excellent xkcd:
17 July 2020 - from Punch 13 Sept 1939:
19 July 2020 - I suspect this was from USA, where the debate about masks was acrimonious:
13 September 2020 - social distancing:
18 September 2020 - Rule of 6 meant that only 6 people could meet together:
7 October 2020 - This is not really fun, but it shows that Parliament was re-opening. Also that the british can adapt ceremonial coustume, when required.
8 October 2020 - Labs were sending in test results to Public Health England, using .xls (Excel) spreadsheets. These could only handle 64K rows, and one test took up several rows, so data was lost.
20 November 2020 - on a T-shirt. This is an http joke (webpages). 127.0.0.1 is Home and 255.255.255.0 is Mask.
6 December 2020 - A statue outside St John's chapel, Cambridge:
1 January 2021 - The jokes are starting to repeat themselves. See 6 April 2020.
9 March 2021 - from xkcd:
30 March 2021 - from xkcd:
10 June 2021 - from xkcd:
26 July 2021 - This was my reflections on what we accepted as now normal, which previous was "Unthinkable":
Sitting in the cemetery with Az (my friend), in the rain, under umbrellas, drinking coffee happily
Wearing masks - making sure you have a mask when going out
Getting out of the way of passers by
Following Covid stats
Making sure you know what the regs are
Talking about death
Furlough scheme and government support of business and people
Booking to go to (free) Cambridge museums
Having to time arrivals precisely (because of booking slots, and limitations on waiting rooms)
(from Giles) "an effective altruist park hangout today"
Tony Blackburn playing Beatles "I wanna hold your hand" and then saying "You can't do that at the moment, it's all elbows, isn't it!"
29 Aug 2021 - The point of this is that in 2020, you would not be allowed to have the Last Supper at all. In 2021, under rule of 6, you had to have separate tables:
23 December 2021 - from xkcd:
24 November 2022 - I assume that this is reflecting on a previous tweet:
Return to Covid index
