The world of comedy is adapting to new roots, incorporating a pandemic-inspired tactic used by many comedians today
Pandemic parody, exploring comedy in a post-pandemic world. News segment by Natasha Budhai/TMSJ.
‘Pandemic parody’ or ‘pandemic-based comedy’ is a new tactic used in the comedy world. This tactic involves comedians relying on or taking inspiration from their experiences during the pandemic and incorporating it into their routines.
After the initial COVID-19 lockdown, comedy had taken a bit of a hit as everything came to a stop. With clubs closed and everyone at home, comedians resorted to creative ways of continuing their work.
“I think it was a difficult time for everyone. I can’t speak for all comedians, but for myself, I didn’t do a lot of comedy except for a few online shows during that time,” said Toronto-based comedian Arthur Simeon.
One common way comedians crafted their work throughout the pandemic was through live zoom shows. Many clubs and bookings took to zoom to continue the shows they couldn’t do in person.
“My agent booked many zoom shows for corporate bookings and other events during that time,” said Chicago-based comedian Dustin Cole.
“It was relatively different since I was at home telling my jokes, a bit of an awkward field to it.”
Comedians like Julie Nolke and Mikael Melo took this opportunity to use pandemic parody in their virtual routines, with videos like Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self and parody videos of the Ontario government.
“I’m happy that comedians now have two ways of connecting with their audiences,” said the owner of The Comedian Company and booking agent for Cole, Jason Douglas.
“Online comedy shows allow new opportunities for comedians to reach wider audiences and grow their name.”
Now that we’ve returned to in-person activities, so has comedy. Many comedians are back to their regular Friday night shows, bringing pandemic parody onto the main stage.
“I had performed my first in-person show after almost two years earlier this month. I knew right away when preparing this set that COVID-19 was going to be at the forefront of my show,” said Simeon.
“The pandemic was something we could all relate to, so using this theme in comedy is great. It always makes the audience laugh, and there’s a sort of comfort in that too.”
Many comedians felt that comedy was more important than ever during that time. Even now, in a post-pandemic reality, comedians felt the importance to laugh about it.
“Although I didn’t have the greatest time online as I would have in person, it made me a better comedian. I still use jokes about takeout and Netflix binges during the pandemic because that’s what we all did, it’s relatable and funny,” said Cole.
To many people, pandemic parody has brought the world of comedy closer together than ever, sparking a connection between the comedian and their audience.
“It’s universal, we all went through it. Of course, some were worse than others, but it affected us all,” said Douglas.
I think that’s why many comedians use this kind of parody; it gets the best audience reaction and is sort of like hey! I went through this too, and it sucked but here we are.”
Comedians like Simeon, Cole and many others continue to use this kind of parody in their work and will continue to do so in future.
“I don’t think pandemic parody is going anywhere anytime soon,” said Simeon. “Although it’s not as bad as it used to be, COVID-19 never left. And with that, so will pandemic comedy.”
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