Coping through Covid with Comedy

i don’t like covered

it’s kind of getting old and you know

what i wish

i wish covered worked in dog ears so now

it would be about 12 and starting to hit

puberty that wonderful stage in our

lives

just to give everyone a bit of context i

moved from south africa at the end of

2019

which meant that i had to wait a month

before i could start school and have a

social life

when the time finally came for me to

start school it was the beginning of

february

and school shut down in the middle of

march

if my math is correct i had about six

weeks of in-person school but i only had

six weeks of in-person school so i don’t

know if my math

is correct after everything

shut down everything went online i mean

even my doctor’s appointments

at one point i was nearly shoving the

phone up my nose to get a better angle

on a bump

which turned out to be a pimple

after this i was very lonely i had no

friends

and i was very unsocial so

as a social event my mother signed me up

for a sailing course

i’ve never been sailing in my life

anyway

i go to the sailing course expecting

poseidon

and you know what i get i get seventh

grade boys

which is not a total loss because

i can play fortnite now so yay

after the sailing adventure i was lost

i was trying to reinvent my life into

something i couldn’t do

i felt emotionally and technically

physically isolated

i had lost hope in myself and the world

so what do you do when you lose hope

you binge watch a tv show in this

in my case this tv show was the office

i know very basic but experiencing that

laughter every morning before online

school

made me feel more confident and content

i was interested in why i felt this way

so reluctantly

i did some research when i got to

writing this part of my speech i’d been

writing

for about 30 minutes so that means you

take like a three-hour break just to

even things out you know but something

inside of me told me i had to keep

writing

but something else inside of me told me

that i should look up five minutes of

stand-up comedy

so i looked up five minutes of stand-up

comedy

i clicked on the first video that popped

up but my school-issued chromebook

had restricted it just like it

restricted the words

breast cancer for a biology project

in the end i had to carry on writing and

change my topic for for my biology topic

can i see a raise of hands from everyone

who knows the saying

laughter is the best medicine i’m just

kidding this is online um

i’ll just pretend about 75

yeah that’s a good number interesting

yeah

it is scientifically proven that

laughter can lower your stress levels

laughter doesn’t just lighten your

mental load but it can encourage

physical change when you laugh it

intensifies the way you take an

oxygen-rich air

and this air energizes many organs your

heart your lungs your muscles

it just it sounds like a replacement for

exercising to me

a spirited laugh can make your stress

response go up and down

increasing and decreasing your heart

rate and blood pressure

in the end the outcome of this is

a relaxing feeling

in the long run loft can improve your

immune system

when negative and uncomfortable thoughts

infest your mind

it can cause chemical reactions that can

bring more stress into your system

but by laughing you release

neuropeptides

the things people used to eat in 2017 no

don’t eat those they can kill you anyway

moving on

for people who experience depression

sometimes due to chronic illness

laughter can diminish your depression

and or anxiety

and last but not least laughter can

improve personal satisfaction

laughter can help you get through

difficult situations

ours being our little body covert 19.

laughter helps form relationships it

helps you connect with others

to be honest after reading all of this i

didn’t believe it

comedy and laughing was not something i

was serious about

i thought of comedy as something people

just messed around with

something people did just to have some

fun have a good laugh with some friends

which don’t get me wrong is a part of

comedy but

ironically it can become very serious to

someone

summer of 2020 best sum of our lives

right

no it was horrible but it did change

mine

some of 2020 best sum of our lives right

no it was horrible but it did change

mine

i decided that i was going to go and

volunteer at the local food bank

at the food bank a variety of people

come in daily

but one person in particular rarely

stuck with me

this person was a complete stranger

someone i’d never spoken to

in my life and the first word that came

out of this person’s mouth were

joke do you want to hear a joke

and to be honest again well i’m being

very honest today

i didn’t i was in a bad mood i’d been

standing on my feet for hours

and ironically it was hot in olympia

but i did welcome it because i wanted to

test the theory about what laughter can

do to you

after hearing this joke i realized

that everything said about what laughter

can do to you

is true after hearing this

and coming to the realization that

laughter can help you through difficult

times

i knew that i was going to make it a

daily goal to make someone laugh

i knew it would make their day better

and i knew it would make them feel good

about themself

and help make others feel good about

themselves

you don’t have to be good at telling

jokes or writing comedy to make someone

laugh

you just need to notice the humor in

different situations

i remember the first time i went driving

i was very serious i was going to be

this professional

formula one driver i was going to be

amazing but

after nearly crashing the car a few

times i noticed the funny side of things

i can drive perfectly fine now well half

perfectly fine

i’m going to leave you with something to

think about

what will be the joke that makes you

notice how

important it is to laugh what will be

the joke that

changes your perspective on comedy and

what will be the joke

that makes you see humor in the

situation

robin williams once said no matter what

the world tells you

words and ideas can change the world

well that was my idea

and i hope it changes your world thank

you

you