Covid-Cinema: Part VII – YouTube 2020 Comedy

They say, “Comedy is tragedy plus time”. But, when the world is faced with a very immediate pandemic that requires (the vast majority of) the population to stay (mostly) indoors indefinitely, time has a funny way of being experienced. A day can drag on but a week can speed by. Making the most of it other than managing family, work, and household chores is best spent escaping into something that can make you laugh. And there’s so much to laugh at and with available on YouTube. 

YouTube is the ultimate repository for video uploads made across the spectrum of contributors from the amateur self-made to the conglomerate-professional. The heart of what YouTube is, is as Joseph Gordon-Levitt said in his Hot Ones episode: you can find a video about ANYTHING! And while there’s an audience for (almost) anything, the most popular videos will be viewed, commented on, and shared by and between people – “going viral”. 

What also separates YouTube from more conventional streaming services, is that the platform values the short-form story, users’ creativity, and users’ interactions. Granted, it’s been at the center or involved in various controversies (regarding intellectual property, etc.), but the average person signs on to watch what creatives are uploading: music videos, web-series, film & TV clips and trailers, and especially various comedic content. 

While Part VI looked at two different long-running web-series produced by professional companies, this post will look at two separate kinds of videos that have a direct connection with this year’s pandemic events: comedians’ pandemic explanation videos and Eurovision music videos in lieu of the annual in-person contest. 

Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self by Julie Nolke and A Conversation with my Pre-Pandemic Self by Kwesi Ray 

If anyone needs a quick rundown of what we’ve been through in 2020, both of these video series will make you laugh (and maybe cry). 

Julie Nolke released Part I on April 9, 2020 and it quickly went viral. A 20-something Canadian white woman from April time-travels to visit her January self to hint at the disaster of what’s to come but can’t reveal all details because of “the butterfly effect”. January-Julie is in complete disbelief at how quickly the world will change in just a few months from April-Julie’s paraphrasing of the absurd but real events to deal with. April-Julie mock’s her January self about thinking the Australian wildfires would be “a pretty big deal”; which she even has trouble recalling, then retorts, “Your definition of ‘a pretty big deal’ is gonna change, for sure.” She recommends pulling all current stocks but to still invest some in Zoom, going over to Costco, and to increase her exercise to “get those lungs-a-pumping.” With a few clues about her not working and not traveling, but insisting on her getting a dog, taking walks, and getting new hobbies, April-Julie has put January-Julie into a panic: “What the hell is gonna happen?” April-Julie tries to smooth out the upcoming horror by saying for her it’s not going to be that bad but for some, it will be very distressing. And then she finishes on the ridiculous but timely Netflix documentary-series, Tiger King with the witty question, “What do you know about the world of big cats?”

The video is only 3 minutes long but captures the crazy feeling of how normal life became pandemic life. And in pandemic life, there’s the ability to be home, take walks, have time to care for a dog and watch Netflix – all the while other people with less privilege will not – as climate change starts to get a few moments of rest letting dolphins swim in the Venice canals, etc. The video resonates with viewers because it fundamentally rests on the literally worldwide wonder of “What would happen if I tried to explain what’s happening now to the January 2020 version of myself?” Not only has it been viewed over 17million times since its release, but it has also generated numerous imitations from others. 

One of which is Kwesi Ray’s uploaded video on April 22, 2020. 

Instead of January, Kwesi time-travels to his December 2019 self – to incorporate the untimely and shocking late January death of Kobe Bryant, thus adding a Black man’s perspective to the 2020 pandemic conversation. April-Kwesi visits December-Kwesi hanging out in his backyard, drawing in his notebook. “Shit’s about to go down, I figured I’d fill you in before…”. December-Kwesi offers his April self a beer, one of which being a Corona, that is followed by a typical horror movie sound effect. And then when December-Kwesi throws a crumpled paper ball into the trash, like throwing a basketball into a hoop, saying “Kobe”, there’s a shutting-door sound effect, with a slight grieving look from April-Kwesi. His December-self lists the places he was planning to travel the upcoming year (like the literal and figurative hotspots, Florida and Italy) but is interrupted with April-Kwesi having to outright reveal the situation of “the world shuts down…economy, human interaction, everything.” But December-Kwesi can’t believe it, just like it’d be hard to believe that Joe Exotic exists. Recommending he cherish toilet paper and hand sanitizer, April-Kwesi can’t assure December-Kwesi that the government would protect the people, only the top 30 corporations, and looks directly at the camera with a disapproving look. He closes the video with the sad truth that “outside” has gone away. 

This video has only been seen a fraction of Julie’s, at just over 120K views, but it’s equally as important to watch. 

Julie uploaded two additional videos that continue her time-travel saga. And the events of 2020 just keep getting more sad and more outrageous. Part II featured Julie from June visiting Julie from April, un-impressed by her sourdough starter and having to remind her to check her privilege in the Black Lives Matter resurgence - but also announcing there would be murder hornets, quarantining protests, and “people injecting Lysol”. April-Julie is incredibly stressed but even though June-Julie is jaded, she’s also more serious in the wake of everything. “How bad does it get?” “Shit hits the fan.” And offers ways she can help. Part III wasn’t released until October 8th. And frankly, I’d forgotten about Part I and Part II by then until it appeared on my suggested list to watch. When October-Julie arrives to see June-Julie, she has been so much more overwhelmed by the summer and fall’s events, she’s even smoking a cigarette. Both Julies don’t want any more of this year but they gotta “do this.” It takes a sharp downturn, referencing Trump’s refusal to reject white supremacy. And becomes furthermore depressing when RBG’s death is skipped over, the forest fires make the “sky on fire”, a “city explodes”, and warns her not to go to any “gender reveal parties”. But October-Julie tells June-Julie to still appreciate the small wins of their videos’ popularity. 

Julie Nolke’s comedy in these three parts are written to make us laugh at all the crazy shit we’ve all been through (so far) despite her and our knowing that “it’s been difficult” is putting it lightly. She did an interview about her videos with a Canadian morning show in mid-October . She wanted to find balance between the unprecedented “well of stuff to pull from…(and) be as respectful as possible…not capitalizing on these really unfortunate scenarios”. With this series of videos, it gives people “permission to laugh and take a little respite” but hopes there won’t be a Part IV and that by December “it will be all good news”. We’ll have to see, but at least Biden and Harris were elected in November, even though Trump hasn’t (publicly) acknowledged his loss yet. 

Kwesi Ray also released his Part II video in July 2020 – of his June-self visiting his March-self, to talk about the Black Lives Matter protests. Opening without any greetings, he jumps right into the teargas that June-Kwesi is trying to wash out of his eyes. He doesn’t shy away from the racial conversation of Black and white relations (especially during an election year), referencing that there are (mostly peaceful) protests across all major US cities for ending police brutality against the Black community. In an interesting similarity between this video and Social Distance’s finale episode, they talk about how when things blow-up he’s going to get a DM from every white person he’s met asking “if you’re ok?” At the end, June-Kwesi breaks the fourth wall by directly looking into the camera for his last line and even says, “Hey Julie!” 

However, even less than his first video, Part II received only 890 views so far. If you’re reading this, go watch and share his videos too! 

Eurovision the Netflix movie, and Eurovision the international event 

Each year since May 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest has been televised. With only 7 countries (Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Italy) participating in its inaugural event held in Switzerland, by 2019 Eurovision has had over 40 countries from Western, Eastern, and Central Europe plus some other qualifying locales have participated (Australia, Israel, etc.). When a country’s contestant wins first prize, one of their cities will host the following year. 

On YouTube, there is a compilation video of all the first-place winners.  You can see in this history of music from the last 65 years, all of the winners’ song genre styles, their fashion & appearances, and the contests’ live-event staging designs. Watching the makeup, hair, and costume styles change are especially amusing. The transformations for how people dressed from year-to-year is reminiscent of how in The Time Machine movies (1960) and (2002), the store window mannequin dresses’ modernize. While you may recognize some of the performers’ names or their voices (like ABBA and Celine Dion), the songs themselves rarely become international hits. And though the earlier years of performances seem meant for intimate venues and audiences, the latter 25 years seem to be choreographed for arena spectacle. 

The United States cannon of popular culture does not include Eurovsion. It’s something uniquely theirs that never quite caught on here until this past summer with Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams’ starring movie, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. As contestants Lars and Sigrit from Iceland win the nomination after surviving a massacre masked as a freak accident, they are up against at least 26 other countries’ contestants, far away from home for the first time in Scotland. With whacky costumes and unpractical stage sets, their performances are of course not without embarrassing disasters. 

When Lars and Sigrit are befriended by Russia’s Alexander Lemtov (played by Dan Stevens) and Greece’s Mita Xenakis, they’re welcomed into the Eurovision’s makeshift community without any malice or hidden agenda. Encouraged to participate in an impromptu “song-a-long” the movie breaks its narrative rules to follow the house party’s interchanging lead singers from one karaoke tune to the next, featuring real-life Eurovision favorites. 

But as the movie was released in late-June on Netflix, it had only been a month after which the 2020 Eurovision was supposed to take place. Cancelled due to covid, and that no live in-person concerts could be permitted, all of the homage grandiosity and thousands of screaming extras/fans in the audiences, are something to behold even viewing from home in unprecedented times. And that for Lars and Sigrit, instead of their sole-allowed song, “Double Trouble”, their mutual love is declared, and she sings her original composition from the heart. Having finally earned respect from their hometown with their closing disqualifying song, “Husavik” – the theme of one’s relationship with their home could not resonate more than in 2020. 

Though Iceland has become a popular tourist destination over the last ten years and connecting more with the global community, it is still very much a homogenous country with villages and towns isolated from each other across fjords, volcanoes, and low-lying terrain. In the time of covid, though quarantining was already a semi-way of life between communities, it became imperative between individual people and immediate families. [You can read how Iceland handled the virus’ spread in The New Yorker article published in June 2020, but in the fall months cases have started to rise again as they have been nearly everywhere else.] Yet because of Will Ferrell’s portrayal of an Icelandic musician with very high hopes to star in Eurovision Song Contest since 1974’s ABBA “Waterloo” performance, the real Icelandic Eurovision 2020 musician Daði Freyr has become unusually famous across the world with over 20million YouTube views for his song’s music video “Think About Things”.  

It opens with a family sitting in a living room as a young girl in a party dress plays her recorder, like putting on a talent show after Christmas dinner. When she’s finished, Freyr and his friends are introduced and stand in the same spot; wearing green sweatshirts with their lookalike faces in block shaped pixels. He stands in the center at over 6 feet tall, towering over the women on his sides, and the three keytar players in the back. During the chorus they break into a third-grader’s dance routine, even turning around shaking their bums side-to-side doing jazz-hands. In the bridge, his face is lit brightly in the spotlight and hair blown back. For the final lines, the wall behind them opens, more dancers appear wearing the same green sweatshirts, and they finish their routine as a confetti cannon blows, to a slow clap of disbelief on the family’s faces. 

When I first saw Freyr’s music video, I laugh-cried so hard that I nearly fell off my bed’s edge, watching six of the whitest people ever sing, play keytars, and dance to the unique childlike happy tune. I haven’t remembered laughing that much in so long. It was the most humorous but simple and fun music video with catchy lyrics about a man singing to his baby daughter of what she might ‘think about things’ and them as her parents when she’s old enough to speak. Even a dozen replays later, it still makes me smile. 

For Freyr, though covid put a damper on his Eurovision dreams in 2020, he’ll be able to perform in the 2021 Contest should the event still be allowed. In the meantime, he’s continued putting out music, being a parent to his young daughter, and has done numerous world-wide interviews from home. He has also been made so fully aware of his popularity and fans’ comments in relation to Will Ferrell’s movie, that he agreed in August to do a one-time recording of Fire Saga’s song “Ja Ja Ding Dong”. “This is the first and last time that I play this song.” Filmed in a green lush summer field, you can see the beautiful sunset sky behind him; giving audiences an intimate outside concert in Iceland. Despite it being such a terrible song, he cares enough to give it the professional go, adjusting proper sound effects through til the end. 

For another originally hilarious music and dance video, you can see Daði Freyr’s “Where We Wanna Be”.  

In lieu of the concert, its promoters instead honored all those contestants’ songs by non-competitively showcasing them. If you want to watch other Eurovision Song Contest 2020 nominated songs, here’s a compilation. From Albania to the United Kingdom, to quote Bill Hader’s character Stefon from SNL, “this place has everything!” Did you catch the clowns, romantic close-ups, outer space special effects, gym workouts with doll strollers, the Kendall Jenner lookalike, and odes to the Terminator and Frozen? Mixed up in the bunch but definitely standing-out was the actual Russian contestant group, Little Big with their “Uno”. 

Scooting over to watch their entire music video, their shaking legs in shiny flare pants, the karate dancer in a blue suit, performing on top of a 70s dance set of disco light squares, I really could not help wondering if these people singing were even real people or really excellently animated characters. They are real. And like their Icelandic competition, they have a catchy song and impression-worthy dance moves. With over 165million views, it’s officially the most watched video of all time on Eurovision YouTube Channel.

But Little Big is not new to making eccentrically visual music videos. All of their releases in the last two years and since Eurovision’s cancellation were independently made and financed specially tailored to their brand of performance humor. They are like Russia’s version of The Lonely Island! 

In chronological order:

Faradenza – like an extended cologne ad with a young man enjoying his time at a summer beach resort/living community as heavyset women ogle him.

Skibidi (the original) – following a man about his day and all those he meets doing their crazy dance moves, that lead to an entire group joining them in an alleyway.

Skibidi (romantic edition) – heavily 80s romance and fantasy movie influenced, that ends with the male lead abandoning his human girlfriend for a Godzilla-like creature with a Ghost pottery scene homage

I’m Ok – the male and female band leads hitting up the popular bar on a Friday looking to hookup with other patrons until they leave together super drunk.

Rock-Paper-Scissors – each bandmember dressed in dog costume onesies, causing havoc on a city’s industrial streets.

Go Bananas – each bandmate as if in their own photoshopped frame in the most unexpected costumes, dance moves, and props.

Hypnodancer – two rival groups try to keep from getting caught at their latest casino robbery – by the lead males each using their gyrating hips to hypnotize marks into momentary paralysis.

Tacos – picking up where “Uno” left off with its karate blue suit dancer returning home to his kitchen, the condiments on his table come to life and the bandmates honor favorite foods: pizza, curry, sushi borscht – while the fruits and veggies scream out in pain when pulled apart.

S*ck My D*ck 2020 – the bandmates dress up in ugly Christmas sweaters, host a house party, decorate the house, greet Santa; all including tropes of the year with visual detestation representing the emotional horrible year of dealing with covid-19, all eventually exploding from a bomb. 

It should be noted that an extra layer of hilarity comes from the band’s use of various toy and animal sound effects in their songs all perfectly timed to be part of the beat. Their dance routines have largely become TikTok dance challenges. And a frequent collaborator has his own band in the Little Big family, The Hatters. One of their best videos is for a title not translated to English but is the equivalent to a rom-com. At an American old-timey swing-dance party in a rec hall, a young woman is left without a partner. A man watches her from afar but doesn’t make his move, instead having his underlings cause minor accidents to get rid of the competition. One guy is electrocuted while another falls from his shoelaces being tied together. When they’re all incapable of moving, the lead comes to her rescue and they slow-dance the night away as the cleaning crew finishes up. 

Conclusion 

In 2020, YouTube has become even more of a most necessary free-to-access website for people from around the world to watch whatever they may want to; whether that’s comedy shorts, music videos, travelogues, sports highlights, news clips, movie trailers, historical archives, cooking recipes, make-up tutorials, celebrity interviews, product reviews, oh and of course cute pets. 

Self-made comedy videos taking stock of daily life during coronavirus acts as a time capsule for not just reminding us what breaking news we have already forgotten about but for those distant years from now when we’ll get questions from the younger generation. For Europe and now North America alike, people will recall that an international music talent competition with its zany antics reached more people online than it did over broadcast. 

Quite interestingly, watching all of the countries’ performances in the Eurovision movie as well as in the real recordings, I want to note that Eurovision began 11 years after World War II’s end and acted as a unifier for still very hurting countries. That Germany and France were calmly competing in song rather than dropping bombs, goes to show something really special in moving forward after tragedy. Today, the world is still engaged in many fights, but all together trying to battle a virus. 

Most importantly though, we can remind ourselves from watching these YouTube videos that even during a global crisis, we can all still laugh out loud.