Coronavirus brings out America’s fearless sense of humor on social media

Americans may be facing a potential deadly pandemic, but they’re not letting it kill their sense of humor.

Jokes in the form of doctored photos started popping up almost immediately on social media. Then came the memes and videos, and then the original songs, the best known of which is Cardi B’s unforgettable “coronavirus rant” song.

It actually became a hit — once DJ iMarkkeyz edited out the curse words and added a beat.

Some of the jokes have been criticized as tasteless, such as the “coronavirus challenge” that had a woman licking the toilet seat on a plane. But other examples have been benign if not sweet, including Andy Eversole’s “Quarantined with You” love song on YouTube.

How soon is too soon when it’s getting worse?

“Comedy ... is humanity’s free coping mechanism, a medium that both distracts us from the horrors of the world while allowing us to get our best and worst thoughts out of our heads,” according to an article this week on Vulture.com.

“As people are forced to turn to the internet for entertainment ... the online jokes will keep flowing,” the article predicted.

Here’s a sample of the online humor to be found:

This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 12:05 PM with the headline "Coronavirus brings out America’s fearless sense of humor on social media."