Best Hits of the Pandemic
COVID may be “over” but these moments will stay with us
What single word would you use to decribe the 2020–2022 COVID pandemic? What would unite right and left, cautious and cavalier, science-based and conspiracy-theory-prone?
Let’s go with “absurd.”
Absurd because every new act in the ridiculous months that stretched into years effectively betrayed the act that preceded it. Absurd because, as in an Ionesco play, one character started doing something utterly bizarre only to see that behavior normalized and become the standard for the entire cast. Absurd because no one betrayed their own double-speak publicly. Everyone held their party line even if that line came to resemble the wavy curves of a roller coaster ride straight to hell.
And so when we look back at the cultural moments of the pandemic, it’s of course to the theater of the absurd that we must turn to try to, well, not exactly rationalize it all. But, maybe put a parenthesis around this black hole of time and space. Let’s then briefly review some of the greatest cultural hits of the pandemic, partly for old times sake, but partly to remember how nonsensical we can all become given the right circumstances.
When a Lawyer Became a Cat
