Covid-19: The memes and moments getting the nation through the latest lockdown
Tuesday, 24 August 2021
Since the prime minister announced the country was going back into lockdown last week, the laughs for Kiwis have been few and far between.
Apart from Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins’ Freudian slip at an afternoon press conference, where he muddled a message about people stretching their legs and instead said “spread your legs”, the mood of the nation has been heavy and serious.
But as you’d expect, a minister uttering “spread your legs” at a high-profile press conference was music to the ears of meme makers.
“Laughter and not taking ourselves too seriously is super important when we are in situations like this,” said 22-year-old Auckland student Anna McConnell.
McConnell’s comical TikTok post, which sets Hipkins’ blunder against rapper Kreepa’s Oh No track (featuring a sample of The Shangri-Las’ iconic melodramatic refrain “Oh no!”) has more than 186,000 views and counting.
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“It’s important that we take Covid-19 seriously, but it is equally important to keep things lighthearted and fun, so we have the morale and motivation to stick together and keep moving,” McConnell said.
Describing the response as “pretty insane and unexpected”, she said she thought the reason it blew up on such a scale was because “we all love and appreciate” Hipkins and Dr Ashley Bloomfield from the Ministry of Health.
“The way they handled it was just gold.”
Further north, videos of prehistoric creatures taking on a Covid era have been cheering up the spirits of locals.
Waipū resident Patsy Beverwijk, under her TikTok and Instagram name @WaipuGoodLife, has been making social media videos with friends in dinosaur costumes. The latest involves a string of dinos in line for their vaccine at Ruakākā’s Bream Bay Medical Centre.
Beverwij, who admits she’s a “dinosaur when it comes to social media”, said she was surprised at the reception – the video now sits at 48,800 views and more than 7000 likes.
“We started off making the videos to entertain ourselves while we were restricted and realised quickly that the videos we posted every few days were making people laugh and were something they were looking forward to,” she said.
“During these challenging times it makes me happy to think our videos can take worried frowns and turn them upside down.”
The return of lockdown also meant the return of @NZLockdownMemes, the quick-witted Instagram account that thrust personal trainer Ben Evans into the spotlight last year.
Evans said his memes were “a quick and snappy way to crack jokes and bring light to things that would otherwise only be viewed as bleak”.
During last year's lockdown, Auckland-based friends Deb Cairns and Megan Vertelle, who are both “a bit crafty”, started a Facebook group dedicated to creating abstract artworks known as mandalas from bits of pieces found around the house or outside.
Cairns said about 1500 people from all around the world had since taken part, using things like flowers, toys, food, rocks, socks and crochet to create some “brilliant” mandalas.
“People were doing art for the first time in their lives, some of these people.”
Creating mandalas had given some a reason to get out of bed and helped them get out of a dark place, she added.
“They're just cool things made by ordinary people.”
Offline, people have been finding ways to keep their community entertained during their lockdown strolls around the neighbourhood, including a return of the hugely popular window teddy bears of 2020.
Grey Lynn resident Narlea Cohen has been setting up a teddy bear scene outside her Sackville St home each day, using materials found around the house.
On Monday, Cohen's seven teddy bears were having a drink at “Bruno's Bar”. Each beverage was paid for with honey.
On Tuesday the teddy bears were getting their Covid-19 vaccines. The bears had also previously enjoyed a fishing trip and a pampering at the hairdressers.
Cohen said she hoped her display would encourage others to “get their bear on again”.