Will there be another video or not?
December 17, 2020 12:28 PM   Subscribe

Julie Nolke does a fourth video of Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self This time December Julie is quite drunk and sad....but why, when there's actual good news to share? Last mentioned here.
posted by jenfullmoon (29 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Okay.

So.

I clicked in to read the comments on this thread, somehow failing to notice both A) that there were no comments yet and B) that I was actually clicking on the "here" link that lead to the previous thread. Once there, I read comments like:
I had totally forgotten about Beirut blowing up. When she mentioned "at least no cities have exploded" and her future self was like "wellll" I literally had to think for a minute about what she was talking about.
and
Is toilet paper a problem again? My store is all stocked up now.
and
Remember how we found out President Deals only paid $750 in taxes twice in 15 years? That was last week.
and I swear to literally any entity you care to name, I did not realize I was in the wrong thread. I thought to myself, "The $750 tax thing was only a week ago? Feels like longer. Oh, well." When I reached the end and saw the text that said the thread was archived, I scrolled back up to see the deletion reason. I didn't get confused even for a second until I saw there was no deletion reason, even after refreshing the page a couple times.

2020, people. Seriously.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:39 PM on December 17, 2020 [65 favorites]


I see that Julie from December has committed to wearing pants....
posted by OHenryPacey at 12:46 PM on December 17, 2020 [6 favorites]


Mod note: One comment removed, avoid doomsday comments please.
posted by loup (staff) at 1:29 PM on December 17, 2020 [3 favorites]


I didn't know she wasn't American but I think even a Canadian would be OMG DID TRUMP GET RE-ELECTED???!! but maybe not?

I don't actually remember much of October, I was just vibrating with anxiety that whole month about the election.

I hope she gets hired to do some lucrative comedy even after Old Bessie's teats are sucked dry.
posted by emjaybee at 1:58 PM on December 17, 2020 [5 favorites]


Every one of these has captured the moment so perfectly. I'm in awe.
posted by meinvt at 2:02 PM on December 17, 2020 [7 favorites]


Yay! I was checking around like two days ago to see if she'd done a December one yet.
posted by Navelgazer at 2:12 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]


One things's for sure: mulled wine.
posted by swift at 2:17 PM on December 17, 2020 [4 favorites]


Last time around fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit almost nailed this.
posted by cgc373 at 2:24 PM on December 17, 2020


[ One comment removed, avoid doomsday comments please. ]

I mean, it was a joke in the spirit of the actual post, but okay.
posted by Lonnrot at 2:35 PM on December 17, 2020 [2 favorites]


I think even a Canadian would be OMG DID TRUMP GET RE-ELECTED???!!

Part of the conceit seems to be that future-Julie avoids being overly specific about exactly what's going to happen.
posted by The Tensor at 2:44 PM on December 17, 2020 [4 favorites]


Thank you! I was just checking the other day to see if there was a new video. Glad she's back, and I'm glad the news is finally on the upswing.
posted by hydra77 at 3:10 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]


This weirdly made me cry and I'm not entirely sure why. I guess at the idea that it's...I mean, not over-over but you can see down the road somewhere that what is happening right now is for sure going to take up some textbook space in the future but the surprises at least have maybe more or less stopped? No jinxes, just speculating.

Hooboy one day pretty soon we get to actually start grappling with the trauma. I hope someone somewhere right now is designing a 2020-specific therapy couch.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:02 PM on December 17, 2020 [8 favorites]


Decades from now, when I'm trying to explain the feeling of living through 2020 to a youngster, these videos will definitely be required viewing.
posted by NotTheRedBaron at 4:18 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]


>This weirdly made me cry and I'm not entirely sure why.
Someone might visit me! Like IRL, in-the-same-space-as...
posted by k3ninho at 4:19 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]


This week has been something of a roller coaster for me. On the one hand, vaccines. On the other hand, one of our clients had 25% of their people out with COVID this week. The one where my 70 year old boss ends up at most often. Happily, he's been strict about PPE and spends most of his time there in the server room that has its own separate ventilation, but still. It makes me feel pretty bad that I'm 1500 miles away and haven't been able to take over site visits so he doesn't have to risk it.

I'm not sure if it's fallout from Thanksgiving or if people have heard there is a vaccine now and so they've just gone full YOLO, but it's distressing either way. We're much closer to the end than the beginning, yet people just can't seem to help themselves even though they spent months working from home earlier in the year.
posted by wierdo at 4:28 PM on December 17, 2020 [3 favorites]


And weirdo, if the vaccine doesn't prevent transmission but only severe disease, we aren't out of the woods yet.
posted by freethefeet at 5:41 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]


if the vaccine doesn't prevent transmission

Good news, there are three different vaccines currently ready to roll out and a dozen more in the pipes. They do not all operate the same way. If vaccine-1 turns out not to prevent spread then that failing will soon be noticed, so we will switch to vaccine-2 electric boogaloo.

We are most certainly not out of the woods but we can see the treeline.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:59 PM on December 17, 2020 [2 favorites]


This weirdly made me cry and I'm not entirely sure why.

“And then I won’t have anyone to visit me!” was the stake thru my heart.
posted by a Rrose by any other name at 6:19 PM on December 17, 2020 [2 favorites]


if the vaccine doesn't prevent transmission

This is a slight derail but I was just thinking of posting an ask question on this: when are we likely to know which/if any vaccines prevent transmission?

Also thanks for these videos, they are great.
posted by medusa at 6:25 PM on December 17, 2020


“And then I won’t have anyone to visit me!” was the stake thru my heart.

I dunno, might be nice to see a happier Julie who visits? Though the humor might have to change, of course. Up to Future Julie to figure out in two months.

I'm not sure if it's fallout from Thanksgiving or if people have heard there is a vaccine now and so they've just gone full YOLO, but it's distressing either way. We're much closer to the end than the beginning, yet people just can't seem to help themselves even though they spent months working from home earlier in the year.

I have come to the conclusion that people would literally rather die than be separated indefinitely from all other people. If there's anything we've learned from this, it's that our species can't stand to be that level of alone for that long and that having to treat all other humans as a disease vector absolutely fucks with your head.

That said, I'm still stumped that the fear of death or possibly permanent disablement hasn't made more people stop. Sure works for me. Willful denial is a helluva drug.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:23 PM on December 17, 2020 [4 favorites]


I'm sad that Drunk Julie will never have a chance to meet Drunk Jim Lahey.
posted by clawsoon at 7:37 PM on December 17, 2020


I have come to the conclusion that people would literally rather die than be separated indefinitely from all other people.

We're not all the same--once I separate out the anxiety and abuse I've suffered from Trump & Co + COVID, I find that I have *loved* having so much time to myself, not having to interact with other humans.

I know I'm lucky enough to have transitioned to working from home, and I am strongly conscious of that, but man, my social anxiety and natural aversion to people in general have had a good year. And I'd put money down that I'm far from alone, but it's not socially acceptable to say that you're rather be alone all the time than spend time in other people's company, so I imagine most people like me are just nodding their heads along with everyone who's miserable about not being able to socialize so as not to appear to be sociopaths.
posted by tzikeh at 8:30 PM on December 17, 2020 [18 favorites]


And weirdo, if the vaccine doesn't prevent transmission but only severe disease, we aren't out of the woods yet.

Even if none of the vaccines do anything but drop the chance of severe disease by an order of magnitude or two, which is supported by the data, it drastically changes the character of the situation. It will reduce the load on the healthcare system to a level that is as sustainable as normal and save hundreds of thousands of lives in the US alone.
posted by wierdo at 12:55 AM on December 18, 2020 [3 favorites]


The point where I got tears in my eyes was when October Julie was all, "But hey, that's great news, there's light at the end of the tunnel, omg, finally!"
posted by MiraK at 6:58 AM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]


I had kinda thought this video would write itself but she didn't go the places I imagined at all.

I expected something like:
"So you have to tell me: did Trump win?"
"Not something you have to worry about."
"That's great! Can't wait for him to leave in January."
"I mean, sure... if he does."
"Wait. What?"
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:48 AM on December 18, 2020 [2 favorites]


i hope the series ends with december 2020 nolke visited by a several-years-in-the-future nolke who's got clothing and demeanor right out of mad max. seems like the appropriate capstone for the series or whatever.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:12 AM on December 18, 2020 [2 favorites]


More about the pants
posted by mbrubeck at 10:58 AM on December 18, 2020 [3 favorites]


We watched all four in a row last night and it's impressive at how well she's kept the visual continuity over all these months.
posted by octothorpe at 5:37 AM on December 19, 2020 [1 favorite]


Couldn't her future self come back to tell her if there would be any more videos?
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:36 AM on December 20, 2020 [1 favorite]


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