Time Travel in the time of COVID-19
June 7, 2020 4:35 PM Subscribe
Canadian Julie Nolke makes YouTube sketch comedy. One of her sketches is Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self - in which Julie from April 2020 went back in time to explain the pandemic to Julie in January 2020.
In the latest update on her time-travelling self, she posted Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self Part 2, in which Julie from June 2020 goes back in time to talk to Julie from April. It's a tricky balancing act - comedy and tragedy - and I think she nails it. Like many of her commenters, I hope there's no need for a third installment.
What gets me about The Now is I'm in a lose-lose position here.
I thought the shutdowns we took in March were prudent and worked well to save my state from following in NYC's and N Italy's catastrophic death tolls.
And yet, my city is now reopening restaurants, retail, and the malls even though daily cases are up into the 50+ range vs. the under 5/day back in March.
So the good outcome is the opening doesn't go out of control, showing Newsom's shutdown that I supported to be arguably a massive overreaction, vs. the other outcome where the case counts continue to ramp up until we have to shut down again, for real.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 5:10 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
I thought the shutdowns we took in March were prudent and worked well to save my state from following in NYC's and N Italy's catastrophic death tolls.
And yet, my city is now reopening restaurants, retail, and the malls even though daily cases are up into the 50+ range vs. the under 5/day back in March.
So the good outcome is the opening doesn't go out of control, showing Newsom's shutdown that I supported to be arguably a massive overreaction, vs. the other outcome where the case counts continue to ramp up until we have to shut down again, for real.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 5:10 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
And I had already forgotten about the murder hornets...
posted by acidnova at 5:15 PM on June 7, 2020 [12 favorites]
posted by acidnova at 5:15 PM on June 7, 2020 [12 favorites]
These are nicely done. And yes, I'd be happy if this ended at two installments with no need for a third.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:31 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Dip Flash at 5:31 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
She appears to live in Toronto. As a fellow citizen of Toronto who has observed how seriously many citizens of this town are taking the pandemic...well, I guess I have good news for you if you enjoy these videos.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:39 PM on June 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:39 PM on June 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
Yeah, a bit off topic but it is important: the shutdown in March when there were a small number of daily cases versus reopening today with a large number of daily cases are occurring in very different contexts. That initial phase of exponential growth was absolutely essential to slow down as much as possible, to spread out ICU cases enough to not overwhelm the available beds, to allow doctors more time to learn effective treatment strategies to reduce the fraction of cases requiring ICU beds, to allow the supply chain time to ramp up manufacturing and distribution of PPE and essential equipment, to allow time for testing to be developed and distributed, etc. Whether or not there is a return to exponential growth of the virus as things start to reopen is completely immaterial to the question of whether quarantine was necessary starting in March. It was, and it saved many thousands of lives, just by slowing down the initial growth phase of the pandemic to buy us time to deal with it. Don't allow anyone to tell you that if the spread of COVID cases remains stable as we reopen, that somehow means that the quarantine was a massive overreaction.
I'm sorry for the derail but this is really important to know when thinking about potential future waves of exponential growth in infections. Anyway I thought the sketches were pretty funny. I wish "murder hornets" even pinged on my list of things I worried about.
posted by biogeo at 5:54 PM on June 7, 2020 [45 favorites]
I'm sorry for the derail but this is really important to know when thinking about potential future waves of exponential growth in infections. Anyway I thought the sketches were pretty funny. I wish "murder hornets" even pinged on my list of things I worried about.
posted by biogeo at 5:54 PM on June 7, 2020 [45 favorites]
The comedy was great but
as a Canadian expat I really fucking needed those ehs in the second video. It was like drinking swiss chalet sauce straight from a cup.
posted by srboisvert at 6:21 PM on June 7, 2020 [20 favorites]
as a Canadian expat I really fucking needed those ehs in the second video. It was like drinking swiss chalet sauce straight from a cup.
posted by srboisvert at 6:21 PM on June 7, 2020 [20 favorites]
One thing that is currently confusing to me is that if my region collectively signals that it's not willing to make sacrifices to substantially contain the virus anymore, does the altruistic benefit from me making sacrifices to help not spread the disease (presuming they are sustainable ones I am happy to make until the disease is eliminated or high-risk people are vaccinated) go up, go down, or stay the same?
It seems like I might need to do a bunch of math about this soon if reopenings and protests continue and it looks like R is clearly heading above 1. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.
posted by value of information at 7:02 PM on June 7, 2020
It seems like I might need to do a bunch of math about this soon if reopenings and protests continue and it looks like R is clearly heading above 1. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.
posted by value of information at 7:02 PM on June 7, 2020
She appears to live in Toronto. As a fellow citizen of Toronto who has observed how seriously many citizens of this town are taking the pandemic...well, I guess I have good news for you if you enjoy these videos.
Good, because I have serious (okay, semi-serious) concerns that August Julie might be visiting from beyond the grave at the rate things are going.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:46 PM on June 7, 2020
Good, because I have serious (okay, semi-serious) concerns that August Julie might be visiting from beyond the grave at the rate things are going.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:46 PM on June 7, 2020
Posting from 2022 here (don't ask). Let's just say you all may want to brush up on your oral storytelling. Don't put off signing up for that Udemy class for too much longer. Also, you might want to uh, start making more hard-copies of important documents. Just saying. But don't worry, everything will be fine. Like and subscribe!
posted by glonous keming at 7:46 PM on June 7, 2020 [22 favorites]
posted by glonous keming at 7:46 PM on June 7, 2020 [22 favorites]
My version of the joke is getting a message from the future, but most of it is garbled. The only thing that comes through clearly is a warning that choral singing is dangerous.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:50 PM on June 7, 2020 [17 favorites]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:50 PM on June 7, 2020 [17 favorites]
choral singing is dangerous
"oh honey no that's a lot of spit" has been my personal earworm (in a good way) whenever "when can we gather as a church again" comes up.
posted by freethefeet at 8:02 PM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
"oh honey no that's a lot of spit" has been my personal earworm (in a good way) whenever "when can we gather as a church again" comes up.
posted by freethefeet at 8:02 PM on June 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
that was fun and then I realized I don't even remember when the mass shooting in nova scotia was. Mid April.
what a shit year.
posted by stray at 8:14 PM on June 7, 2020 [11 favorites]
what a shit year.
posted by stray at 8:14 PM on June 7, 2020 [11 favorites]
I gotta say that June Ricochet shares April Julie’s moment of mild disorientation at being reminded of the Australian wildfires. Oh yeah, those were pretty serious but they passed over the horizon behind us so long ago.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:58 PM on June 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:58 PM on June 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
Obligatory: Is 2020 over?
(it's far from exhaustive but does have stuff I didn't know about)
posted by juv3nal at 9:47 PM on June 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
(it's far from exhaustive but does have stuff I didn't know about)
posted by juv3nal at 9:47 PM on June 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
I've been holding in a lot of tension and emotion, and have just been sort of overwhelmed since... shit. I don't remember not feeling overwhelmed anymore. So, well, watching that just sort of set me off bawling for a while. So now I'm exhausted like after any solid crying, but the tension has ratcheted down, just a bit.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:24 PM on June 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
posted by Ghidorah at 10:24 PM on June 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
That initial phase of exponential growth was absolutely essential to slow down as much as possible, to spread out ICU cases enough to not overwhelm the available beds, to allow doctors more time to learn effective treatment strategies to reduce the fraction of cases requiring ICU beds, to allow the supply chain time to ramp up manufacturing and distribution of PPE and essential equipment, to allow time for testing to be developed and distributed, etc.
None of that really happened to the level required though and the medical health professionals are still recommending maintain the quarantine. Arizona thought they were OK and re-opened and now have their ICU system overwhelmed state wide. Saying we're good now is severely jumping the gun.
posted by jmauro at 3:37 AM on June 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
None of that really happened to the level required though and the medical health professionals are still recommending maintain the quarantine. Arizona thought they were OK and re-opened and now have their ICU system overwhelmed state wide. Saying we're good now is severely jumping the gun.
posted by jmauro at 3:37 AM on June 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
Pendragon's video is also Canadian: I only realised when he mentioned "speaking moistly".
posted by jb at 6:43 AM on June 8, 2020
posted by jb at 6:43 AM on June 8, 2020
<3 Julie Nolke. Also highly recommend Quarantine Panic Attack, though to make sense of the fourth-wall breaking aside about a minute in, it helps to know that the 'magic mirror/fairy godmother' character is a recurring one in her sketches.
posted by solotoro at 7:03 AM on June 8, 2020
posted by solotoro at 7:03 AM on June 8, 2020
> Obligatory: Is 2020 over?It says “Eurovision Song Contest is cancelled”, so not all is bad!
But anyway, I saw the first in april and wasn't too chuffed with a second one.
+1 for not needing a third.
posted by farlukar at 2:56 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
I actually would love to see a third one where future Julie comes with a bunch of good news.
"Do you want the good news or the great news?"
posted by acidnova at 3:11 PM on June 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
"Do you want the good news or the great news?"
posted by acidnova at 3:11 PM on June 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
Favorite lines:
Part 1: "Your definition of 'a big deal' is going to change."
Part 2: "Why does your face look like that?"
posted by Mogur at 3:36 PM on June 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
Part 1: "Your definition of 'a big deal' is going to change."
Part 2: "Why does your face look like that?"
posted by Mogur at 3:36 PM on June 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
“You want some good news. Ok. The stock market is back up to where it started in January ”
“Oh, so everything worked out and it’s all better?”
“Yeah...no. Ummm...worse than ever actually”
posted by karst at 8:56 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
“Oh, so everything worked out and it’s all better?”
“Yeah...no. Ummm...worse than ever actually”
posted by karst at 8:56 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
June Julie is looking well. I suspect she's the five-month-older version of January Julie who took April Julie's stock advice to buy Zoom.
posted by otherchaz at 9:08 PM on June 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by otherchaz at 9:08 PM on June 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
I confess I was surprised at how good June Julie's hair looked.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:45 AM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:45 AM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
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