Comedy Covid

[Music]

So I watched a lot of comedy on TikTok and it has…

The algorithms obviously figured out I like comedians and it maybe

is figured out I’m old as well so it thought I would like this

which is a very interesting choice. I was interested in it.

“MZ doesn’t know how to write a check. They don’t know how

to address an envelope. They don’t know how to read cursive.”

So she’s saying what? They don’t know how to write a check.

They don’t know how to read cursive. What was the second one?

It’s a second one on the… “They don’t know how to read a paper map.”

Oh, they don’t know how to read a paper map. Okay. What she’s actually

done is listed off a set of skills that people don’t need anymore.

I was of the age of people who wrote checks. I have not

written a check easily since I was 20 years old. I’m 50.

So in the last 30 years I have not written a check. I am basically of

the generation she’s talking about that is capable of writing a check.

I know how to write a check. I have not done

it. It is a skill that is completely useless.

As far as reading cursive, people put a lot of stock into

that. I don’t actually see the value in writing cursive.

People don’t read cursive anymore because cursive is not relevant.

That’s actually what if you take her underpinning. This comedy is so low bar.

She’s basically listed off a series of skills that

her generation has. The following generation doesn’t.

And then the people in the audience laugh. That actually was a bit that I found funny.

People were laughing at this because I didn’t laugh at

the first part because I didn’t understand what was funny.

That young people can’t read cursive isn’t inherently funny.

Young people need a paper map. Can’t read a paper map. But they do have GPS.

People try to make fun of them for that. I don’t actually see it as a problem

because I took a minute and I made a list of some other things that boomers can’t do.

Let’s actually let her finish her joke and comment on that first.

They can’t get anywhere unless there’s a GPS map

on their phone. All I’m saying is a gentleman.

The irony there though is I bet she can’t use the GPS map on her phone.

So boomers famously are very poor at using technology.

So it’s really hard. I don’t see this as a picture maybe in my brain.

It’s like how can you make fun of someone who is able to use

something and relies on that thing that you cannot even use?

So there’s kind of a weird irony there. The

next sense is if Gen Z takes over the world.

Gen Z takes over the world. It’s going to be pretty easy to get it back.

I don’t see how those things correlate because what are

you going to do to take over the world with cursive?

What skill have you just espoused that is going to help you take over the world?

So the world we live in is technology based. What are you going to write a check?

And that’s going to help you take over the

world. You’re going to write a letter in cursive.

And that’s going to be some like secret script

that the Gen Z isn’t going to be able to read.

And so you can pass your secrets back and forth. But

you can’t do a technology because you can’t use any.

fucking email or anything. Are you going to use

your paper maps to outwit Gen Z that has GPS,

abilities? I mean, this is what I’m saying. The skills you’ve listed are relevant.

Gen Z is going to take over the world probably

mainly because you’re going to die. I mean,

you’re not going to be taking it back because you’re going to be dead.

The audience laughing at this. I didn’t

laugh because to me there was no actual joke.

They’re laughing hard. So this relies on the

audience agreeing with your sentiments having had

this kind of conversation in the first place in

their life. I do like, if you can watch the video,

in the front row there’s a dude. He’s got the American flag shirt on.

The irony there. There’s actually really big irony.

People who wear the American flag have not read

the rules about how you treat the flag. You’re

not supposed to wear the flag as clothing. So like

American flag pants and underwear and bikinis,

American flag shirts, bandanas and stuff.

You’re actually not supposed to do that. That

is technically disrespect them to the flag.

According to America, and that’s the irony. So

I wanted to get some of the better feel for her

comedy routine. I want to let her start from

the beginning, get a feel for her comedy,

and then see if I could maybe replicate the power of this in my own way.

Gen Z doesn’t know how to write a check. They don’t know how to address an envelope.

They don’t know how to read cursive. They don’t know how to read a paper map.

They can’t get anywhere unless there’s a GPS

map on their phone. All I’m saying is that Gen Z

takes over the world. It’s going to be pretty easy to get it back.

Man, they laughed really hard at that. Like way harder than they should. That is.

insane that they found it as funny as they did.

All right, so I went and found some things. So.

boomers can’t be a galley roller. Boomers don’t know how to use a knocker upper.

Boomers don’t even employ caddy butchers

anymore. Boomers don’t know how to use a beam of

test. They can’t operate a lino type machine and

they couldn’t even set bowling pins manually.

I’m just saying if boomers try to take over the

world, it’s going to be pretty easy to take it back.

Just so I what I did as I went and found a

list of jobs that don’t exist anymore. A galley

roller in a large, large ship they used to have

hundreds and maybe even thousands of people

hacked as rowers. They used to row the ship and

then they invented sales. And the sailing ships

were much faster, much more efficient than the

rowing and people didn’t have to die doing it not

as much. I mean people did die in sailing ships

but for totally different reasons. A knocker upper.

takes on very different meaning in modern parlons

but a knocker upper is someone who wakes you up.

So they come to your house, they knock on the door

and you get up and you get up. So a knocker upper.

A knocker upper was replaced by the alarm clock.

A caddy butcher was a very interesting job.

A caddy butcher is someone who is basically a

butcher for horses but because people don’t eat

horses anymore, like they don’t use caddy butchers.

A beam attest is a person who used to count steps

physically to measure distances. That was replaced

by the paper map. So an entire job industry

was replaced by paper maps. Boomers can’t operate

line-on-type machines. That is when you should do

type-setting basically. You have to take the

letters and put them in place and then it’s like a

heat thing. It was replaced by digital technology.

Oh big shock. And they couldn’t even set

bowling pins manually because that actually used

to be someone’s job. They didn’t have a machine

that picked up all the bowling pins and then put

them down. They have a big claw now that picks

them up, puts them in place and puts them down

physically. So the irony there is everything she’s

talked about has replaced some other technology

that was proceeding it. There are a dozen versions

of that joke. They all rely on you saying things

to your audience that your audience always

already agrees with which is not a joke. So first

of all if you have a listicle that’s not a joke.

and then going, “Ooh look at us, aren’t we better?”

I do remember the one of the videos I really enjoyed

and it was they gave a rotary phone to a couple

of teenagers. When they were laughing and laughing

and laughing as the teenagers couldn’t figure out

how to use the phone. And it took about 10 minutes

but then they figured it out. Whereas if you

gave one of these older people a smart phone,

a brand new smart phone and told them to do some

basic settings, I guarantee they wouldn’t be able

to do it. And that’s the difference. You’re talking

about young people not being able to do something

because they’ve never done it before. That doesn’t

mean they can’t do it. It doesn’t mean they

couldn’t figure it out. It doesn’t mean they’re

adaptable because they are. We’ve had some jokes going

around lately. Primarily about language. My coworkers

are old. My friends are old. I’m old. And they are

starting to rip on things. My wife specifically is

angry at the fact that my kids spend so much time

on their tablet. Now I didn’t really want to point

out but then felt obligated to point out the fact

that while she was complaining about kids being

on their tablets, she was watching TV. And she was

probably watching TV for the exact same amount of

time the kids were on the tablet. So the kids aren’t

watching television in the traditional sense. They’re

watching videos on TikTok, on YouTube and stuff.

They don’t watch traditional TV. And she in her

mind has demonized the tablet when the TV is just a

big less useful tablet that she is one step

away from being addicted to. And I pointed out,

so you have people now complaining that kids

are addicted to their phones and tablets.

My generation, the kids were addicted to TV.

Previous to that, kids were addicted to music.

Previous to that, kids were addicted to

music. All these complaints have not changed.

They’re generational. You’re not doing the thing

I did. And the new thing that you’re doing is bad

and addictive. It will make you sick and dying. Now

social media is engineered. So I think there are

risks to go along with it. TV is bad. It’s addictive.

But it was more passive. Whereas the algorithm,

what not is coming for your children, I am aware

of that and do caution my kids. We do a limit time

and stuff. But it’s because I know that modern

technology is manipulative in nature. I don’t blame

the children for that. I mean, the conclusion

to that is that first of all, that wasn’t funny.

From an objective point of view, what she did

was make a list and the only reason the people in

the audience were laughing is because they agreed

with her. So that wasn’t humor. That was agreement.

If I could be specific, I don’t want to define a

joke. A joke is something that makes you laugh. But

they were just like, oh yeah, I hate young people.

Therefore, this lady hating on young people is funny.

to me. Whereas I don’t, I personally don’t think

that’s a joke. If I was going to try to make a joke,

I would try to do better than that. There should be

an examination of something. Because her joke falls

flat when she says we could take it back. I don’t

think you could. I don’t think you could take it back

from the millennials. They would lock you out of

your email and Facebook. And then you wouldn’t have

be able to do anything. And you’d be spending time

calling the millennials or Gen Z or whoever you’re

talking about to come and fix all that shit for

you. Do you remember when people got really upset

about Miles Morales, the new Spider-Man and the

new Spider-Man wasn’t white? Remember that? I just

wanted to point out that no one gives a shit anymore.

So Miles Morales was introduced as a half-black,

half-Mexican kid from Brooklyn. He got bitten by

a different spider and got different spider powers

and became the new Spider-Man of Miles Morales.

Everyone who was racist lost their mind.

And fuck those people that’s so stupid. Because here

we are now, a few years later, I don’t know when

Miles Morales was released anymore. And no one

gives a shit. They came out with that movie in the

Spider-Verse. Fucking awesome. I watched it again

a week ago. That’s why this popped into my head.

That movie’s great. I almost cried at the part

where they’re supporting each other because I guess

I’ve never had any real support in my life. But that

is something I clearly clamor for. The interesting part

was like, I was like, “I’ll watch this because the

new movie’s coming out. I’ll watch the old movie.”

So I’m kind of like, kind of remember exactly what’s

going on. That’d be really nice to go into the

theater knowing that. Fucking mosquito. I am

not Spider-Man. I miss that mosquito twice.

I forgot to do me a fucking mosquito. It’s because

mosquitoes hate spiders that are racist too. And so

he hates Spider-Man. He’s trying to ruin my Spider-Man

thing. I was watching it on the train and then

I just right way, midway through the trip. I suddenly

went, “No one cares that Miles Morales isn’t a

white Peter Parker anymore.” Peter Parker is white

guy. Peter Parker’s Peter Parker. Spider-Man’s Peter.

Parker. Fucking is the calling man. No one gives a

shit. And no one ever did. They just were racist.

That’s something you just keep in mind. Those massive

controversies are just distractions for nothing.

They’re not even distracting you from anything. But

that got me thinking about other distractions we’ve had.

We’re not coronavirus. COVID-19 is not finished. It

still exists. It’s still something to be concerned

about. I still know people who have gotten it

recently. So still be careful. I want everyone to be

careful. But we are maybe just living with it

now or we’ve got it sort of under control. People

who are vaccinated, things like that. I wanted to

take a look at some of the conspiracy theories that

came out. Just remembering, this is kind of like

reminiscing of the history of a couple of years ago.

So Miles Morales, fucking awesome Spider-Man. No one

gives a shit that he’s Spider-Man anymore because

he’s fucking great in Asia. So I can really only

speak for this stuff. I read online and the stuff I

knew in Asia. So in Asia, the first conspiracy theory

about COVID-19 was that COVID-19 was engineered

to kill off old people because China, Japan, and

Korea have too many old people. It’s a graying

populations. So they engineered this disease that

would attack old people. Now the reality is that

anything virulent like a virus or a disease or

something is going to have a bigger impact on older

people regardless. It’s going to have an bigger

impact on older people because they are weaker. They

have more underlying problems. They’ve lived a

longer life. They are closer to death already. So a

devastating disease, respiratory disease, someone

who’s not already healthy, it’s going to kill them.

So yes, it was killing older people at a higher

raise, but any disease would. So the Spanish flu,

I’m assuming killed older people at a higher rate.

The bubonic plague probably killed people at a higher.

rate. I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know about the

stats back then. It’s a job that went away with

the boomers. So who knows? But I’m betting any

disease that is powerful, kills older people at a

higher rate than younger people. I do remember

also in the paper they were saying maybe people who

smoke are more resistant, which was a weird maybe

like smokers lobby that they threw out there.

I don’t I think that one was pretty much debunked

pretty quickly. So that corresponds to the virus

was engineered in a Chinese lab. Then there was

a conspiracy theory and it got out from the lab.

Then there was a conspiracy theory that the US

imported COVID to China so that they could blame China

for the breakout of coronavirus. That turned out

to not necessarily be true. And it really was

devastating way more in America than it should

have been because of the incredibly poor rollout

of vaccines and the anti-vaccine movement in there.

In Italy, I didn’t know this one. I just started

looking up some some basic ones so I could remind

myself. In Italy, they were blaming GMO, so genetically

modified organisms, basically virus resistant

or bug resistant fruit and vegetables and things

like that are the most common ones. They try to

grow more perfect fruit that is healthier and

harder. They were saying coronavirus came from that,

which I thought that was an interesting one I’d

never heard before. So there you go, even now I’m

picking up stuff. I actually there was someone I knew

who was on the coronavirus isn’t real. It’s not

a real virus and there will be lawsuits. This was

at the beginning of 2019, 2020. It’s three years

later and they were like there’s going to be lawsuits

in the world of court and it’s going to be coming and

you’re going to be regret taking all these precautions.

I actually that was an interesting argument

because they’re like you shouldn’t take precautions

against this thing that may or may not be real. So

let’s give them credit. Let’s pretend for a second

that coronavirus was not real. Taking precautions

against it doesn’t hurt you. So this is like I’m going

to take vitamins so that my immune system or

my body is healthier as a precaution against

catching the flu or a cold or just getting sick

in general. That isn’t specific towards anyone. I

take vitamins every day. I actually find that if

I don’t take vitamins, I think I have a single

vitamin deficiency that’s very small. If I don’t

take a multivitamin over the course of a couple

months, I get really worn down. I take vitamins

that doesn’t seem to happen. So I don’t know what

vitamin it is. I don’t know what mineral it is. It’s

something in my body, but I take the multivitamin

because it fixes this problem. But then I’m like

it also will help me any other deficiencies I might

have. So I’ll be healthier overall. Protect

me against disease and whatnot. Non-specific.

But then it was like wearing masks. Well, I basically

know what I know during the period we were wearing

masks. Got the flu. I started sanitizing my hands

against coronavirus. Maybe multiple times a day.

I’d probably do it once or twice a day now. But

my chances of catching other diseases, not even

coronavirus, has gone down because I sanitize my

hands more often than I used to. Taking precautions

against anything isn’t necessarily a bad idea. I

see people wearing a mask. I might even feel like,

oh, you know, in this particular situation, it’s

unnecessary. But they’re taking a precaution

against stuff is going to protect them more so

than if they didn’t. So the anti-mask movement,

I always thought was really weird because,

okay, if you don’t believe coronavirus is real,

you do believe that flu is real. You do believe

that colds are real and it will protect you from

the flu and cold. So what is the problem with

protecting yourself against these other things?

And then it maybe will just, you know, that

protective ability will roll over into coronavirus.

If it does turn out to be real perchance, may

have. And that was a little bit of an aside.

So yeah, there was the group of people who said

that coronavirus doesn’t exist, that it’s just the

flu. Now, I always found that to be a very confusing

argument because you’re admitting that there is a

flu and the flu is virulent. The flu is going around.

It’s very communicable. The flu is killing people.

The flu is putting people on respiratory machines

and the bit you’re angry about is that we’ve called

it COVID-19 and said it’s something else. COVID-19 as

far as I’m concerned is the flu. It’s just a really,

really strong flu that mutates and attacks your lungs

and puts people on respirators. You can call it a

flu. It’s just as dangerous. It’s killing just as

many people as if it wasn’t the flu specifically.

So that argument, I actually had someone use that

to me that don’t be silly. It’s just the flu.

Someone, I think it was on Twitter or something.

Someone kind of came at me with that one.

And I was like, that argument doesn’t mean anything

because if it’s just a flu and it’s still killing

people and still really communicable, then it’s just

as bad as if it is coronavirus. So protect yourself

from this flu just as much as you would protect

yourself from coronavirus. It was a globalist plot

to take away our freedoms. So lockdowns and stuff,

of course, we couldn’t do whatever we want. We

couldn’t go get haircuts. We couldn’t go out and drink

and have parties and stuff. And that’s my freedom.

You’re taking away my freedom. Again, I was a little

torn on that. I did. I agreed with lockdowns. I

thought they should have happened. Japan didn’t lock

down in the same way as let’s say North America’s

the one in the news. So it’s always the one I

end up talking about because Corona in Japan,

they have written into their constitution freedom

of movement. So you’re not allowed to lock people

down, but they made the recommendation in Japanese

people generally being quite sensible. Most people

did stay home and they only went out when they had

to and they just didn’t do things to try to catch

coronavirus. But interfering with your freedoms, the

thing is the freedoms came back. So that actually

in historically that was undermined because the

freedoms didn’t go away forever. We aren’t still in

lockdown. And again, the economy suffered greatly

and the globalists are the ones who want to keep

the economy working. Maybe they want to control

it, but to control it, they need people passively

in place in their cubicles to do the jobs that need

to be done so that there is an economy to run the

globe because the way we’ve set up the economy

in the world right now, it is economy based. So

the globalist taking away your freedoms and destroying

the economy in the same hand is not beneficial

to the globalists. So that one again logically

falls apart the more you think about how the world

works, which is actually how a lot of these conspiracies

fall apart is when you think about how the world

works. And then the last one was Big Pharma. This

was the best one from me. This was the one Big Pharma

wanted to make some money. The engineer disease

put it out in the world that disease kills lots of

people. We have the vaccine. It’s a science

fiction, it’s a science fiction plot as old as time.

It’s a good one. I mean, I don’t think… Actually,

it is the most reasonable of the conspiracy theories.

Is that a corporation decided to get evil. The

thing is multiple places came out with multiple

vaccines. I actually had the… I forget what

they’re called now. That’s how long it’s been.

I had the AstraZeneca, I think it was one of

them. And then I had the Johnson and Johnson

one. That’s weird. They put… Maybe the

vaccines, maybe forget what vaccines I got. I got

three or four. I remember the last one was… So

I actually got coronavirus. It was bad as a cold.

because I had been vaccinated two or three times

already. The vaccine did its job. So I got coronavirus.

It was like two days. One day I was like really hot

and uncomfortable. And then the second day I was

kind of bad and I slept all day. I went into

one of those hotel isolation situations.

And then it wasn’t bad at all. I didn’t feel

good, but like I wasn’t going to go exercise or.

anything. But basically I slept a little more. The

fever kind of took a while to go away, but that was it.

I was actually in really good shape. So I actually

think the vaccines worked. I got the fourth vaccine

for 12 hours. I was just knocked out. I was in

physical pain. I had that sort of joint pain you

get from the flu and stuff. It was way worse than

coronavirus. But then if I needed to get a fifth

vaccination, if they said Peter, you won’t want,

I absolutely would because the disease didn’t do

anything to me. If the vaccine is the worst part,

I’ll take the vaccine and take that eight, 10-hour

period of pain and frustration just so I could

survive the actual coronavirus with ease, no less.

Bill Gates wants to implant everyone with a chip. So he was talking about Ebola virus.

And he predicted that there was going to be another pandemic in the future.

Scientists have actually talked about this. Climate

change has done it. Just more air travel and

interacting with people makes it more communicable.

So the disease is going to spread around more quickly.

Things like that. So there are basically lots of

people who are saying there’s going to be another

pandemic. It’s coming soon. After coronavirus, they

were like, it’s going to speed up because we had

Spanish flu. And then they said, once in a hundred

years, a hundred years later, we got COVID-19.

And they said, oh, then the next one will be a

hundred years later. That’s not how it works.

Because of climate change and stuff, it’s going to

speed up. So we’ll probably get one every 50 years

that is this bad. And then it’s going to be every

25 years. Unless we get to a level of technology

where we can take care of it, that’s kind of what

Bill Gates was talking about. We need to learn

to protect ourselves from ourselves because we’re not

going to stop air travel. And we’re not going to stop.

mutations of diseases and stuff. And people

are going to mix in, it’s going to get worse.

And so they thought, because he didn’t want to be

proven wrong, he created coronavirus. So a computer

guy suddenly, like I’m going to say, yes, Bill Gates

is probably very good at computers. I don’t know

if he is anymore because he got into that position.

Like he created computers. He made windows and

stuff like that. But then he got into a position

where he didn’t really make stuff anymore. He told

engineers how to make stuff. He probably understood

what they were talking about. But could he do it?

I don’t know. Steve Jobs gets the same deal.

Like did he make anything? No, he told engineers,

you have this. I want these features. Here’s a

list. Go make that happen. They’re off. They go and

they get it. Bill Gates is the same. I’m sure he

understands computers and he’s very good at computers.

But at the end of the day, he was like, well,

here’s a list of features. Here’s things to make it

go work better off you go, go make that happen because

I pay your money now. So he might be high level,

but he’s certainly not going to be like, well,

I’m going to just switch to biology now of

virology and create some diseases to go make sure

that I am right in the world and the things I’ve said.

Looking back is valuable because all the things we

freaked out about conspiracy theories, especially.

It’s we’ve you hear the conspiracy theory. You

have a good time talking about it and then it

disappears because you don’t think about it anymore.

When something new happens and it’s tempting to

believe, oh, we didn’t even talk about 5G in the

UK. The people in the UK thought that 5G towers

caused corona virus because it ate the oxygen and

like infected you. And they were setting them on

fire. Like they were setting 5G towers on fire.

These are these are again, the very reasonable

people, the boomers from the first segment, not

understanding how technology works or radio waves

or 5G or any of this other stuff. And then just saying

like, they put up this tower, bad thing happened.

I’m going to burn down this tower. I’m right.

You can’t tell me otherwise. I had an interesting

experience when I was sick in the hospital a couple

years ago. And I would take a pill in the evening.

And then about two hours later, my neck would get

tight and my shoulders would hurt and I’d feel

some sort of pain. And so I told the doctor like

every time I take this pill, it actually causes me

pain. Is that normal? Is that a side effect? Is that

something that’s happening? He’s like, oh, that’s

not what’s happening. What’s happening is you get

like a steroid in the morning. And then you feel

stronger and better. And then when we get to the

evening, sort of when you take your evening pill,

that’s when the steroids wearing off. See, because

I didn’t understand medicine or the things that

were happening. I was thinking there was a causal

relationship. I’m taking this pill and then very

soon afterwards, I start to feel pain. I was

thinking the pill caused me pain. That’s exactly what

these people were thinking about 5G. What was actually

happening is the pill I was taking in the morning

wasn’t working anymore because it’d been 12 hours.

And I was taking a different pill for something else.

And then I wouldn’t that pain was just going to

sit there anyways. They could have given me pain

killers now that I think about it. But Japan, they

don’t give very strong pain killers and they don’t

like to give out pain killers too much. You need

to suffer a little bit to make you a stronger,

better person. Did it work? No, not stronger,

not better. Still stiff shoulders, to be honest.

So what I’m saying, conspiracy theories, we forget

about them. And what we actually should do is take

a look back at, again, we just have to be history

like three, four, five years ago. What were people

talking about? What were we thinking? Were those

things important? And are they important now? And

then the next time someone comes up with, superhero

has changed color or superhero has changed gender,

or it’s like a non-gender conforming version

of a superhero. And people flip out, be like,

dude, we don’t even remember the fervor over Miles

Morales. We don’t even remember people getting

freaked out about Lady Thor, which was a great

storyline, by the way. I wish the movie done it

better, but Lady Thor was fucking awesome. And

I could have done me with some more Lady Thor.

I had a second part. So then when you get, then

when you hear a conspiracy theory and it starts to

sound logical, think back to, okay, coronavirus,

what were the conspiracy theories we heard?

What do we now just don’t even remember? Nevermind,

right off is not true. What do we not even remember now?

And that will hopefully keep you more even tempered going on into the future.

[Music].