Humour and coronavirus: coping with the pandemic in Ghana

Abstract

The global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has attracted numerous myths, jokes and creativity from the media, politicians and citizens. They are conveyed through written pieces, pictorials, videos, and audios. Some of these either increased or reduced public anxiety as well as minimize the sense of urgency. The objective of this paper is to critically analyse humour that shaped and is shaping the coping strategies in Ghana during the Covid-19 pandemic. With a perusal of some of the examples of humours that were trending during the pandemic such as the ‘ABC of coronavirus comedy’ by an upcoming comedian, Clemento Suarez, the paper argues that humour is a capsule for tension reduction as a means of disseminating critical information during critical situations.

Keywords:

• Coronavirus
• anxiety
• humour
• coping
• strategy
• Ghana

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Charles Prempeh for proofreading and useful suggestion for this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).