Going Corona-Viral with a Bilateral Phenomenon of Laughter: Othering and Prejudice in Memes Depicting (Early) Reactions to COVID-19

This chapter provides a critical analysis of memes dedicated to the early phases of the coronavirus’s spread and their contribution to fostering cultural prejudice in relation to the nation(s) first affected by the outbreak. By applying Morreall’s discussions of superiority and incongruity theory to this selection of memes, this research focuses on a coronavirus meme paradox: they relate to the idea of humans’ interconnectedness deriving from the pandemic on a global scale—for laughing at and sharing memes is ultimately a collective effort—while they also contribute to reinforcing patterns of exclusion, xenophobia, and national stereotypes. The primary cultural narratives that support this analysis involve media leaders’ discourses that consider the coronavirus to be a foreign threat (Bennett 2020) and that the idea of social distancing should instead be physical distancing, a theoretical awareness that filters into other key elements involved in the selected memes.