[UPDATED on April 10]
CHICAGO 鈥� As their city confronts a wave of COVID-19 patients, Chicagoans are managing to get some belly laughs. The source? Memes of their leader staring down would-be social-distancing violators.
In one doctored image, a somber Mayor Lori Lightfoot peers down from the roof of the famous Superdawg hotdog stand alongside a pair of wiener statues.
Others shared under the hashtag #whereslightfoot show her at an empty jazz club, from the reflective sculpture known as the Bean and in a treasured impressionist painting that hangs in the city鈥檚 Art Institute.
Lightfoot memes proliferated after a March 26 order in which the mayor angrily closed Chicago鈥檚 lakefront and other major recreation spots that had become overrun with people.
Rather than get defensive, Lightfoot has played up her hard-nosed image.
Chi Party Aunt is not wrong.
鈥� Archived: Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (@mayorlightfoot)
She made a lighthearted in which she bakes, sings, cajoles, bargains, talks astrology and fluffs pillows to reinforce her administration鈥檚 鈥淪tay Home, Save Lives鈥� mantra.
鈥淗ere鈥檚 what鈥檚 up,鈥� Lightfoot tells viewers in one clip. 鈥淚f I make this shot, you gotta stay home.鈥� She then dunks a ball into a basketball hoop attached to her fridge and does a victory cheer.
Chicago鈥檚 mayor isn鈥檛 the only elected leader leveraging humor to prod citizens into complying with COVID-19 directives.
Metuchen, New Jersey, Mayor Jonathan Busch starred in a playful
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ridiculed the notion that anyone could simultaneously practice and engaged in witty on-air with his little brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo.
The governor also recruited comedian to do a PSA, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom tapped comic actors (a former doctor) and to put their personal spins on stay-home messaging.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has encouraged riffs on his COVID-19 warnings, like a and a made by firefighters.
鈥淚f it makes people smile right now, I鈥檓 for it,鈥� Beshear said during a news conference.
While humor may attract attention to the message, it鈥檚 not clear how effective it is at changing behavior. That is especially true with the current pandemic.
鈥淲e鈥檝e never had a crisis like this, and so it鈥檚 really hard to say that what worked in another setting might work in this setting,鈥� said Susan Polan, associate executive director for public affairs and advocacy at the American Public Health Association.
shows people respond more positively to messages about health threats when they are conveyed with humor.
Funny content often gets shared a lot, which means the message reaches more people, Polan said. For example, an animal calendar caused web traffic to spike in the association鈥檚 disaster preparedness campaign.
鈥淭he serious messaging is everywhere,鈥� Polan said. The memes and videos constitute 鈥渁n add-on that is going to appeal to some people.鈥�
However, using humor might be risky, according to , a professor of communication science at the University of Maryland.
In a 2017 , she and a collaborator compared the short-term reactions of 303 undergraduate students to humorous and non-humorous messages about drunken driving and unprotected sex. They found that messages with sarcasm and irony generated more arguments against the implied health advice.
Sarcasm, in particular, led to more pushback, maybe because people don鈥檛 want to be made fun of.
Take the irate Italian mayors on a . 鈥淲here are you going with these incontinent dogs?鈥� one shouts. 鈥淵ou are irresponsible idiots 鈥� colossal idiots!鈥� Another threatened to use flamethrowers on partygoers.
A witty approach 鈥渕ay get people鈥檚 attention, but that may come at the cost of decreased message strength,鈥� Nan said. 鈥淚 would tread with caution when it comes to using humor in COVID-19 messaging.鈥�
Kelly Leonard, executive vice president of The Second City, a Chicago-based improvisational comedy troupe that also does training, said it鈥檚 about context: 鈥淲hen there鈥檚 a need for cold facts in a crisis, you probably don鈥檛 want to be cracking jokes.鈥�
But people also need a release valve. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a reason that all of our late-night shows are comedy shows, right after the news,鈥� Leonard said.
Leonard observed that Lightfoot is the first openly queer black woman to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city. She鈥檚 also short in stature. Those outsider traits may relate to her skill at wielding humor to deflate tension.
鈥淪he鈥檚 had to live a life of such 鈥榦thering鈥� and made it through,鈥� Leonard said. 鈥淪he IS the mayor of Chicago. It gives her a kind of power, and she鈥檚 using it.鈥�
Polan agreed: 鈥淪he鈥檚 making fun of herself and using it to educate people, and that鈥檚 powerful.鈥�
[Correction: This story was updated at 12:50 p.m. ET on April 10 to correct the affiliation of Xiaoli Nan. She is a professor at the University of Maryland.]