The recent video of a lawyer stuck with a Zoom filter of a cat was one of the latest things making us laugh. Whether we're enjoying cute animal videos or quick comedian bits, in a year that has included many layers of stress, a brief laugh can be vital.
"It is a break and a distraction," said Jocelyn Carter, an associate professor of psychology in DePaul University's College of Science and Health. "Our body really likes it when we take breaks to laugh or even just to breathe or sit in a different way."
She shared the cat video among her family.
"One of the things that made it relatable is everyone is on Zoom all the time," she said. "It activates a lot of different touch points that we could all relate to, and so the juxtaposition of the cat with the people doing their normal work just made us realize how ridiculous this situation is that we are all in."
Watching funny videos no longer should be considered a waste of time, Carter said. Instead, it should be heralded as a way to survive the pandemic.
It can be easy to miscalculate how much stress these unprecedented circumstances can create, she noted. On top of an almost yearlong pandemic, there have been prominent examples of police brutality and racial injustice, discrimination against Asians, election stress and coronavirus-related parenting struggles, she said.
"I think we forget that," she said. "We're pretty good at adapting to hard things, but we have just had layers and layers of them. I think we also probably aren't aware of the toll that all of this adaptation has taken on our bodies and our minds and our mental health."
A funny or silly video is a reminder that even things that seem stressful — a mistake in an important meeting — can turn out OK.
