I’m no stranger to what I like to call “pranks” or “bits” or “stunts”. Just last year, I got a bunch of friends, dressed as various Ryan Gosling characters, to go to the Ryan Gosling-owned Tagine restaurant in Beverly Hills. Just cuz I thought it was amusing (and it was). Another LA-centric stunt bit I’m known for, I tweet my hotness every single time there’s a major earthquake.
On December 31, 2021, Omicron (yet another COVID variant) surged cases higher than they ever were before (at that point) in Los Angeles. My day job (office stuff) went back to a work-from-home format and my night gigs (standup comedy) cancelled shows until further notice.
So I kept an eye on the COVID numbers, did some Zoom comedy shows (ugh), stayed safe and waited.
Up until that time, I had been using Google’s mostly-accurate metrics (seen above), but they didn’t seem to be updating in a timely matter. Eventually, I had discovered that the official Los Angeles County Public Health Twitter account was releasing an infographic with the daily cases/deaths/hospitalizations every day around 3-5pm on weekdays. So I set an automatic notification.
The city didn’t seem to be doing anything to ebb the flow of insane case rates (home tests were extremely hard to come by at the time, so it was way higher than whatever the confirmed cases were) and there was poor communication on what exactly to do since seemingly everyone in LA had COVID at the same time.
(I still haven’t gotten it, noice)
So on December 31, 2020, New Years Friggin Eve, I sent this meme.
And again the next day (technically 2 days later, they didn’t post on New Years)
On the third day, it became a game. To keep replying with the same meme everyday. At this point, I thought of it akin to that Facebook meme account that post the same picture of Jeff Goldblum everyday or the subsequent “My same post every day using a Goldblum gif that best expresses my mood of the day in the comments section of The Same Photo of Jeff Goldblum Every Day.”.
Alongside my “This is Fine” meme, there were various comments shouting at the city to take down mask mandates, increase mask mandates, birds aren’t real, etc etc…pretty much every extreme political angle you can think of. My contribution was fairly neutral but united the general consensus: our current state is a shitshow from any way you look at it and we are just sitting in the middle of it.
“Prank” is how I would describe this bit, but it truly wasn’t at the expense of anyone. Maybe the LA County Public Health social media manager, but I’m sure they get MUCH worse than lil ‘ol me with my goofy dog memes.
After a few weeks, people started to take notice of my pattern of replying with this meme everyday. Some were clearly annoyed by it. Others intrigued.
This is me getting tired of posting the same bit everyday during the apocalypse.
Clearly people had picked up on what I was doing by now and anticipated it.
The one with my own face on it got the least amount of likes I think. Love that for me.
On January 31, Los Angeles Rams some semi-final sports thingy so they got to go the Super Bowl. I don’t care much for sports, but I love a good hometown win, so I used my (somewhat intentionally) poor photoshop skills to throw a Rams hat on top. I knew people would eat it up.
With cases quickly declining, I took further edits of the meme on my phone to make the flames smaller to correspond with COVID cases and change room elements. This is when the game really started to pick up.
Just some choppy dollhouse template I found on google. Screenshots on screenshots. The most simply method of putting pictures together was so entertaining.
More LA pride, the Red Hot Chili Peppers dropped a new song.
This one might be my favorite. Came out on Oscars nomination day, and I paid homage to a film I enjoyed that was recognized, Licorice Pizza.
Also doubled as the fires/COVID levels for the day, contained and making pizza.
People were very onboard with what I was doing now.
Season finale of The Book of Boba Fett + Betty Davis passed on Feb 9th.
We had a heat wave in LA.
Sacred KFC temple. The real ones know.
I incorporated the Super Bowl and a journalist for the LA times caught wind of what I was doing (not in an official capacity but still dope).
We won/Valentines’ Day
Chinese New Year lantern festival/Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers trailer dropped.
A QR code to the comedy show I produce. Synergy!
I basically run a cult now lol.
The big finale (posting the tweet simultaneously with this article)
And that’s today, February 25th, 2022. The City of Los Angeles is largely dropping its indoor mask mandate, so I used that as an excuse to make a grand finish with the meme.
That dosen’t mean the pandemic is over or whatever, it’ll certainly linger for awhile, but the joke went with this wave and I want to end strong.
Some people have asked me to make this into a coffee table book or sell merch. I don’t feel comfortable with that for MANY reasons, one of them being that it is not my art.
The original artist of the “This is Fine” meme is comic book artist KC Green. Shout out to ya!
Thank you all for joining me on this weird part of history. We may not all see eye-to-eye, but it was fun to laugh in this communal moment of screaming at the skies together.
I didn’t start this for the attention, but might as well while we are here. If you think my comedy stylings are your jam, here’s where you can find more of my work. It’s mostly absurd comedy and music stuff. I perform standup throughout Los Angeles, sometimes tour, do sketch comedy at theaters such as Second City & The Pack Theater, and have written satire for sites such as The Onion and Funny or Die. I am unrepped. WINK WINK
https://www.tiktok.com/@ianzandi
Comedy shows I produce:
www.instagram.com/itsaradradradradradworld
https://www.instagram.com/sevenisenoughcomedy/
UPDATE:
Richie had been following along too and wanted to be added in the meme. I got a lotta requests to add stuff in the memes from everyone (mostly just did my own choices), but here’s a mention for ya!
