When I started my car and turned the radio on, the host was halfway through an interview with Jimmy Fallon, discussing a new song he was releasing with Ariana Grande. Fallon detailed the story of how he managed to get Grande and Megan Thee Stallion in studio to record a song he had written, for what I incorrectly assumed was for some over-produced comedy bit on his late-night show. I could not have been more wrong, or disturbed.
The song, “It Was A… (Masked Christmas),” is not comedy at all, but a troublesome and despairing celebration of spending Christmas isolated, masked, and “in line for a booster.”
It was a masked Christmas, we stayed in the house
We covered our nose and covered our mouth
But it’s Christmas time
We’ll be in line for a booster (For a booster)
It was a masked Christmas
We hopped on a Zoom (Hopped on a Zoom)
I can only get Wi-Fi in the laundry room (Laundry room)
But it’s Christmas time
We’ll be in line for a booster
The music video depicting Fallon and Grande on Zoom calls and isolated behind windows at Christmas time offers an even more depressing message, just a week before families plan to celebrate together.
In an era of elites who play by the “lockdowns for thee, but not for me” mantra, we have to ask, will Fallon himself really be spending Christmas alone on Zoom in his laundry room? No, of course not. But it sure makes for catchy a tune!
This is just one of the gaudier displays of COVID propaganda recently pushed by our betters in Hollywood and Washington D.C. On Friday, the Biden administration recruited the popular acapella singing group Pentatonix for a cringe performance of the song, “Get your booster.”
The same day, the Jonas Brothers posted a TikTok collaboration with the White House to promote vaccinations
“Are you vaccinated?” the JoBros say in the audio-dubbed clip. “Yes, sir!” they exclaim.
Perhaps there’s a small sliver of die-hard Ariana Grande or Pentatonix fans who legitimately enjoyed these COVID-themed performances, but besides that suspect demographic, who are these “songs” really for? Is there any unvaccinated American who has, for whatever reason, chosen not to be vaccinated nearly two years into the pandemic and but would suddenly have her heart or mind changed by a Jonas Brothers TikTok?
What if that hypothetical JoBros fan did then get the vaccine or the booster only to contract COVID two weeks later, as has happened to a number of recently boosted Americans this week? What did that video accomplish then?
After having a widely available vaccine for anyone who wants it for more than a year, we now know that the vaccine effectively reduces the number of hospitalizations and deaths, but does not reduce widespread COVID-19 cases, which we are seeing spike now. Yet the Biden administration’s best idea for fighting COVID is an acapella song about getting a booster?
Why not distribute at-home tests or at least provide information about how to get tested and when it’s appropriate to get tested? Why not distribute information on the most effective therapeutics for treating COVID and where to get them?
It’s safe to assume those are not on the White House communication team’s whiteboard because it would undercut the messaging that Biden and Democrats have desperately clung to, that masks and vaccines “work,” so nothing else is needed.
The Biden administration’s only alternative idea to celebrity vaccine endorsements is to, quite literally, threaten the unvaccinated with death. While that’s not effective messaging either, I think I still prefer it to cringe pop song propaganda.