Man spreading joy through daily joke during COVID-19 pandemic

Graeme Parsons is hoping to at least provide people with a small chuckle in their day during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Parsons has been writing jokes and messages on a whiteboard and putting them on display at the end of his driveway at 375 Rodenbush Dr., in Regina.

“With all the negative news and all the fear and everything that was coming with the COVID-19 pandemic and everything like that, I wanted to do something to brighten people’s days that were out walking around or driving by,” Parsons said outside his home on Saturday.

“Me and my friend are big jokesters and love the ‘Dad Jokes’ and puns and I thought what a great way to do it. I put up a sign for people walking by that they could read and hopefully smile and get a laugh. I mostly (get) groans.”

He said his contribution is one of many across the city going towards trying to brighten peoples’ days in the Queen City. He said his neighbour’s daughters made a bunch of paper hearts and hung them up around the neighbourhood.

“I’ve seen messages throughout Uplands, just people putting stuff in their windows,” Parsons said. “It’s a nice little thing I’ve seen people do just trying to spread joy.”

Like many across the country, the Parsons family has had to find ways to adapt to the new social-distancing world.

His daughter Olivia celebrated her ninth birthday on Friday but was unable to hold a party with her friends in person so they took things to the virtual world.

“We had a virtual birthday sleepover where she got connected to all of her friends on kid messenger,” Parsons said.

Parsons said many in the neighbourhood have made a point to walk by and stop to see what is written.

“I see a lot of smiles and in the end that’s all I really wanted — just a few smiles to make people feel happy about things and take their mind off of stuff the best as they can,” Parsons said.

And he’s said it’s more important than ever to find little ways to find joy at a time like this.

“Joy is something that’s going to keep us all going and keep us together,” he said. “The more joy that we can spread and the positive messages that we can put forth and show our support for one another, that’s what’s going to help us get through this and times in the future.”

Parsons has also started an Instagram page, @Its_A_Pundemic, to help brighten moods across the country.