Coronavirus: 9 videos to keep your spirits up during the pandemic

(From left) Actor Mark Lee in a King Kong Media Production video, six-year-old Wilder Rowen demonstrates handwashing and a character in a satirical Wah!Banana video. PHOTOS: SCREENGRABS FROM YOUTUBE

SINGAPORE - While the global coronavirus pandemic has provoked fear in some people, others have been making a special effort to create and post light-hearted videos about the coronavirus.

Here are 9 videos that have been making the rounds online:

1. Gloria Gaynor washing her hands to I Will Survive

Singer Gloria Gaynor parlayed her 1978 hit I Will Survive about living through a break-up into an anthem for Covid-19 prevention on video-sharing social network platform TikTok - complete with a demonstration.

2. Racism in the wizarding world

Australian news and satire television show The Feed transports the ongoing pandemic to the imaginary world of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, with Asian students at Hogwarts - who are all sorted into Ravenclaw, by the way - expressing, hilariously, their bafflement at the discrimination they face from other students and the school.

The video ridicules the issue of racism in associating the virus with Chinese people. One student for instance, is told she must quarantine herself if she had returned home for the holidays - but home is Glasgow.

3. Batman cosplayer shunned

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The panicked and uninformed behaviour in the early days of Covid-19 make for some comic relief in this video by actor Mark Lee's King Kong Media Production. Cosplay enthusiast "Mr An", for instance, laments how he is shunned as his chosen persona of Batman.

Jokes aside, the 7 minute 45 second video, posted in Mandarin with English subtitles, has a serious purpose as it debunks some of the misinformation circulating around the outbreak.

4. We won't get no, corona infection

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In this 1 minute 49 second YouTube video put up by user Nympha Tanieca, buskers wearing surgical masks and plastic hazmat suits play around with the lyrics of The Rolling Stones' 1965 hit (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, to advocate social responsibility and proper hygiene.

5. Dancing the virus away

French health insurance company Assurance Maladie has turned unsexy good practices, such as sneezing into elbows, into a cheeky contemporary dance number.

Dancers dressed in red demonstrate how to properly discard tissue paper, wash hands, and don face masks in a video that is sure to get you grooving to the beat.

6. Learn hygiene tips from children

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Educational YouTube channel for pre-schoolers, Superhero Me, has uploaded a 4 minute 10 second clip on how to keep the virus at bay. In the clip, children share tips on how to wash hands correctly, wear a mask and the proper etiquette in sneezing or coughing.

7. 6-year-old boy makes washing hands fun

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For an extremely thorough demonstration of handwashing, look no further than six-year-old Wilder Rowen, who shows how to "pet the dog", "milk the cow" and do a spider to "get all the yucks out" from under the nails in this home video.

The 2 minute 19 second clip was uploaded on to American news site abc30 on Thursday.

8. The Coronavirus Safety Song

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In this video, YouTuber Sawan Dutta says a medical practitioner friend in the United States asks that Bengali Aunty - a character she plays in her videos - create a song based on the US government's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for hand-washing.

What transpires is Bengali Aunty singing "Wash your hands, wash your hands/ Clean out every pore/ The deadly Coronavirus/Is knocking at your door," in a musical video that almost verges on the surreal.

9. Mask-hoarding during the outbreak

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In this satire set in a dystopian future six months after the outbreak, surgical masks are sold out everywhere and have become the new currency. Turned away at a convenience store for paying with cash, a character is left with no choice but to pay with her precious hand sanitiser. Those who hoard the masks, the Hoarder Gang, now sell them for extortionate prices, but their plans are foiled when the vaccine for the virus is found.

The 6 minute 14 second clip was uploaded on to YouTube by channel Wah!Banana and ends with the cast reminding viewers to not hoard masks and trust mainstream media to avoid spreading fake news.

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