Page 212 - The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand Vol.XIII-2021

The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XIII – 2021

To overcome these menacing debilitations, encouragement messages
containing a sense of humor can help mitigate the negative psychological impacts

(Fardin, 2020). At this juncture, two messages associated with COVID-19 that are
available online and contain a sense of humor were presented here. Figure 4 is
concerned with the lockdown measure, a controversy (Tatt, 2021). As depicted, the

message in Figure 4 attempts to persuade readers that lockdown is advantageous.

Lockdown “I die.”
No lockdown “All die.”
Lockdown “no human right”
No lockdown “No human left.”

Lockdown “I see you.”
No lockdown “ICU”

Figure 4 Social media message on “lockdown”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8clLTEdrFyo)

The message depicted in Figure 4 exhibits the composer’s wit which incorporates
humorous language play by combining two seemingly antonyms (right and left)

and the shift of stress placement (from the second syllable of the sentence: I see
you.) to highlight a stunning and unexpected effect (to the first syllable of the
phrase: ICU).

The excerpt presented in Figure 5 available on social media originally in Thai
by Kong Huai-rai (2021), and what is presented here is the author’s English

translation so that it can be appreciated by an extended group of readers.

202 COVID-19 Impact Manifestation as Seen through the Lens of Language Use