Comedian Nails What It's Like When Family Doesn't Quite Get Social Distancing

Sometimes fathers — and mothers — don’t know best.

Juliet Prather, 27, a Brooklyn-based comedian who is originally from Austin, Texas, posted a video Tuesday to Twitter that may hit a little too close to home for many who feel their parents are a little clueless about social distancing.

“My mom when I ask if she and my dad are still taking the pandemic seriously,” Prather captioned her hilarious video.

“Oh, my God, yeah … we’re so safe people are annoyed by us,” Prather says in the beginning the video, playing the character of a mother.

“Safe isn’t even the right word. The word is militant,” Prather continues before things really go awry.

Prather wrote to HuffPost that her terrifyingly accurate depiction of an oblivious mom isn’t actually “based on anything specifically that either of my parents have said, thankfully!” And although she admitted that her dad inspired the voice of her character in the video, the things that come out of her character’s mouth were loosely based on conversations she and her friends have had with their parents.

“It’s more of a generalised representation of most people’s tendencies regarding COVID safety,” she told HuffPost. “Especially well-meaning parents.”

Yet, American’s confusion over how seriously to take social distancing and other safety precautions recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  is understandable, especially since President Donald Trump continues to politicise the virus and misrepresent the facts. When the coronavirus first hit the United States, Trump repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus — despite knowing it was serious and deadly — and urged states to reopen businesses, flouting health experts’ recommendations. This response has bewildered many Americans who still don’t know how seriously to take COVID-19 — despite the death toll in the US exceeding 206,000, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University .

And opinions on how diligent to be about COVID-19 safety seem to vary based on one’s political affiliation, state and local community.

“I live in NYC and have been taking the pandemic very seriously for a long time,” Prather told HuffPost. “So obviously it’s hard when you hear that people close to you aren’t taking the same precautions or making the same efforts that you are. And then at the same time, when the mistakes are made truly on accident or out of confusion, you gotta feel for them.”

Prather hopes that people who watch her video remember to take the pandemic seriously.

“I do hope that if anybody watches and relates to the mom, that they STOP having town-wide man cave parties (haha) and in general start actually being safe,” she wrote.

Prather added:

“And for anybody who has had conversations with their parents like this, I hope they know they aren’t crazy for being careful. Just because their parents have decided that hosting parties and going out all the time is safe doesn’t mean it actually is.”