Talking about COVID is so 2020. Just ask Tucker Carlson, who spent part of his Thursday night raging about how annoyed he is that anyone still has the energy to talk about a deadly pandemic that has so far killed more than 800,000 Americans and 5.3 million people worldwide. Sure, he works for a network with the word “News” in the title, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more important things happening in the world.
No, this is not an SNL sketch (though we wish it were). This is Carlson at his most irresponsible and very dumbest:
If you find yourself living in a place where people are still talking about COVID nonstop, two years in, it is time to move. Not just because your neighbors have been brainwashed, although obviously they have been. But because your neighbors are boring.
At this point it is simply not an interesting topic for your private life. Yes, COVID has killed a lot of people. So has prostate cancer! Imagine telling people about your prostate every day for the next two years. People would know that you are a narcissist. No one would sit next to you at dinner. You would be boorish. And that’s exactly what COVID talk sounds to the well-adjusted among us.
When we talk about COVID incessantly, we miss everything else, and that’s the real point. This is a big and complicated and completely fascinating world. Babies are born, the elderly die, and in between, all kinds of amazing things happen. We succeed, we fail, we scheme, we inspire, we fall in love, we create things that hadn’t existed before. We have deep and valuable insights into life itself.
Human beings doing a remarkable variety of legitimately interesting things. Talking about corona is not one of them.
Nor is listening to Tucker Carlson talking about why we should stop talking about COVID.
Tucker: Yes, COVID has killed a lot of people. So has prostate cancer. Imagine telling people about your prostate everyday for the next two years. pic.twitter.com/I1tRPHM0b1
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 17, 2021
There are a lot of idiotic things in that statement, but comparing COVID—a virus, which is contagious, but you can take precautions against, like getting vaccinated, and wearing a face mask—to prostate cancer is undoubtedly the most moronic part. And it didn’t take long for Twitter users to take Tuck to task for it.
Prostate cancer deaths in the US this year: about 34,000
Covid deaths this year: over 400,000
Prostate cancer: not contagious
Covid: highly contagious https://t.co/KY5On7GJbE
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 17, 2021
Prostate cancer isn't contagious, dipshit https://t.co/wui2bQQvSq
— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) December 17, 2021
Hey @TuckerCarlson…remember when we had to lock down America because of that very contagious & deadly Prostate Cancer pandemic? Me neither… https://t.co/zQGAhFCWra
— Andy Ostroy (@AndyOstroy) December 17, 2021
Asshole talking about prostates https://t.co/nGO1gLQFMc
— Pat Bagley (@Patbagley) December 17, 2021
Amazingly, Carlson’s not even the first person to make this totally nonsensical comparison. Less than two weeks ago, Marjorie “Space Lasers” Taylor Greene made basically the same argument—and was also quickly roasted for it.
1. Every single year more than 600,000 people in the US die from cancer.
The country has never once shut down.
Not a single school has closed.
And every year, over 600,000 people, of all ages and all races will continue to die from cancer.
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) December 4, 2021