# Comics - and TV - unmasked **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2021, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284 "2021-01-23T14:00:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/21 "2021-01-24T14:19:30Z")
_PvP_ is explicitly taking place post-pandemic, after a time jump of at least a decade (a preschooler or kindergartener is now an adult earning money at a job). ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/22 "2021-01-24T14:35:14Z")
I can report that several webcomics have a bit of a common theme of treating the main characters as actors, and for special occasions like in the past holidays, the cast of Sabrina on line, Scandinavia and the world, [Sequential Art](https://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=1180) are shown wearing masks and wishing a safe holiday for all. It has to be noted that in the examples I mention here the creators still had other comics where the characters do appear masked. [Kevin and Kell](https://kevinandkell.com/2021/kk0110.html), another long time webcomic does show their characters masked when visiting other families or places. A bit odd because in the comic it is canon that the setting takes place in an earth in a different dimension. Many other webcomics use the excuse for not masking as their locations are in different planets, timelines or universes. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/23 "2021-01-25T18:30:54Z")
I get the occasional background actor role in a couple of television series currently shooting. Both are in a COVID-19 free world, so we work unmasked. They do a lot of testing to ensure as much as possible that transmission doesn’t take place, off camera distancing and mask rules are strictly enforced, and masks are worn as much as possible on set. They come off right after the director calls “background” and go back on immediately after “cut”. We’ve had to do a couple of re-shoots because someone in the background forgot to remove their mask, which is kind of embarrassing, but so far it hasn’t happened to me, so more funny than not. The testing is done in phases, you need to be tested 72 hours before the shoot with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, then the day of the shoot a rapid antigen test. If the shoot is delayed for any reason, like tomorrow’s shoot was postponed for weather, the PCR test I took on Saturday times out, and I need another test tomorrow to be able to work on Friday. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/24 "2021-01-25T19:55:01Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Now after about three total episodes, they [FBI and FBI Most Wanted] seemed to have given up completely. Sunday’s new episode shows that they have 99% given up. The episode started with a birthday party - no masks for guests or restaurant staff. One passing reference that the party was smaller than they wanted due to covid. No one in the FBI wore one for the entire episode The drug cartel members didn’t wear them, but that’s a macho thing. They probably think they can shoot the virus anyway. White supremacist shooter wore a mask, but that was probably to hide his identity rather than a concern for spreading the virus (while he was shooting innocent people). Several background NYPD and EMTs were all wearing masks. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/25 "2021-01-25T20:03:20Z")
Some of the medical dramas addressed it explicitly. Like The Good Doctor (hour-long medical drama, based on a Korean drama, about an autistic savant doctor) focused the season premiere on how COVID affected the hospital in the show, with everything you’d expect; clinicians getting COVID and even dying of it, no visitors, even for dying patients, remote family visits, people outside the hospital applauding the caregivers, etc. And then before the second episode, the actor who plays the main character announced that the show was now portraying a future after COVID. The Resident (another hour-long medical drama) did something similar. And to be honest, I have no problem with shows ignoring COVID. I already have to deal with it all day long. I watch TV for an escape from reality. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/26 "2021-01-25T20:13:15Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And to be honest, I have no problem with shows ignoring COVID. I already have to deal with it all day long. I watch TV for an escape from reality. **Prodigal Son** is another show that made some small references to quarantining, but is now set is some alternate present/future where the pandemic is over, so they don’t have to deal with it. Which works fine. What bothers me is when shows try to have it both ways, **Black-ish** was one of the worst offenders. Their first couple episodes focused explicitly on the pandemic and how horrible it is for the hospital workers, and then about remote learning and homeschooling kids. And then suddenly they are having a huge backyard wedding with many guests from out of town mingling with not a mask in sight and no one works remotely anymore. Yet it’s still in the same timeline where a _week_ before they were sterilizing everything that came into the house… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/27 "2021-01-25T21:06:07Z")
Of course, if you’re going the route of “post-COVID world”, then you have to predict what the new normal will be. Like, even after people don’t have to work remotely any more, a lot still will, because they’ve found that they can, and they like it better. And relatives will still have Zoom calls, because even if they’re allowed to come visit in person, this way they don’t need to drive four hours to do so, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/28 "2021-01-26T02:10:46Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Some of the medical dramas addressed it explicitly. Like The Good Doctor (hour-long medical drama, based on a Korean drama, about an autistic savant doctor) focused the season premiere on how COVID affected the hospital in the show, with everything you’d expect; clinicians getting COVID and even dying of it, no visitors, even for dying patients, remote family visits, people outside the hospital applauding the caregivers, etc. And then before the second episode, the actor who plays the main character announced that the show was now portraying a future after COVID. The Resident (another hour-long medical drama) did something similar. One of the things about that first episode that caught my attention: It started out with the hospital trying to diagnose COVID based on what was known in the early stages of it spreading, and at one point COVID was dismissed as a possible diagnosis for one patient because one of his symptoms was the loss of his sense of taste. Which was realistic because in the early period of the epidemic it was not known that this was a possible effect of COVID. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/29 "2021-01-26T07:53:51Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > And last week, my wife had commented that one of the shows we watch (The Rookie) similarly did not display any signs of the pandemic. Seeing how the show has been sweating bullets this season trying to address the subjects of BLM and institutional police racism, I think it would be too much to ask of it to address Covid-19 as well - they’d probably collapse under the weight of their own good intentions. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/30 "2021-01-27T20:22:39Z")
In Tuesday’s FBI, no masks were seen, but, one business owner had a visible sign that read “Masks are [then a picture of a mask]…” and the rest was hidden. So I don’t know if they were required or not. The owner was not wearing one, at any rate, and he was an anti-government freethinker, so I assume not. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/31 "2021-01-27T20:34:40Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Seeing how the show has been sweating bullets this season trying to address the subjects of BLM and institutional police racism, I think it would be too much to ask of it to address Covid-19 as well - they’d probably collapse under the weight of their own good intentions. Yeah - it is kinda clunky to keep getting hit over the head w/ social issues when just trying to veg for 30-60 mins. Similar in Superstore. I appreciate some amount of it, but it has been pretty nonstop for the last few shows. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/32 "2021-01-27T20:39:28Z")
I’ve read that the producers of Brooklyn Nine-Nine are trying to figure out how to do a comedy set in a Brooklyn precinct in the age of police racism and BLM. They touched on the racism in a couple of episodes featuring Terry Crews but presumably in the season yet to premiere it’s going to be more upfront. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/33 "2021-01-27T21:16:32Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Yeah - it is kinda clunky to keep getting hit over the head w/ social issues when just trying to veg for 30-60 mins. I could deal with the social issues. it’s the “Nolan is both the best cop in the history of LAPD, and simultaneously the stupidest” that made me quit watching. But hey, Adam-12 is on every day! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/34 "2021-01-27T21:49:00Z")
Obligatory XKCD link > **[Set in the Present](https://xkcd.com/2384/)** > > She referenced Billie Eilish, so this must be getting pretty close to the pandemic. But we've seen the last two years in-universe, so if it's set in the future, they must be in at least 2023 by now. \[\*adds thumbtacks and string to wall\*\] ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/35 "2021-01-27T21:52:24Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > In Tuesday’s FBI, no masks were seen, but, one business owner had a visible sign that read “Masks are [then a picture of a mask]…” and the rest was hidden. Maybe that is the whole sign, and the store owner is just trying to help out people who don’t know what the word “mask” means: “Masks are these things.”. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/36 "2021-01-27T22:15:54Z")
My wife is a big fan of that actor - I liked him in Buffy/Firefly. Not my fave show, but I don’t mind it as my weekly cop show fix. Was a REALLY annoying arc the last couple eps w/ his uber annoying mother. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/37 "2021-01-28T02:21:54Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > My wife is a big fan of that actor - I liked him in Buffy/Firefly. > Not my fave show, but I don’t mind it as my weekly cop show fix. The first season of The Rookie was great, the seond started to go downhill then crashed off the cliff in a flaming pile of burning shit in the last episode of S2. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/38 "2021-01-28T02:39:38Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Webcomics that depict characters wearing masks: > > Diesel Sweeties, Moon Over June, Something Positive > > Webcomics that depict characters not wearing masks: > > Check Please, Dumbing of Age, Ennui Go, Extra Fabulous Comics, Heartstopper, My Giant Nerd Boyfriend, Pixie Trix, PVP, Questionable Content, Rain, The Rock Cocks, Sarah’s Scribbles, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, Tripping Over You, and Unshelved. I’m not familiar with all of the webcomics you listed, but most of the ones I know in the second group are not set in our universe modern day. Questionable Content is set in an alternate universe were we have friendly AI and most everyone is progressive except for bigotry against said AI. Pixie Trix is set in a magical universe, although this isn’t necessarily clear in the current comic. Dumbing of Age is set in a single fall semester of college, and no pandemic has happened there (too much other tragedy has, though). And much of My Giant Nerd Boyfriend is showing stuff in the characters’ pasts. In modern day, when they go out, they wear masks, and even remove all outside clothing–the author is Asian and remembers SARS. And they show Boyfriend at home using Zoom/Skype fairly often. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/39 "2021-01-28T02:59:48Z")
Speaking of webcomics, I’m reminded of this thread, where there could be much less confusion today. > [@What is this guy wearing and why?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-guy-wearing-and-why/829127): > > The guy on the left. Link to “webtoon” page. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284/40 "2021-01-28T03:06:38Z")
[Josh Fruhlinger wrote](https://www.polygon.com/comics/2020/6/10/21284457/coronavirus-comic-strips-funny-pages-newspapers) on Covid in the comics page back in June. From reading his blog (but not the funny pages), I gather that the funnies are still all over the place when it comes to acknowledging Covid. Funnily, [Fruhlinger half-speculates](https://joshreads.com/2021/01/absolutely-cannot-wait-for-crankshafts-corona-based-wordplay/) the _Crankshaft_ and other Funkyverse strips may finally begin acknowledging Covid in the next few weeks, if they are, as rumored, written a year in advance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-and-tv-unmasked/931284.md?page=3)