The Internet Is Not Here for Gal Gadot’s Celebrity ‘Imagine’ Video Meant to Lift Spirits During Coronavirus Pandemic
By now, the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic is all anyone has on their minds. Whether it’s terrifying you or making you more conscious of your health or habits, it’s impacting everyone. And having to social distance and self-quarantine can be pretty dull and depressing at times. The new normal that feels very alien to all of us urged Gal Gadot to make a video that she presumably hoped would spread joy and hope through the masses. Instead, it irked a lot more people.
Gal Gadot got a ton of celebrities together to sing ‘Imagine’ for positivity’s sake
On March 18, Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot posted an IGTV video on Instagram, where she talked about being on day 6 of self-quarantine. She said that “we’re all in this together” with the pandemic going on, and that she was inspired by a video of an Italian man playing John Lennon’s “Imagine” on his balcony. So, she gathered several celebrities and created her own “Imagine” moment.
For about 2 minutes, she and others start to sing the famous Lennon tune. She’s joined by Mark Ruffalo, Amy Adams, Natalie Portman, Jimmy Fallon, and Pedro Pascal. And that’s not even all. Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, and many more show up at some point too.
The internet, as a whole, is tired of these celebrity antics in times of crisis
While this was sprung out of a moment of philosophical inspiration from Gadot, the internet did not take kindly to it. She got “Imagine” trending on Twitter, but not with the gratitude and joy that the Italian videos of singing balconies brought.
Writer and producer Josh Gondelman tweeted, “No politician can unify people in the way that the ‘Imagine’ video seems to have united every single person against it.” And New York Times op-ed writer Charlie Warzel pointed out, “these are hard times. we have to look out for each other. so pls stop tweeting the celebrities atonally singing ‘imagine’ into my feed.”
Lastly, Kristin Chirico, of BuzzFeed’s Ladylike, summed it up with, “I don’t wanna hear any more celebs tell me that it’s gonna be OK. Like yeah it’s gonna be OK… for YOU.”
It came off as tone-deaf when there’s not much action behind this “We are one” gesture. Sure, some might find the hope and beauty in it, but overall the internet just finds it cringe-worthy.
Other celebrities are doing more than just singing songs to ‘boost’ spirits
While Gadot’s addition to the celebrity coronavirus discourse is nowhere near as bad as Vanessa Hudgen’s rant, it’s not as helpful as some others either.
On March 13, Lizzo led a mass meditation session for her followers with the mantra, “Fear does not exist in my body. Fear does not exist in my home. Love exists in my body. Love exists in my home.” She called on everyone to be vigilant and mindful, leading people through their anxiety.
Indya Moore, who plays Angel on Pose, is donating money directly to individuals who are hurting. In addition to rappers Lil Nas X and Megan Thee Stallion, these celebrities are sending actual monetary aid to people who are seriously struggling because of this pandemic and nation-wide shutdown.
That’s the biggest issue here. People aren’t pissed off that Gadot and her famous friends are singing a John Lennon song. It’s the fact that it is tone-deaf in a time of crisis with this COVID-19 pandemic. They’ll easily be fine, as they have money and big houses to “isolate” in. And as we’ve seen, they also have an extremely easy time getting tested, whereas the average American cannot. The amount of testing per million people in this country is drastically behind countries.
So yeah, maybe listening to your favorite song will boost your mood. But pushing for policies and giving monetary aid to others will help more.
