Welcome to quarantine culture

Who needs car crashes and machine guns when you can be picking peaches on your own sun-splashed island?

The video game everyone’s talking about during quarantine is the unabashedly mild-mannered “Animal Crossing,” with no competition, zero explosions, just the slow-moving pleasures of gardening, creating a home and building a community with your furry friends and neighbors.

“It’s something that shouldn’t be fun but is extremely,” said Alice Dunaway, 25, a moderator at the Sounds Midwestern But Ope! Okey dokey Facebook page who has logged more than 80 hours on the video game during the stay-at-home order.

“I get so excited paying off my mortgage. I’m like OK, (the raccoon landlord) is a capitalist crook, but at the same time, I’m really excited.”

The cultural landscape has shifted over the past six weeks, with Americans obsessing over the gentle, slow-moving “Animal Crossing” and lip-syncing songs by the gun-toting, sequin-draped, would-be pop star at the center of the Netflix documentary “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.” We’re embracing decisive leaders (Lori Lightfoot, Andrew Cuomo) with ever more creative memes, as well as baking bread, sewing face masks and putting teddy bears in our windows.

As in the Great Depression, when Americans flocked to lighthearted movies — musicals, screwball comedies, Shirley Temple vehicles — we’re gravitating toward reassuring distractions. We’re eating comfort foods, doing puzzles and imagining Lightfoot patrolling Gotham City and the merry old land of Oz.

“Facebook groups and Facebook memes and Tiger King and quarantinis and stuff like that are all like a Band-Aid,” said Allison Vasquez-Lovell, 28, of Milwaukee, a moderator of the Sounds Midwestern Facebook page.

“They’re all trying to keep us sane when there’s a global trauma going on.” There’s been an explosion of creativity, much of it online, according to Samuel Taylor, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. And we’re gathering in new ways, with Zoom happy hours and parties.

Here’s your quick guide to quarantine culture.

Cuomosexual: We’re looking for heroes in the time of quarantine, and finding them (depending on our political leanings) in confident leaders such as President Donald Trump, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo has broken through with daily briefings that have homebound audiences looking at him with a whole new kind of appreciation and declaring themselves Cuomosexuals.

Lori Lightfoot memes: Both Cuomo and Lightfoot have gone national, Lightfoot with hilarious memes that show her calling our collective bluff regarding the need to practice our jump shots or enjoy the lakefront. Check out the woman with a life-size Lightfoot cutout, and the meme in which the mayor blocks Dorothy from entering the Emerald City.

Joe Exotic: We’re guessing that “Tiger King,” the Netflix documentary about Oklahoma private-zoo owner Joseph Maldonado-Passage, would have been a hit regardless of whether we were sequestered in our homes. But in the present circumstances, Joe, a larger-than-life polygamist with a controversial tiger-breeding business, has become a national obsession, with teenagers lip-syncing his so-bad-they’re-good pop songs on TikTok, where the hashtag #tigerking alone has racked up 4.3 billion views.

Carole Baskin: With her signature social media greeting, “Hey all you cool cats and kittens,” animal activist and big cat sanctuary owner Carole Baskin has become a national heroine or a punchline, depending on where you stand on tiger breeding for profit and the odd appeal of her nemesis. Teens on TikTok are re-creating her distinctive look, which includes a garland of flowers and an abundance of animal prints. A Chicago animal shelter recently put out a social media plug for a handsome orange tabby named the Dude, who was looking for a new home. The Dude’s profile said he had been enjoying Netflix and hates that (darn) Carole Baskin.”

Quarantini: Yes, we’re eating, and drinking, and coming up with new drinks, and new excuses to drink them. Depending on your recipe, the quarantini can be just a martini sipped during quarantine, or new twists with ingredients such as grapefruit juice, vanilla vodka or rosemary. A quarantini is best sipped in a Zoom get-together, Zoom being the video conferencing app that’s exploded into the popular consciousness with many of us now working from home and attending Zoom meetings.

Homemade masks: There were doubters at first: “Are you going to crochet them?” they snickered. But with a shortage of protective gear for health care workers, hand-sewn masks have become a valuable resource and a way that everyday people with good sewing skills can make a difference.

The COVID-15: We’ve been coining new phrases, including the COVID-15, a play on the Freshman 15, or the 15 pounds that freshmen are said to gain when they go to college. Also new: coronabeard, or the beard grown during quarantine; it’s often spotted via Zoom meeting. Coronashaming is criticizing someone you believe is not following coronavirus safety guidelines and a covidiot is what you call someone when you’re engaging in extreme coronashaming. There are also words from the official public health lexicon that have made it into common speech. Who knew what social distancing, or maintaining space between yourself and others, meant in February? Now, we’re going to be explaining it to future generations.

Teddy bears: If you see a teddy bear in a neighbor’s window, it’s no accident. American communities have joined in an international social-media-driven movement to create social-distancing scavenger hunts for children. Quarantine kid culture also includes sidewalk chalk art, signs and drawings taped to windows, and, for those who have video learning, the chance to meet your teacher’s pet dog, cat or hamster.

Baking: The stay-at-home order has given a surprising number of us the time and inclination to bake breads, cakes, even croissants. “The amount of baking people are doing? People seem so mystified that there’s no eggs or butter or flour in the store, but it’s obviously because everybody has become a major baker in their spare time,” said Montana Miller, an associate professor of the popular culture department at Bowling Green State University.

And it’s not just baking, Miller said. Crafts, knitting and group singing are among the forms of creative culture that are thriving.

“People have time to do puzzles now; that’s amazing,” she said.

“I wouldn’t be too surprised if we do make it through all of this, and look back on it in future years, if it seems like a little period of time when we gained a lot. Imagine looking back and saying, ‘Oh remember that three months when we had dinner together every day? We just had so much time with our kids.’ I think it’s very likely that some people might look back on this with a kind of nostalgia.”