Hello From Corona Life With Chris Mann

The singer-songwriter behind some of the internet’s best coronavirus parodies had no idea they’d go viral or launch his career in a new direction — but he’s not complaining. 

By Jessie Schiewe

(YouTube screenshot from “Hello (From the Inside)”)

You’ve probably already seen his videos and had his lyrics stuck in your head even if the name “Chris Mann” doesn’t ring a bell. 

That’s because in the last two and a half weeks, the singer-songwriter has put out three uproariously hilarious coronavirus parody videos, each of which has gone viral, spreading online almost as fast as the virus itself. Millions have watched his comedic and relatable spoofs that perfectly capture the wackiness of these times with catchy lyrics, silly dance moves, exaggerated facial expressions, and spot-on captions. 

In fact, since coronavirus has taken over the collective public conscience, a number of parody videos based on the disease have found their ways online.

Someone dubbed the first scene in Beauty And The Beast that Belle appears in to be all about the virus. There’s a Bee Gee’s “Stayin’ Alive” remake called “Stayin’ Inside” that appears to have been made remotely by a band using Zoom. Neil Diamond updated his 1969 song, “Sweet Caroline” to have coronavirus safety tips. Other older classics, like The Beach Boys’ “Kokomo” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” have also gotten the COVID-19 parody treatment.

Rarely do these videos fail to entertain. Not only are they familiar sounding (because most of us know the original songs they’re based off), but they’re relatable, reframing the strange new realities of our lives with humor and wit.  

(YouTube screenshot)

Mann, who has released two studio albums and was a finalist on The Voice in 2012, started his coronavirus content streak on March 15th with “My Corona,” a variation of The Knack’s 1987 banger, “My Sharona.”

Filmed in the early days of the pandemic, almost a week before the city of Los Angeles and state of California issued stay-at-home orders, it shows a panicked Mann chronicling the anxieties and confusion he experienced while trying to prep for an undetermined amount of time in quarantine. 

“Rows are full of empty shelves / Ah, what the hell / Yes, I’m stocking up on boxed wine, Corona! / Nothing’s making sense, no more friends, no more basketball / Kids are home from school, it’s raining too / And I’m losing my mi-i-i-i-ind, woah!”

Next down the pipeline came “Stay Home Vogue,” a jocular take on the Madonna hit that famously brought the underground dance style “vogueing” into mainstream culture in the 1990s. Wearing a silk button-down shirt, Mann vogues — kinda — while urging viewers to: “Come on, stay home / Watch the TV and eat your feelings / You know you can do it.” 

His biggest success yet — and likely the video that you’ve already seen — is his coronavirus parody of the popular Adele song, “Hello.” Mann flips the original hook to “Hello, from the inside,” narrating the inner monologue of someone who has been stuck inside their home for clearly way too long.

At the time of the video’s release on March 26th, California was one of a handful of states leading the pack in mandating shelter-in-place orders. As other states have followed suit — and hopefully continue to do so — more and more viewers have found themselves relating to the song’s cabin fever theme.

Mann’s comedic antics — squashing his face against a window pane, sitting pantless on the couch, folding himself into a ball and fake-crying — make the video shine even more, aptly emphasizing how every one of us likely feels as we, too, are cooped up in our homes. 

“Hello from self-quarantine,” he coos in a voice that verges on Mariah Carey pitch levels. “I’m begging Amazon to please / After sending more soap, can you please figure out / How to send a box of my friends to my house? / I’m so bored!”

Perhaps more than anything, Mann’s parodies have taught us that even in the darkest of times, laughter can still be healing.

As one YouTuber wrote in the comments of “Hello (From the Inside)”:

“This literally needs to be the theme song to this [sic] time. Actually, decades from now, when they ask what life was like, they should just start the lesson with this video! It’s so accurate and nice to have something to make us laugh to in such a crazy time. And a lot of us can relate, too!”

Mann was singing songs and writing music well before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Making parodies, however, is new for him — but it’s something he clearly has a knack for. 

A month ago, he had close to 200 videos on YouTube, all but one of which had fewer than a couple hundred-thousand views.

That’s since changed. He now has three viral videos with more than 12 million views combined. (On Facebook, his videos have been watched even more.) 

Coronavirus has opened up a whole new world for Mann, who previously made money largely through in-person appearances and group-oriented performances. Now he’s paved the way for a new career not just in online entertainment, but in comedy — a world that he’s always flirted with but never fully relinquished himself to. 

(YouTube screenshot from “My Corona”)

That’s likely to change — at least for now.

As Mann told OK Whatever during a recent phone chat from his home in Los Angeles — where he, his wife, and his son have been self-quarantining — he has no intention of stopping his coronavirus parody videos any time soon. In fact, for as long as he’s stuck indoors, he vowed to keep it up and release one new video a week.

“I’m just going to keep doing them,” he said, “because I'm having a good time and people really need music and comedy and distraction to help lighten the mood a little bit these days. So I’m really happy and lucky to get to help in that way.”

From panic-shopping $400 worth of supplies to turning his bathroom into a filming location, Mann gave OK Whatever unfettered access into his life under quarantine and his newfound fame as a viral video-maker. 

Also, we didn’t ask, but we’re willing to bet Mann was pantless during our phone call. Why? Because Corona life, baby. 

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OK Whatever: Hey, Chris! Let me guess: You (like the rest of us) are quarantining right now? 

Chris Mann: I’m in my house in L.A. which has been turned into a giant studio in the last, let’s see, two weeks because of all the videos we’ve been making. I have tripods, and a ring light, and I’ve got blankets taped to the walls to make backgrounds. It’s been a general disaster but we've been trying to keep up with how crazy the response has been to these videos. 

Blankets taped to the walls?

Yeah, that’s in the bathroom where “My Corona” was filmed. And “Vogue” was done in the same spot but with a Delta Airlines lap blanket taped onto the wall. It’s the closest thing I had to black fabric. And so I used neon green painter’s tape to hold it up.

And you haven’t taken it down yet?

No, it’s still up. I have it half peeled off because I did another video for a charity so I used the blue background again, but I didn't want to take it all the way off in case I used the black again. At this point anything’s possible. 

It really is. What is that saying? Necessity is the mother invention? That seems to apply here in more ways than one. 

That’s right. I haven’t been known for making videos until now. That wasn’t a big part of it. The history of my career has been more on the major label side, so I have been very accustomed to having, you know, a million dollar budget and recording in major studios and stuff. 

But let me tell you: What we have done in the last two weeks has far exceeded anything that a major label has been able to do with zero dollars. 

(YouTube screenshot from “Hello (From the Inside)”)

I believe it. So how did your coronavirus content creation begin? 

We did quarantine pretty early — I believe about four days before I did “My Corona” — and it all hit me around then that my entire livelihood had been cancelled. That I’m now unemployed just like everyone else. 

It seems like a long time ago, but it really wasn’t. It was maybe four weeks ago when people were like, ‘Alright, no more groups and all that stuff.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, my entire livelihood revolves around groups,’ and I never even thought about it. You know? I never realized it.

I had just come from a recording session in Pasadena — that my wife really didn’t want me to be at — and I knew that we were then going into quarantine. So I went into a store afterwards, and that is where a lot of the lines for “My Corona” came from. Like, I couldn’t find a parking spot. And I was super, kind of scared. I had gloves on and a mask, but then I didn’t really know what to do. 

Now we're kind of getting used to this but that’s where a lot of the actual real emotional aspect of the video came from. And I think that I actually recorded it that afternoon. I came home and just wrote it and put my son down for a nap and then shot it and then that was it. 

“My Corona” went viral pretty quickly, didn’t it?

Yeah, I posted it on Facebook and it took off. I also posted it on YouTube. But up until this point, YouTube hasn’t really been part of my deal. I had about 19,000 subscribers and right now I have 90,000. So my YoutTube has always been slow.

But it went viral on Facebook. I remember looking at it and just being like, ‘Wow, these views are really going up.’ And within four days, it had 20 million views. 

I was as shocked as anyone. I didn’t know what to do. 

It sounds like you came up with the right response though, which was to make more videos. 

That was never a question. 

I immediately was like, ‘Well, I’ve got to follow this up. The last thing I make, and the most popular thing I make, cannot be me singing about toilet paper.’ I mean I’ve literally made so many albums and serious stuff and then this is really it? I mean the toilet paper thing? 

Plus, I have nothing else to do. I love making music and I love cutting these things together. And the fact that people were so into it I was like, ‘Well, OK.’ 

I had some other ideas before settling on “Vogue,” which was a total trip. That one I think solidified the whole thing. It was on CNN in two days and I didn’t know. 

That's the other thing. As an artist, I’m used to having to hire someone to try to get me attention. But right now, these videos are on every station and all over the world, and I haven’t done anything. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I never experienced anything like this. 

So we're definitely enjoying it, but we’re also understanding that people are actually listening to me. So I’m proud to be writing things that are funny, but that are also reinforcing the best practices right now so that this actually can go away. I’m certainly not trying to be irresponsible and am, in fact, telling people to stay home and follow the rules. 

Based on the comments your videos are attracting, it seems like viewers are being incredibly receptive of the messages you’re sending out, with few if any people taking umbrage with them. 

That’s been the thing my wife and I are most astonished by. When “My Corona” went viral — which was an accident that’s never happened to me before — I had no reason to think that that would happen so I got nervous because I didn’t want anyone to think that I was not taking coronavirus seriously or anything like that. 

But the comments are virtually all positive and I think that’s totally unheard of. And it’s the same for all the videos. All of them have become this really incredible gathering place for people to commiserate about this shared experience. 

And the most recent video — “Thank U Frontline” — I posted just yesterday and it’s trending on YouTube right now. It’s not funny. It’s a heartfelt thank you video and I did want to take time to acknowledge that. 

I tried to make it as personal and real as possible. Like almost everything in that video is from somebody that I know or who’s a friend of a friend. My dad's a pharmacist and that’s him in the video. And my friends are doctors. 

So it’s the real story of what’s going on out there and thinking about how the world can easily come to a screeching halt if it weren’t for this select group of people that is keeping it at least running on a basic level. I just wanted to make sure that we all acknowledge that. 

(YouTube screenshot from “Stay Home Vogue”)

Has making these videos and keeping busy been helping you to stay sane (unlike the crazed characters you portray in your parodies)?

I don’t even know what I would have done without these videos. I honestly am not sure where my career would have headed. I think this is going to change a lot of peoples' paths. 

I’ve been one of the very lucky ones who has been a working musician exclusively for 10 years. But this has all been a total godsend for me. It’s been really amazing. And it certainly helps pass the time. 

In fact, I’m working harder than I have in a long time. I stay up all night. I did “Vogue” until 5 in the morning. And yesterday, I got three hours of sleep doing “Thank U Frontline” and then I posted it and then I took a nap.

So, honestly, the days are going quickly for us because we’re fielding press and the videos are being picked up by international major platforms now.

It’s like you’re entering new territory now by becoming an online entertainer. 

Yeah, it’s actually kind of cool. I’m feeling lucky because I’m very accustomed to having to only work when I go to the airport and fly somewhere and do a show. 

And so it’s kind of cool to make this content here and be fully creative and in control, and to take breaks and play with Hugo and to talk to people online and just sort of feel the pulse of this whole thing. 

So could this be a new direction for you? Are you open to the idea of doing more humorous kinds of stuff?

Oh yeah. It’s always been something that’s sort of naturally in there but never something that I leaned into. 

A lot of times, people have come away from my concerts largely commenting on how funny it was and I'd be like, ‘Oh, well did you also like the singing?’ Like it wasn’t ever my intention, I just like to riff with the audience.

So it’s been something I’ve been thinking about, but this is really my first stab at leaning into the funnier sides of how I think and all of this is an overwhelming validation that I should keep doing it. 

Lastly, I hate to break this to you, but chances are pretty high you'll be spending your birthday in quarantine this May. Have you thought about that?

Oh, we've thought about it because we're supposed to be in Hawaii. 

My wife and I, we haven’t really taken a proper vacation since we had our son two and a half years ago, that wasn’t work-related or wedding- or family- related. So we were very excited to celebrate my birthday in Hawaii. 

And now, just like everybody else, our plans are going to be cancelled. So we'll be here doing a Zoom birthday instead.

I don’t really care about my birthday anyways. I’m just sad to not be in Hawaii. 

JESSIE SCHIEWE IS THE EDITOR OF OK WHATEVER. SHE BELIEVES IN MERMAIDS AND THRIFT SHOPS FOR EXERCISE.

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