Coronavirus, if you take comedy legend and icon Mel Brooks from us, we’ll never forgive you, and neither will his son, Max Brooks.
Which is why Max Brooks and his father put out a helpful PSA to make sure that you — yes, you reading this right now — don’t accidentally spread the virus to 93-year-old Mel Brooks and kill him. That would be bad.
“If I get the coronavirus, I’ll probably be okay. But if I give it to him, he could give it to Carl Reiner, who could give it to Dick Van Dyke, and before you know it, I’ve wiped out a whole generation of comedic legends,” the younger Brooks said in a charming video shared to Twitter. “When it comes to coronavirus, I have to think about who I can infect, and so should you.”
Many of the deadly cases of COVID-19 have come from older individuals and those with weaker immune systems, and even people who carry the virus don’t often show symptoms right away. So Max Brooks, speaking about his father from the other side of a glass window outside his father’s home, explained why practicing “social distancing” is so necessary.
“Avoid crowds, wash your hands, keep six feet away from people, and if you have the option to stay home, just stay home,” Brooks said. “Do your part, don’t be a spreader.”
Max Brooks actually knows a thing or two about the matter — he’s the author of 2003’s “The Zombie Survival Guide” and its suddenly very relevant 2006 sequel novel “World War Z.” A fictional oral history of how the human race managed to (barely) survive a zombie apocalypse, the events depicted in “World War Z” are expressly modeled on what would happen if governments and people of the world totally botched the response to a viral pandemic.
The book was very loosely adapted into a 2013 film that ditched the oral history, but retained the book’s viral outbreak pastiche.
So now you understand why being safe and responsible is so important when it comes to protecting our beloved, comedy icons. Now where’s Betty White?
Watch Max and Mel Brooks’ father and son PSA via Twitter below:
A message from me and my dad, @Melbrooks. #coronavirus #DontBeASpreader pic.twitter.com/Hqhc4fFXbe
— Max Brooks (@maxbrooksauthor) March 16, 2020