The ‘R’ rate

I have a confession. Whenever I hear any commentary on the ‘R’ rate – which, let’s be honest, is pretty much every day at the moment if you read the news or listen to the radio – something pops into my head that I just can’t control. A bit like the song that couldn’t leave my head at the beginning of lockdown (commented upon in a blog post from March), this just pops up without any warning. I’m not proud. But I do think it’s pretty funny. And laughs are important too. Right?

The title of this post (and the associated art piece) should really be changed to the ‘arrr’ rate. Because, you see, the thing that appears in my mind is… a pirate. I’m sorry. I just can’t help it. Ps. I’m not sorry. 

Even listening to the radio this afternoon, I’m hearing a lot of chit chat about the ‘R’ rate. I don’t want to get too political but, I’m not gonna lie, it ain’t sounding too good. Despite concentrating deeply on a very arduous work from home task while listening to the radio, there it was. The pirate appeared and distracted me from my work.

I say pirate, but from the moment I started thinking of it, the pirate took the form of a parrot. I decided weeks ago that I needed to draw it out and I finally got round to it last weekend. It’s the latest cartoon to make it into my ‘Lockdown Life’ series and focuses on the character of Captain Polly Parrot.

I followed a similar layout to my ‘(Re)claim it’ cartoon. I wanted Captain Polly to have pride of place in the centre of the storyboard and thought carefully about the caption that would kick-off the cartoon. I’m a bit of a waffly writer but I really do understand the importance of keeping things simple, basic and to the point. So I’ve been trying really, really hard with my captions! I wanted Polly to express what I – and I imagine many others – are thinking. I feel her thought bubble summarises this quite nicely. Are any of us really quite sure what the ‘R’ rate is…?

I then thought through the key themes I’d been hearing about the ‘R’ rate and decided on the aspects of this that would be straightforward to portray. I had to do something on the ‘peak’ of the ‘R’ rate and the virus. That was inevitable. I decided that having a screeching Captain Polly (in the past) would represent this nicely.

Next, I thought about various comparisons involving the ‘R’ rate. There’s been a suggestion of regional variation (and, in future, there may well be regional lockdowns too) and we seem to be comparing ourselves with other countries quite a bit. These themes cover numbers 2 and 3 in the cartoon. I don’t know when I had the idea, but I decided that regional representation just had to be reflected through regional dialects of ‘arrr’. I chose one from my hometown/region (‘ey up arrr!’). Then I got a bit stuck. Trying to shove ‘arrr’ into different dialects is actually quite hard. So I had a good think about regional terms and phrases and settled on a geordie variant (‘arrr pet!’) and – though it isn’t necessarily regional – a posh greeting too (‘charrrmed!’). It was only after I’d finished that I thought of a perfect one to include: ‘arrr guvna’, covering Cockney and inspired by a Simpsons sketch. Definitely one to include next time. Coincidentally, ‘charrrmed’ was also inspired by a Simpsons clip – let me know if you work out which one!

Having covered various stereotypes in number 2 I decided to strongly avoid this in number 3 – I wanted to get away from any dangerous territory! Instead, I thought I’d play it safe and include some flags. Looking at the US flag again, I could probably have added a few more red stripes. I’ll remember next time!

The big question for me was how on earth could I wrap this up. There was so much more to say about the ‘R’ rate but it was impossible to cover it all. I decided number 4 should represent this – everyone’s talking about it and it’s a little overwhelming. People are angry (‘R’!!), confused (‘R’?) and/or both (‘R’?!). Though, I would say, I doubt many are quite as confused as Captain Polly! The final thought bubble from Polly Parrot summarises the chaos – her conclusion, in her opinion, is the only logical explanation for this phenomenon. 

And, though Captain Polly Parrot has completely misinterpreted the situation, I imagine we can all relate to her desire for an explanation!