“Hello?”

“Hey.”

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Nothing.  You want to know one of the best things to come out of the pandemic?”

“Sure.  What?”

“Well, let me rephrase that…you want to know my favorite thing to come out of the pandemic?”

“Again, sure.”

“Watching people hold in yawns.”

“What?”

“Watching people hold in yawns.”

“Yeah, I heard you.  I guess that just wasn’t the answer I was expecting.  Why has the pandemic brought this to light?”

“Because of Zoom calls.”

“What do Zoom calls have to do with it?”

“Because everyone was immediately on Zoom calls and you looked at peoples’ faces more than you ever did before.”

“How so?”

“Think about it, prior to the pandemic, you’d just be in a meeting.  If there were five people sitting around a table, you mainly just looked at the person talking.  Once Zoom calls started, you could stare at anyone who was on the call.  You couldn’t do that before.”

“I see your point.”

“You know?  If you’re all huddled in a conference room and the boss is talking, you can’t just stare at Susie from accounting.  It’d be creepy.  But, on a Zoom call, no one can tell where anyone is looking.  As such, you notice people more.”

“Huh.  I hadn’t thought about that.”

“I had to constantly remind myself that people were watching.  Not that I was going to pick my nose or anything, but you had to be aware that people could see you.  You had to be more careful with checking your phone or doing something else other than listening attentively to the call.”

“I see your point.  And, so you’re saying that because of this, you noticed more people holding in yawns?”

“Exactly.  I mean, work meetings are boring.  No one likes them, especially if you aren’t an active participant.  So, now you have everyone on these video calls listening to people blab on and on.  You naturally get tired of it and yawn.  But, everyone knows they are on camera so they try to hold in their yawn, and there is nothing more hilarious than watching someone hold in a yawn.”

“Very true.  It’s awful.”

“It’s the ugliest a person can look.  Regardless of who it is, that person never looks any uglier than when they are actively holding down a yawn.”

“It’s hideous.”

“You can wake someone from a drunken stupor, and they will look better than when holding in a yawn.  A ragged, sleep deprived new mother looks glamorous to that same woman trying to hold in a yawn.”

“I have no argument. You’re completely right.”

“I mean, the contortions, the quivering jaw, all of it.  Just gross, and hilarious.”

“I’m literally mimicking it right now.  It’s awful.”

“And, due to the pandemic, we got to see this more than ever before.  Every day we had these boring Zoom calls, but at least you got to watch people fidget in their chair and try to look normal as they choked back a yawn.”

“I hadn’t thought about it, but you’ve convinced me.”

“I just had to share it.”

“So glad you did.”