For 78 glorious seconds on Saturday, comedian Steve Martin offered social media users a much-needed break from the new reality of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a brief video he posted to Twitter captioned, “Banjo Balm,” he didn’t pretend to know anything about the virus that has brought the entire world to a grinding halt, or feign to offer profound advice—he just whipped out his banjo in the middle of some unknown forestland (or perhaps his backyard?) and wordlessly restored our sanity with a serenade, all while wearing shades and what looked like sweatpants. The comedian has been playing the banjo since he was a teenager, and he has been known to use it in his stand-up routines. He released his first all-music album in 2009, The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo, and it won the Grammy Award for the Best Bluegrass Album in 2010.
