The old saw about laughter being infectious took on sinister connotations in 2020. With COVID-19 marauding around the world stage like Sam Kinison with a bee in his beret, the guffaw of a person next to you could possibly land you in the ICU... or on your deathbed. Grim news for comedy clubs worldwide—among other cultural spaces. As part of Seattle's thriving entertainment industrial complex, the Joketellers Union weekly suffered those all-too-familiar pandemic-induced setbacks, going quiet for nearly 18 months. But it's returning to Beacon Hill's Clock-Out Lounge, with Andy Iwancio, Bernice Jing Ye, Burl Dirkman, and JU founders Brett Hamil and Emmett Montgomery poised to dissipate your coronavirus blues—which, as I type, is returning for an unwelcome encore.