Black-market Ambien? Thousand dollar grocery bills? Hamptonites are in an extravagant panic over the coronavirus — and a “South Park”-style cartoon is capturing all the madness.
From locals scrambling for bootleg pills to $8,000 shopping binges at Citarella, little gets past the animated “HamptonsDish” cartoon and its “South Park”-style husband and wife.
“My humor is all about exaggerating my observations in the name of satire, from the live-in Amazon handlers to bartering Charmin for Ambien,” says Hamptonite, lifestyle blogger and former ad exec Jennifer Gold Mantz, the cartoon’s creator.
“HamptonsDish” went viral on YouTube when she originated it seven years ago, but Gold Mantz could not resist bringing back the pearl-festooned Eugenie and her perplexed but supportive hubby, Peter.
Inspiration is all around her.
People in the Hamptons are even hiring “Amazon handlers” — workers who pick up their delivery boxes, quarantine them and then wipe them down before delivering them to the family.
“For me, it’s all about bringing a little levity to an incredibly devastating situation,” says Gold Mantz, 53, who also lives on the Upper East Side and whose past work includes inventing the “milk moustache” campaign.
In her latest animation, Eugenie tells Peter she’s flying her lady friends to less-locked-down Georgia for “mani-pedis.”
The kids are all coming along — to go bowling, online learning be damned. After all, the only test that matters is the one that will get them all back to school — the antibody test.
The short has 32,000 views on her blog and has been shared via Instagram.
“I just think humor is really important. It’s the only thing that gets people through tough times. It just gets you through the day. It’s conversation. It takes you out of your own head. Laughter is the best medicine,” she says.
She’s not worried about running out of material.
One popular sushi restaurant on the East End, Sushi Zuki in Water Mill, now limits the number of rolls a family can order for take out to 10, she notes.
“It doesn’t matter how many people are in the family. They are sushi Nazis — no rolls for you!” she says.
A big day is when the King Cullen store gets Charmin toilet paper in.
“That’s a really big deal,” she says, adding that during Passover, people were bartering matzah for Clorox wipes.
Hamptonites are getting creative in their Ambien trades.
“I am taking black market Ambien that is so strong — and I gave a friend good Charmin for it,” she quipped.
Pricey Hamptons hot spots like Round Swamp Farm are delivering — “but you have to wake up in the middle of the night to order online or your favorite chicken salad is gone,” she says.
“Who are the locals now? We are all locals. Yes, there is a schism between the new and the old locals. This used to be their peaceful time, and now we are all over the place.
As for her characters, “I think they are becoming more loveable. I think people sympathize with the husband because he can’t even believe what is going on in his own house.
“It’s relatable in a scary way. People ask, are you her? Really?! I wish I was Eugenie. I am home in my PJs … doing the dishes.
“I think people empathize more with him. I think what I like the most about the characters is that I’m not a man basher; I don’t like that kind of stuff.
“I don’t want him to be an idiot. I like that he humors her, [but] that he doesn’t let her get away with anything. He humors her, and that’s what makes it work and appealing to men as well as women.”