John Krasinski's Virtual Prom

Submission 969

Part of a series on Some Good News. [View Related Entries]

Overview

John Krasinski's Virtual Prom refers to an online event hosted by John Krasinski on his YouTube channel, Some Good News, as a means of brightening the spirits of high schoolers who were unable to attend prom in 2020 due to Coronavirus quarantines.

Background

On April 16th, 2020, John Krasinski announced on numerous social media channels he would be hosting a "virtual prom" on his YouTube channel, Some Good News, the following evening.

Developments

The "prom" was streamed live on YouTube on April 17th, 2020. It featured appearances by Rainn Wilson, Chance the Rapper, the Jonas Brothers, and Billie Eilish. On April 19th, Krasinski posted a video recapping the event (shown below). The event lasted roughly thirty minutes.

On social media, teens posted pictures of themselves attending the prom in their prom outfits and celebrating along with the stream. User @jennaamegan^[1] posted a picture of herself watching with her friend on FaceTime, gaining over 180 retweets and 4,300 likes (shown below, left). User @campbelldb8^[2] posted similar photos, gaining over 480 likes (shown below, right).

The event was widely covered by media sources who highly praised it. Mashable^[3] called it, "a genuinely fun, heartening success." Junkee^[4] wrote, "The event doesn’t fully make up for what people have lost, but people really appreciated what Krasinski tried to do for them."