As a know-it-all preteen, I would roll my eyes at the Thanksgiving table when asked what I was grateful for. We didn’t use the word “cringe” back then (this was the ’90s), but it was an aversion to cringe that made me an ungrateful little brat in those moments. Eventually, in my most nasally Valley Girl voice, I would begrudgingly list off the big things: family, food, shelter. The word “duh,” I am sure, escaped my lips. My poor mother.
Nowadays, as an elder millennial facing midlife with young children of my own, I know better. Gratitude isn’t cringe — it’s fucking medicinal! I’ve read studies that say gratitude can cure depression and anxiety. So I dutifully keep a gratitude journal —or at least, I’m trying my best. (I’ve misplaced it, but I’ll find it one day and be thankful for that. OK?) I call my mother all the time and tell her I’m thankful she put up with me back then. When her grandkids roll their eyes at the Thanksgiving table and pronounce themselves “thankful for Italian brain rot and nothing else,” she calls it karma and laughs.
This year, I’m extremely thankful for laughter. Life is a lot! So much, all the time! It’s easy to get dark about it quickly, but at least we can keep on chuckling. So in that spirit, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for The Standard’s resident comedian, Sophia Garrow. When my mom recently visited me she watched Sophia’s videos on repeat for over an hour and kept asking, “Is she that funny at work, too?” Yes, Mom! And I mean, how lucky am I to work at a news organization that has a resident comedian? When the news gets me down, there she is, in a dinosaur costume, just keeping it real.
Sophia joined the staff full time this year to make funny videos about the ridiculousness of life in San Francisco. And even when the news is bad or deranged, her Yikes Alerts are here to make sense of it all.
So, without further ado, I present my personal favorite Sophia Garrow videos from 2025.
1. A deranged motivational speech2. A brutal kids fitness test
I am definitely biased on this one, as the video features my own children. I vetoed Sophie’s plan to pretend to give them Zyns, which the original script called for. (Having written about the dangers of influencers peddling Zyns to kids for the New York Times (opens in new tab), this felt too hypocritical even for me, though might have been a classic case of overthinking it!)
3. Good News Alert: Bars staying open late4. Yikes Alert: AI toys for kids5. The haunting of Lombard Street6. Yikes Alert: Humanoid robot warfighters7. The lore of Shanghai Kelly’s
My favorite part of this video is the cameo by a drug-curious colleague who can’t abide bad labor practices. Don’t miss it.
8. Dressing up for Halloween at work9. Yikes Alert: Peter Thiel’s antichrist nonsense10. Good News Alert: Sundown Cinemas is back11. Being ‘gay for women’s soccer’