It is not always easy to judge the appropriate tone during a worldwide pandemic, and already the New South Wales Bar Association and a Norwegian law firm have swiftly retracted their efforts*.

Oslo-based law firm BAHR released an advert showing a lawyer traversing a post-coronavirus wasteland, a somewhat less upbeat approach than Baker McKenzie's melodious handwashing tutorial.

Advertising the 'BAHR CORONA TASK FORCE', a narrator breathlessly intoned that the coronavirus outbreak "has serious impact on daily life". Catastrophically serious according to the video, which depicted a BAHR lawyer as the last person alive, striding down the middle of an empty road.

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^{“Lawyer of the year, again.“}

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Like a broken robot he has put on his suit and is looking for business, though he will never find another client.  

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^{30th year of BD.}

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A source said the apocalyptic offering was, erm, "going viral" in the Norwegian legal community, "but be quick, it will likely be taken down soon!" It disappeared on Monday. The firm chose to self-distance itself from RollOnFriday and did not respond to a request for comment.

The NSW Bar also leaned gloomy. Its InBrief daily news team helpfully emailed all the barristers a "reading list of 'plague fiction' to keep us entertained during self-isolation", said a source. An excellent idea, but before screenshots could be taken of all the recommendations, it had been deleted. The NSW Bar Association said it had no comment.

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^{Trigger warning: contains anxiety fuel}

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Two books were captured before the po-faced police came calling. The Decameron, a 14th century collection of stories told by people holed up in a villa to escape the Black Death, and A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe, an upbeat romp about surviving London during the bubonic plague.

The NSW Bar Association declined to provide RollOnFriday with its other suggestions, which is a pity because the apocalypse is so hot right now. Here are some lighter works about the end of the world. Readers are invited to offer their own picks in the comments.

^{Which of your friends is trashcan man?}

^{Finally, a chance to follow your true passion, acting, and all it took was the end of days.}

^{Where all the main characters get Kinder Surprise heads.}

^{Maybe we're the virus now?}

^{No I won’t pick a box. What’s in the boxes? Where is my family?}

_{*RollOnFriday will doubtless join them at some point as the cabin fever sets in and the social media accounts lie open, begging for updates about working full-time with small children screaming, arguing, crying and eating up the precious, precious rations, already they look less like loved ones and more like an unacceptable drain on toilet paper}