Climate Comedy: Inspiring Climate Action Through Comedy Favorite 

Practitioner: 

Date: 

Jan 1 2024

Location: 

Charlottesville, Virginia

The Climate Comedy Cohort is an unprecedented network of comedians who are coming together to learn, collaborate, and create hilarious new comedy informed by the hottest climate science. The Climate Comedy Cohort functions as a 9-month fellowship.

Co-created and directed by Generation180 and the Center for Media & Social Impact’s GoodLaugh initiative, the Climate Comedy Cohort brings together diverse comedians from around the country to flip the script on the way we think about climate change. Research shows that the majority of Americans are concerned about climate change, but most know little about meaningful steps they can take. There’s a lot more people can do – actions beyond recycling or bringing their own bags to the grocery store.

Humans now have an unprecedented opportunity to make a huge impact on climate change in their own homes and communities. A new climate law (called the Inflation Reduction Act) represents the largest investment in clean energy in U.S. history. It includes huge financial incentives for Americans to switch to solar, heat pumps, electric stoves, and other types of clean energy. Individuals can also make a massive impact on climate change through policy advocacy. Comedians play an essential role in helping people understand this stuff.

External sources: 

https://generation180.org/climate-comedy/comedy-cohort/
Posted by JFerragamo on Feb 5 2024

Staff rating: 

0

Effectiveness

How does this project help?

Activates (people)Energizes and organizes people into action. Can include emotion work
Amplifies (issue or campaign)Brings public and political attention to an issue or campaign.  Can include prefigurative action, making the invisible visible.

Timeframe For change

This project seems to be part of a campaign with a clear long-term goal. Long-term goals tend to be things like: end racism; end homophobia; make the sun stand still in the sky. A campaign with a long-term goal also needs to have some kind of theory of change.
This collective aims to use comedy as a means of education. Through their performances, this group aims to inform audiences about how they can make a difference in impacting climate change.

Notes

I think this project is effective because it provides useful and urgent information to the public in a highly accessible and enjoyable way. Not only do individuals leave a show having been entertained, they are given tools and knowledge that is important in the fight against global warming.