Climate change isn’t funny but comedians are using humor to raise awareness of it

Category: (Self-Study) Science/Environment

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Climate change isn’t funny. But more comedians are using humor to bring awareness to it. A university in the U.S. is showing students that laughs can sometimes achieve more than lectures.

Climate comedy is a long-time tradition at the University of Colorado Boulder. In a dark theater, students—largely environmental studies majors—stand in a circle while they warm up their faces, vocal cords and bodies to prepare for a not-so-typical class.

They listen closely to drama professor Beth Osnes-Stoedefalke, who has been teaching a creative climate communication course for 13 years with environmental studies professor Maxwell Boykoff. “We’re doing the arts. There are no rules. You’re getting as close to the edges what can be said as possible because it’s comedy,” she tells the students.

They are among a growing group of comedians using humor to raise awareness of climate change. On stage, online and in classrooms, they tell jokes to tackle topics such as the Inflation Reduction Act, fossil fuel industries, and convey information about the benefits of plant-based diets that emit less planet-warming emissions.

They hope to educate people about the climate crisis, relieve anxiety with laughter and give people hope. And although the impacts of climate change are deadly and devastating, experts say using humor to talk climate is an important part of the larger ecosystem of how it’s communicated.

“If we’re engaging these students in creative climate communication through comedy, they just don’t have room for their anxiety,” Osnes-Stoedefalke says.

Here, students learn how information about climate issues and solutions can be conveyed creatively.

They have virtual guest talks by professional comedians and producers, and work on their own sketch comedy or stand-up routines, which they later perform at the annual “Stand Up for Climate Comedy” showcase.

Climate comedy can also be used to make sense of the political moment.

This article and video were provided by The Associated Press.

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[Professor guiding climate comedy class warm-up]

[Students jumping in place]

Students doing loosening up exercises]

Beth Osnes-Stoedefalke (interview): “If we’re engaging these students in creative climate communication through comedy, they just don’t have room for their anxiety.”

[Students doing facial and vocal warm-ups]

Beth Osnes-Stoedefalke (interview): “So climate change is this huge big conglomerate of an issue, problem, crisis that we’re all facing, and there’s no one single solution. So comedy can get into those little nuanced spaces where the reality of how we’re going to actually make change can live.”

[Osnes-Stoedefalke giving class instructions]

[Students listening]

[Maxwell Boykoff speaking with small group of students]

Maxwell Boykoff (interview): “These are large-scale, complex challenges that require interdisciplinary responses. So we’re training students in ways that help them address, from their own perspectives and their own skillsets, competencies, capacities, to be able to address them within these groups. So coming together with a theatre professor and then myself is a way that we can demonstrate, we can embody how it takes that kind of coordination, it takes that teamwork in order to affect positive change.”

[Student in face mask practicing stand-up in small group]

[Student laughing]

[Student practices stand-up]

[Calderon from behind, addressing peers in group]

Bianca Calderon (interview): “I think that’s the best way to get information out to the public, because I think when we laugh, that kind of like sticks in our brain of like, ‘Oh my gosh it was so funny, so now I’m going to remember it.’”

[Calderon laughing]

[Lilianna Grill, practicing sketch with classmates]

[Lilianna Grill laughing]

[Students discussing sketch with Osnes-Stoedefalke]

[Student in group doing bee impression]

Lilianna Grill (interview): “I think our generation gets so bogged down with like the problem of it all and the catastrophe of it all and we don’t have a very clear solution to be like what feels good about this? What can we feel good about within climate? And comedy kind of lets us like explore what there is to be positive about what there is to be serious about but not necessarily present it in such a serious manner in a way that makes us really upset.”

[Grill listening to professor]

Lilianna Grill (interview): “I’m not just coming in here every day and being like, ‘Oh my God there’s a problem.’ It’s like, ‘Oh my God there’s this problem, what can I do about it to make it funny and then show it to other people?’”

[Students laughing and practicing sketch in group]

Maxwell Boykoff (interview): “We can think about hopes and dreams and ambitions. We can also think about fears and worries and woe. And so how can we tap into all this together in order to move the needle in order to make progress on climate change as a collective?”

[Students touch finger tips together and laugh]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.