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15 May 2008

Laugh? I nearly caused irreversible anthropogenic climate change!

Posted by: Henry Hicks

Laugh? I nearly caused irreversible anthropogenic climate change!

Nice piece in last week's Guardian about comedians' attempts to make climate change funny and just how bloomin' difficult it is.

Comedy can be a powerful tool for societal change but it often needs a 'something' or a 'someone' to rail against - politicians, railway operators, religion etc.

Perhaps one of the (many, many) challenges facing climate comedy is the fact that the biggest and most obvious 'someone' or 'something' to pick as the comedic subject is the environmental movement itself. This can lead to ill informed but persuasive rants against nanny states and environmentalists with ulterior motives.

Picking on environmentalists a much easier approach than admitting that we are all responsible for tackling climate change and need to address it. And, let's face it, we probably deserve it a bit - we do take ourselves a bit seriously sometimes (perhaps with good reason!).

But comedy is also a way of laughing at ourselves, as individuals and as a society. It's perhaps one of the only ways you can actually point out the value action gap in people's behaviours (the everyday hypocrisies, the stupid stuff we all do) without being told to sod off and mind our own business (also called psychological reactance).

Telling someone they're stupid or wrong and having them laugh and agree with you is rare and powerful magic. And a vital communications tool for behaviour change.

So tell us a joke.

If we get enough Tash and I have a pet project to set up a climate change comedy festival. The winning entry can have a headline slot. 

Comments (1)
  1. Laurie Bennett said on 15 May 2008 13:23:51

    I recommend the following from the artful piss-takers at The Onion:Giant greenhouse built over nation blamed for climate change http://www.theonion.com/content/radio_news/giant_greenhouse_built_over Nation's snowmen march against global warming http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nations_snowmen_march_against Addressing Climate Crisis, Bush Calls For Development Of National Air Conditioner http://www.theonion.com/content/news/addressing_climate_crisis_bush

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