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Earth

Can We Help Fight the Climate Crisis with Stand-Up Comedy? (cnn.com) 84

Posted by EditorDavid from the weaponized-laughter dept.
Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of climate hazards at University College London. He also writes on CNN that it's "essential" to laugh in the face of the climate crisis: If you don't laugh, you will cry, and that marks the beginning of a very slippery slope. As civilization faces a threat that dwarfs that of every war ever fought combined, and the outcome of the latest climate COP offers little hope, it's something we need — not only to remember — but to actively adopt as a weapon in our armoury to fight for a better future for our children and their children. They say that laughter is the best medicine, but weaponised comedy has the potential to do more than just make us feel good. Not only can it help inform and educate about global heating and the climate breakdown it is driving, but also to encourage and bolster action...

This is why ventures like "Climate Science Translated," which I took part in earlier this year, are so important. The British-based project — brainchild of ethical insurer Nick Oldridge and the climate communications outfit Utopia Bureau — teams climate scientists up with comedians, who 'translate' the science into bite-sized, funny and pretty irreverent chunks that can be understood, digested and appreciated by anyone.
You can see four of the videos on their web site. "Climate science is complicated," each video begins. "So we're translating it into human."

For example, last month Dr. Friederike Otto, senior lecturer on climate science at London's Imperial College, created a new video with comedian Nish Kumar: Dr. Otto: Human-caused climate change is fundamentally changing the fabric of the weather as we know it. It's leading to events which we've simply never seen before.

Comedian Kumar: Translation: Weather used to be clouds. Now we've made it into a sort of Rottweiler on steroids that wants to chew everyone's head off.

Dr. Otto: The continuing increase in global average temperature is already causing higher probabilities of extreme rainfall and flash flooding, as well more intense storms, prolonged droughts, record-breaking heatwaves, and wildfires.

Kumar: Very soon climate scientists are just going to ditch their graphs and point out the window with an expression that says, "I fucking told you!"

Dr. Otto: This is not a problem just for our children and grandchildren. This is an immediate threat to all our lives.

Kumar: I don't know if you're familiar with the film The Terminator, but if someone came from the future to warn us of this threat, they'd have travelled from next Wednesday.
And three weeks ago a follow-up video came from earth systems science professor Mark Maslin from London's University College, teaming up with comedian Jo Brand: Professor Maslin: We are heading for unknown territory if we trigger tipping points — irreversible threshholds which shift our entire ecosystem into a different state.

Comedian Brand: If you liked climate crisis, you're going to love climate complete fucking collapse...

Professor Maslin: The irony is solar and wind power are now over 10 times cheaper than oil and gas. We can still prevent much of the damage, and end up in a better place for everyone.

Brand: With wind and sun power, we save money, and don't die. It's a pretty strong selling point.

Professor Maslin: Most people actually are in favor of urgent action. The reason governments are not transitioning fast enough is because the fossil fuel industry has a grip on many politicians. In fact, governments subsidize them with our taxpayer money — over $1 trillion a year, according to the IMF.

Brand: We are paying a bunch of rich dudes one trillion dollars a year to fuck up our future. I'd do it for that money. When can I start?
Each video ends with the words "All Hands On Deck Now", urging action by voting, contacting your representative, joining a local group, and protesting.

Climate hazard professor Bill McGuire writes on CNN that he hopes to see a growing movement: As Kiri Pritchard-McLean pointedly observes: "If comedians are helping scientists out, you know things aren't going well...." There is even a "Sustainable Stand-up" course aimed at teaching comedy beginners about how climate and social issues can be addressed in their shows, and which has run in 11 countries.
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Can We Help Fight the Climate Crisis with Stand-Up Comedy? More

Can We Help Fight the Climate Crisis with Stand-Up Comedy?

Comments Filter:

  • No (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Tailhook ( 98486 ) on Saturday December 16, 2023 @11:46PM (#64086691)

    Lecturing the audience is a great plan for a standup comedian. Do that.

    • Re:No (Score:5, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Sunday December 17, 2023 @12:31AM (#64086727)

      The "jokes" are terrible and not funny at all.

      But the idea isn't so bad. In 1990, California launched a series of funny ads to reduce smoking. Comedians were encouraged to work anti-smoking material into their routines. Steve Martin joined in: "If I'm in a restaurant and I'm eating and someone says, 'Hey, mind if I smoke?' I always say, 'No. Mind if I fart?'"

      It worked. Today, California has a lower smoking rate than any state but Utah.

      I live in the SF Bay area, where leprosy is more socially acceptable than smoking.

      • I live in the SF Bay area, where leprosy is more socially acceptable than smoking.

        Depends what you're smoking.

      • The "jokes" are terrible and not funny at all.

        The "jokes" by the "comedians" are stupid, pointless and add nothing to the discussion.

      • >California has a lower smoking rate than any state but Utah.

        I guess if you don't count vaping, or weed...

        • I guess if you don't count vaping, or weed...

          California is near the middle for cannabis. Top spots are DC and Vermont. Alabama smokes the least.

          Cannabis use by state [statista.com]

          For vaping, California is near the bottom. Utah vapes the least. At the top, WV vapes the most. WV also has the most cigarette smokers.

          Vaping statistics by state [drugwatch.com]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        The "jokes" are terrible and not funny at all.

        I take it you're unfamiliar with Nish Kumar, that is to be expected. Same with Jo Brand.

        Nish Kumar's entire act is being Asian (Indian) and not being Romesh Ranganathan. Whilst a lot of comedians do make an act out of their ethnicity, there are far better ones out there (such as Ahir Shah or Eshan Akbar).

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Z80a ( 971949 )

      Visual gags like the one on robocop with the sun lotion probably work better than lecture stuff.

    • It's almost entirely comedians. Jon stewart, John oliver, The daily show, late night monologues, etc etc. I think that's because they're basically our civilization's version of Court jesters. Under normal circumstances you wouldn't really be allowed to put out significantly left-wing views because the corporate Masters that own these media outlets aren't going to take kindly to serious journalism with a left-wing bent that's consistently opposing their goals and beliefs. But it's okay when it's all just a j
  • No [wikipedia.org]
  • This is not comedy, it's cringe. See the expression "clapter".

  • Those lines weren't funny. There was one that was a tiny smirk. Not rising to a chuckle.

    If you're going to use comedy to lecture at people it better be god damned funny.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Two planets meet. The first one asks: "How are you?"
      "Not so well", the second answered "I've got the Homo Sapiens."
      "Don't worry," the other replied, "I had the same. That won't last long; they trigger a fever and then bake themselves away."

    • Exactly. It was so funny, that I forgot to laugh.

  • Clowning around to try to persuade? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 ) on Sunday December 17, 2023 @12:05AM (#64086707)

    No. Comedians of any political stripe skew heavily toward mockery by way of caricaturing $wrongthinkers as cartoonish villians or country fried rubes or nutters devoid of human dreams, loves, and weaknesses.

    This has been going on as long as I've been paying attention: Trump wants to be a king, Mike Pence wants to round up the gays, Mitt Romney enjoys cruelty to animals, McCain looks like Dracula, George W is illiterate, Bob Dole is mean (and Clinton is cool!).

    That last one came from back when I was a kid, and presumably more likely to hear the version of dumbed down for kids.

    And where have these decades of mockery gotten us? Half the people won't get their shots because they think they're being lied to about them. And the people accused of lying are openly opening about what the best way is to manipulate and coerce the population to stupid to know what's good for them.

    Brilliant!

    That last bit was sarcasm. Also heavily leaned on by Jon Stewart and his many imitators. I'm sure those 10 characters up there changed a lot of minds in exactly the way I intended.

    • Word. You have to be able to put your own thing out there, and it anyone who puts anything out there is painted up as a clown, no one can put anything out there. Mockery therefore is the ultimate form of conservatism, keeping things exactly the same when what the world needs desperately is to change. BE CRAZY

    • Trump wants to be a king,

      Dictator, not king. But only for a day.

      Oh wait that wasn't comedy that as Trump's actual words. Don't worry, I'm sure if elected he got to be dictator for a day, he'd give it up on day 2 and restore the rule of law.

      And where have these decades of mockery gotten us?

      Huh, it's mockery to quote someone's recent own words?

      • You are probably not American, or you are ignorant of how modern presidents work. Every one of them is dictator for their first day, using the power of the executive order system to change the bureaucratic rules their predecessor set up. Pretty simple really, but go ahead and panic if it makes you feel better.

        • It's amazing how Trumpanzees will "interpret" his words to try and make him not sound like ac fascist. You're now inventing your own private definition of "dictator" which isn't so bad.

          That's not what the word or Trump means.

          • I feel sorry for you. Trump is living rent free in your head and you have to make everyone and everything your enemy to keep the psychosis working. It reminds me of arguing with a Scientologist.

            Read the work of Johnathan Haidt for a good start back to sanity. The world is not out to get you and your supposed enemies are not devils.

      • Trump wants to be a king,

        Dictator, not king. But only for a day.
        Oh wait that wasn't comedy that as Trump's actual words.

        They were his actual words AND comedy. He was cracking a joke.

        If you had actually watched the Hannity giest-appearance / interview where he cracked it (and aren't too closed-minded to get it), you'd see he was promising voters he'd spend his first day writing executive orders undoing Biden's "first 24 hours" spree of orders shutting down all Trump's first-term policies, along with Biden's

    • Re:Clowning around to try to persuade? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Potor ( 658520 ) <`farker1' `at' `gmail.com'> on Sunday December 17, 2023 @05:02AM (#64086865) Journal

      No. Comedians of any political stripe skew heavily toward mockery by way of caricaturing $wrongthinkers as cartoonish villians or country fried rubes or nutters devoid of human dreams, loves, and weaknesses.

      And that's George Carlin in a nutshell. His comedy was always about showing his audience how everyone else was stupid.

      • Societal self deprecating humor is one thing. Scapegoating (they're dumb but we're smart!) hasn't been going very well.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Rexdude ( 747457 )

        His comedy was always about showing his audience how everyone else was stupid.

        No, he was an equal opportunity roaster. There was no we/they us/them dynamic, he mocked liberals and conservatives alike. Modern 'comedians' are just establishment puppets and have a long list of things that are verboten to joke about.

    • And where have these decades of mockery gotten us?

      What are you talking about? Until Political Correctness came along, black folks represented the majority of prison inmates, and income inequality amongst minority communities was staggering. Look at us now!

      You are welcome.

      You act like these dictates are not frequently checked to make sure they are having a positive effect on the targeted groups, and are not just intended to make the ruling class stronger by keeping the proletariat divided.

      Sure, conspires

  • The only way it could work is if you were telling jokes that caused the audience to literally die. The comedians could be so funny it causes fatal heart-attacks or they could be so terrible and awkward that it caused people to kill themselves, either would work. It doesn't strike me as a workable strategy.

  • That last joke was pretty funny. I can imagine Ricky Gervais stretching that one to about 5 minutes and me laughing nonstop.

  • LOL the earth is heating up and we're all gonna die LOL LOL We're all gonna bake ...LOL That's too funny .. roasting to death LOLz

  • I thought we had already decided to fight it by ignoring it.

  • When government representatives meet you know for a fact they're enjoying a foreign vacation at a luxury resort with all expenses being paid -- you know, like any of us would love to do!!!

    But yet year after year they fail to meet even the most basic of agreements. Everything is "nonbinding" and "letter of intent" and "amelioration" vs "solution". Whatever.

    Sure, a comedian can make a difference. He/she can help the regular folks understand how bad things are.

    Sadly this won't make any difference in intern

  • interconnected systems (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tom ( 822 ) on Sunday December 17, 2023 @02:51AM (#64086799) Homepage Journal

    It is, unfortunately, not that simple. We've built an entire society around fossil fuels.

    For example, trucking. The way trucking is organized requires diesel trucks. In many countries in the world, even in ones with good railroads, trucks have replaced trains because they're cheaper and can go places. The railroad companies have adapted - where it used to be simple to ship just a pallet of something by rail, these days it's hard to send even a single car. The logistics have adapted and large warehouses are not exclusively near cargo train stations anymore. The list goes on. All of that would need changing back to make electrical trucks a viable option, because they can't replace diesel trucks 1:1 due to charging times. They could replace them for last-mile delivery from a cargo train terminal, if the long-distance hauling were done by (electrical) trains.
    But we can't do that, because trucking is linked to production, with just-in-time and other supply chain optimizations built around the ability to send small amounts (just what's needed) to random destinations (not between hubs).

    Our economic and financial systems have been squeezed for every bit of optimization - at the cost of flexibility and resilience. It's possible to change them back - but it's not possible fast because the flexibility isnt there anymore, and nobody wants to be the first to move because they'll suffer from increased costs which the competition will use to push you out of the market.

    There's a lot of double-binds that prevent change there.

    • Re:interconnected systems (Score:5, Informative)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday December 17, 2023 @07:31AM (#64086943) Homepage Journal

      Our economic and financial systems have been squeezed for every bit of optimization - at the cost of flexibility and resilience.

      It was optimized for profit, not efficiency. Rail is grossly more efficient for long haul freight, but they shut down the rail in order to sell cars, trucks, buses... and fuel. Big Oil really does ruin everything.

      • You mean BIGOIL improved  everything. Unless you live in pussyville, your oil-powered Dodge HellKat VROOOOMZ down every local twisty back-country road and blows  shanks-mare &  pedel-pusherz into the ditches. That's real fun and BIGOIL allows us to enjoy it. 

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Tom ( 822 )

        It was optimized for profit, not efficiency.

        That's true.

        Rail is grossly more efficient for long haul freight, but they shut down the rail in order to sell cars, trucks, buses... and fuel.

        No conspiracy needed.

        Getting your deliveries by trucks instead of by rail means that you can build your factory wherever, and that means you can put it on the cheapest strip of land somewhere. When you already bring the stuff by truck, you can truck, load, train, unload, truck - or for many routes you can just skip the train and do the whole thing by truck. That means demand for rail drops, which leads to shutting down parts of the infrastructure, fewer economy of scale, thus increases in price

        • No conspiracy needed.

          And yet there was one [wikipedia.org]. And if you think it ended with the convictions and some literally $5 fines, no one should care about your laughable opinion on the subject.

          lots of manufacturing has moved overseas, so it comes by ship, and again rail is there only to move it the long distance from the port into some central hub in the middle of the continent, and from there it's trucked out.

          It often doesn't even do that any more. The vast majority of goods leave the port by truck directly. That's why the ports are backed up for hours and have obscene levels of pollution.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Tom ( 822 )

            Uh, your own link explains that this is about streetcars, i.e. trams. We're talking about cargo trains here. Different thing.

            It often doesn't even do that any more.

            Then it's more shitfucked then even I thought.

            It's a full-blown desaster and I hold our cheap excuses for politicians responsible, because there's no fucking reason at least half of the trucks on the road today can't be trains. Except stupid regulations, privatization of the railroad companies and the fact that with toll systems, the politicians now see long-distance trucking as a sou

  • also what crisis? Im on the ocean, and nothing has changed for centuries here.

  • People to comedy shows to takes us away from life for a brief period. Comedians that include politics, woke agenda, climate change. etc are a turn off !!!

  • Wind and solar are. 10x cheaper?
    In what universe.

    I understand that they think its a crisis, and there should be no hesitation, and we should do whatever it takes no matter the cost.

    But they simply not being honest.
    They are also not listening to legitimate concerns or criticism.

    I don't trust the. Climate extremists. It's a cult.

    • That's one of the problems with comedians when they the try convince people with jokes. They just say its a joke and doesn't need to be factually accurate. If you agree you go along with it, if don't you just disregard it or get upset that your opinion is being mocked.

      Comedians aren't smart what exactly is there qualification that makes them more informed than the average person, class clown?

  • I am sure we can *pretend* to "fight" global warming with comedy, feminism, diversity, free palestine, etc etc etc

    And as long as these disgusting, shameless hangers-on get free flights to conferences, they'll keep getting in the way of the people actually doing the work.

    Fight global warming, trendies - STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THEY WAY

    https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/cop28-rare-chance-uae-protests-palestinians-climate-action-2023-12-03/

  • Let me see if I understand this properly. Earth's billions of years of "change", with its multiple cycles of miles-deep ice ages to hothouse conditions, sea level changes hundreds of feet up and down, entire continents that have relocated, massive volcanic activity, entire mountain ranges built up and then eroded, over and over again -- all this evidence of a dynamic, adaptive system powered by a molten core of iron at 6,000 - 10,000 degrees F spinning at 1,030 mph and generating a magnetic field strong eno

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cats-paw ( 34890 )

      So you think that the transition from a temperate earth to one that was covered in miles of ice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth) could not be called a "tipping point".

      huh ? have you just invented the "no true tipping point" fallacy or something ?

      The reason climate scientists are worried about a tipping point is because we're dumping millions of years worth of carbon into the atmosphere in less than a century.

      your argument is utter nonsense. essentially your saying the earth has never experien

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Sven77 ( 5290317 )
      How well have humans survived all of those billions of years of change? Oh right... The earth will continue on just as it always has. Humans on the other hand...

    • Re:Climate "tipping points" are utter nonsense (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Wyzard ( 110714 ) on Sunday December 17, 2023 @09:45AM (#64087089) Homepage

      Show me any evidence whatsoever that this has happened in the past. And if there is none, show me the absolutely stunningly extraordinary evidence that it could possibly happen in the future. Make sure you explain how the Sun and the Earth will suddenly stop working the way they have been for billions upon billions of years.

      They won't. Nobody's saying that Earth's core will stop spinning, or that plate tectonics will cease, or that the long-term glacial cycle will end. Geologically, Earth itself will be fine in the long run.

      The concern is about biological ecosystems on the Earth, and their habitability for humans. The planet will keep ticking, but that's little comfort if humans are struggling to survive. We're at the top of a complex food chain, and disruptions to other species -- which are less adaptable than humans -- can have ripple effects that impact our ability to feed the world's population, or produce the resources we depend on for clothing and shelter. The concern about "tipping points" is things like rising temperatures causing permafrost to thaw, causing formerly-frozen biomass to decay and release greenhouse gases that raise temperatures further, thawing more permafrost. That sort of thing has the potential to become self-reinforcing if it starts.

      Earth has had a lot of natural change over its billions of years, but that change includes multiple mass extinctions. We'd like to avoid pushing the biosphere toward another one much sooner than would otherwise happen naturally.

    • Obligatory XKCD for when people say "The earth's climate has changed before"
      https://xkcd.com/1732/ [xkcd.com]

      You want evidence that a prior species' industrial production has previously destroyed Earth's ecosystem before you believe that humans can do it? That is absolute rubbish.

      The Sun and the Earth's core have nothing to do with the amount of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. The Sun will be shining and the Earth will be spinning long long after humans are gone.

      • Obligatory XKCD for when people say "The earth's climate has changed before"
        https://xkcd.com/1732/ [xkcd.com]

        You want evidence that a prior species' industrial production has previously destroyed Earth's ecosystem before you believe that humans can do it? That is absolute rubbish.

        The historical analogue of today's human caused climate change would be something akin to PETM.

        You want evidence that a prior species' industrial production has previously destroyed Earth's ecosystem before you believe that humans can do it? That is absolute rubbish.

        It is not correct to unnecessarily restrict causation in this way. What matters here is whether or not there is precedent for an outcome.

    • That's the thing about "tipping points", when then happen it's too late, you've fallen off the cliff.
      You're unscientific mind has been made and there is no possible evidence that can convince you of anything other than your theocratic bubble is reality.

    • Seems to me the theory is that anthropogenic climate change will lead to the extinction of man. So, once that happens anthropogenic climate change will eventually return to equilibrium and the earth will be a lovely place again.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      That stage is called "denial"...

  • Not just no but "really really no, that's a truly terribly idea".

    Climate change is complicated and the only way to make it sound simple is by lying. Lying, not surprisingly , makes people not believe anything you say - I seem to remember a parable involving a boy and a wolf.

  • ...I've been laughing for years at the climate catastrophists and their "repeatedly shifting goalposts of DOOM!".

    They've never not been absurd.

  • I'm more concerned about fighting the comedy crisis.

  • It starts with B-list comedians and f-bombs for laughs but as it gains momentum professional writers and more prominent comedians join in and the material improves.

    When politicians come up with slick one-liners like "drill baby drill" or lies about "saving social security by drilling more oil" it can take a while to find the language to rebut. Comedians have a way of simplifying the conversation, like the difference between a diagram and a photograph, and in time they'll give us the language tools and our o

  • > Kumar: Very soon climate scientists are just going to ditch their graphs and point out the window with an expression that says, "I fucking told you!"

    Don't need a graph to tell all the closed ski resorts that they have no snow, to to tell a polar bear that it's swimming rather than walking on ice.

    This joke might have made sense 10 years ago, but sadly we're way past that point now.

    I live in the Northeast USA where traditionally we'd get at least a couple of major snowstorms per year as well as more min

  • Nope (Score:2)

    by gweihir ( 88907 )

    But it can allow the greedy cretins driving climate change to get even more rich...

  • Standup comedy will not put an end to the climate crisis. But the climate crisis might put an end to standup comedy.

  • "solar and wind are 10x cheaper than oil and gas"

    Utter drivel China India and Africa want coal and nuclear. Not unreliable solar and wind.

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