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Now in its fifth year, the Hollywood Climate Summit organizes high-energy events and coordinates creative partnerships for cross-sector media professionals to level up their climate knowledge, align strategies, deepen intersectional values, showcase innovation, and lead a cultural movement of sustained climate action.
In conversation with Ben Hurst and Maryam Pasha, Esteban Gast, comedian-in-residence at Generation180 and co-creator of the Climate Comedy Cohort, shares how he’s building a climate comedy movement to get more humour into climate storytelling through the form of mentions, moments and premises.
Conversations about climate change at the science-policy interface and in our lives have been stuck for some time. This handbook integrates lessons from the social sciences and humanities to more effectively make connections through issues, people, and things that everyday citizens care about. Readers will come away with an enhanced understanding that there is no 'silver bullet' to communications about climate change; instead, a 'silver buckshot' approach is needed, where strategies effectively reach different audiences in different contexts. This tactic can then significantly improve efforts that seek meaningful, substantive, and sustained responses to contemporary climate challenges.
Written by stand-up comedian, Dr Matt Winning, HOT MESS aims to both lighten the mood and enlighten readers on climate change. This is a book for people who care about climate change but aren't doing much about it, helping readers understand what the main causes of climate change are, what changes are needed, and what they can (and cannot) do about it. But, most importantly, it is book that'll help people find the comedy in climate change, because if we can do that, well, we can do bloody anything.
This study examined how humor experienced from viewing a video clip of a science comedian embedded in an online survey can have downstream effects on whether people view comedy as a valid source of scientific information. It found that respondents who perceived more humor in the video clip (i.e. those in the condition with audience laughter) had more positive views about comedy as a valid source of scientific information.
This study tests the effect of climate change memes on theperceived risk of climate change and the intention of onlineengagement regarding climate change issues. Results show thatexposure to climate change memes increases individual intentions ofonline civic engagement regarding climate change. Additionally,empathy is found to mediate this effect. However, risk perception ofclimate change is not altered after exposure to climate change memes.
This study examined how comedy can change the conversation about climate change. The researchers analyzed stand-up shows that focused on climate change — specifically, a video competition series at the University of Colorado called “Stand Up for Climate Change” — and tracked how the audience responded over the three years the series took place. The researchers concluded that climate comedy helps to make people more aware of climate change, brings an emotional element to the conversation, and highlights themes like problem solving and knowledge formation.
Research shows that in a time of deep polarization, comedy can lower defenses. It temporarily suspends social rules and connects people with ideas and new ways of thinking or acting. Comedy exploits cracks in arguments. It wiggles in, pokes, prods and draws attention to the incongruous, hypocritical, false and pretentious. It can make the complex dimensions of climate change seem more accessible and its challenges seem more manageable.
Joy can strengthen our resolve, help us uncover creative solutions, and bolster our resilience. It’s a statement to ourselves and the world that we are still here, undefeated. In this issue, we look at why joy is so crucial in this moment, how to make space for it, and the surprising ways people are channeling it to do better climate and justice work.
Through rich case studies, audience research, and interviews with comedians and social justice leaders and strategists, A Comedian and an Activist Walk Into a Bar: The Serious Role of Comedy in Social Justice explains how comedy – both in the entertainment marketplace and as cultural strategy – can engage audiences with issues such as global poverty, climate change, immigration, and sexual assault, and how activists work with comedy to reach and empower publics in the networked, participatory digital media age.