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 and comedy contest.
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–and most don’t know it! 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.
Meet Last Year’s Cohort
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Brad Einstein
Los Angeles, CA
Read MoreLessBrad Einstein is a comedian, writer, actor, Webby Award-winning wilderness production consultant and “Brilliant Comedy Mastermind” according to some very kind exaggerators at Time Out New York. Along with his creative partner Kyle Niemer, he is a two-time National Parks Service Artist-in-Residence. Past credits include the Second City National Touring Company, Billy on the Street, Shameless, Chicago Fire, The Onion News Network, Outside Magazine Online, and The Aspen Ideas Festival.
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David Perdue
Atlanta, GA
Read MoreLessDavid Perdue is a stand up comedian, actor, podcaster & proud southerner based in Atlanta,GA. David enjoys seeing his name spelled correctly, making his family & friends laugh, rooting for his favorite local sports teams & most importantly NOT being a former U.S. Senator.
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Harris Alterman
New York, NY
Read MoreLessHarris Alterman is a comedian from Denver currently performing in NYC. He has performed on a number of festivals including The Laughing Skull Comedy Festival, Limestone Comedy Festival, San Francisco Sketchfest, and The High Plains Comedy Festival. Harris is also the winner of the 2017 New Faces Contest at the Denver Comedy Works.
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Kyle Niemer
Chicago, IL
Read MoreLessKyle Niemer is an award-winning Chicago-based Director and federally recognized forest comedian. His work has aired nationally on Discovery, CBS and OutsideOnline; and has collaborated with noted brands across the country including HotWheels, MotorTrend and Guaranteed Rate. He is a Comedy Central Yes and Laughter Lab finalist, a two time NPS artist-in-residence and the 2022 Voice of the Wilderness recipient.
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Nikki Palumbo
Brooklyn, NY
Read MoreLessNikki Palumbo is a writer and comedian based in Brooklyn. Nikki recently wrote TikToks for Barbie (yes, that one) and previously wrote jokes for the Google Assistant (no, the other one). Nikki has contributed writing to The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, McSweeney’s, Reductress, and the MTV TV & Movie Awards: Unscripted.
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Paola Sanchez Abreu
New York, NY
Read MoreLessPaola is an actor, writer, voiceover artist, activist, and an undercover woo girl living in New York City. Her TV credits include Chicago Med, Madame Secretary, and The Code. She is also an organizer with Sunrise Movement NYC, working to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
Follow Paola on Instagram
Laugh along with us
Subscribe to The Friday Funny for a brief dose of climate humor and updates about the cohort.
The Climate Comedy Cohort (CCC) is a 9-month fellowship where comedians learn from experts and collaborate to create funny content to grab people’s attention and bring clean energy solutions to life. The idea: They learn a ton, make funny content, and keep using it in their material–even after the cohort. Our approach focuses on investing in comedians as clean energy ambassadors who are agents of change committed to climate action that lasts beyond the program.
The fellowship is led by a group of comedy writers and performers who have worked at The Tonight Show, TruTv, VICELAND, and Comedy Central, in addition to TV shows, feature films, and award-winning stand-up competitions.
Research across disciplines shows that comedy is uniquely persuasive and attention-getting when it comes to serious issues like the climate crisis. At the same time, we know there’s a fleet of diverse and passionate comedy writers and performers prepared to use their skills to improve the state of the globe. Thus far, comedy is a vastly untapped resource. It’s time to change the story.
Climate solutions and clean energy technologies are ready for mass adoption, but people are dismayed by climate gloom and doom, and widespread clean energy action isn’t happening fast enough. Should we be surprised that many of us are too freaked out to engage? Not really, especially if we know anything about the powerful role of positive emotion and simple common-sense messages for motivating action and change.
And this is where comedy comes in, to play a role it’s not yet played in the climate crisis: for hope and optimism and positive engagement, not satirical punches at climate denialism or scary messages. Here’s the big question: When we invite comedians to the crisis in a new way, what’s possible? We developed the Climate Comedy Cohort to find out.
The Team
Generation180 is a national nonprofit working to inspire and equip people to take action on clean energy. We are working to bring about a widespread cultural shift in how people get their energy, focusing on high-impact climate solutions like solar and electric vehicles. The climate comedy cohort is the newest initiative from Generation180 to use humor and creative communications to educate and inspire individuals to take action in their communities, with their shopping decisions, and at the voting booth. This includes our popular Flip The Script newsletter, original illustrations, and podcast Comedians Conquering Climate Change.
GoodLaugh is a comedy production engine and knowledge lab that brings together the most talented minds in comedy, social justice, entertainment, and philanthropy to collaborate and create comedy and research to help repair the world and build a more just, equitable future. As a program of the Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI) at American University, GoodLaugh facilitates comedy production, studies, and convenings with social justice at the core. By making new comedy, distributing new knowledge and understanding, and bringing together unlikely players to leverage humor for social good, GoodLaugh believes that “laughing in the face of injustice” can solve, well, almost anything.
The Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI), based at American University’s School of Communication, is a creative innovation lab and research center that creates, studies, and showcases media for equity, social change, and social justice. We are a “think and do” organization: In collaboration with leading social justice organizations and movement leaders, entertainment media companies, and philanthropy, we facilitate and produce research, convenings, and creative media that bolsters social change and progress around issues of racism and racial violence, environmental justice, gender equity, and other pressing societal challenges.