Climate Comedy Cohort
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.
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. 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 the 2023 Cohort
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.
Meet the Co-Creators
Generation180 is a national nonprofit working to inspire and equip people to take action on clean energy in their homes and communities.
Momentum for clean energy and climate action is at a high point and growing, putting us on the verge of a cultural shift away from fossil fuels toward a cleaner, healthier, more equitable future for everyone. Generation180 works to accelerate this shift by providing individuals with clear pathways to action and popularizing a new narrative of agency and hope. The Climate Comedy Cohort is the newest initiative from Generation180 to use cultural strategies like comedy and creative communications rooted in behavior science to inspire climate action.
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.