Our planet solely has a decade left to forestall irreversible harm from local weather change, however a gaggle of comedians have a reasonably good concept: “Let’s not die!”
On April 29, in West Hollywood, CA, a stacked solid of comedians are headlining a “Let’s Not Die!” present — they usually’re embracing “local weather doom” head on. The lineup consists of Nick Kroll, Nikki Glaser, Aparna Nancherla, Esteban Gast, Maya Might, and Sean O’Connor.
Proceeds from the occasion will go to Yellow Dot Studios, a nonprofit based and led by Adam McKay, the director and author behind a protracted listing of credit that embody “Don’t Look Up,” “Vice,” “Step Brothers,” “Anchorman,” and “Succession.”
Along with their stay fundraiser occasion, Yellow Dot Studios has produced a slate of filmed sketches within the final 12 months, impressed by McKay’s “Humorous or Die” sketch comedy roots.
In January, “I Suppose You Ought to Depart” star Tim Robinson teamed up with Yellow Dot Studios to movie a sketch referred to as “You Anticipate Me To Consider That?”
Within the comedy sketch, Robinson performs a TV host named Ted Rack, who asks earth system scientist Henri Drake to stage with him on climate-based analysis, in a approach that “regular guys” like him can perceive.
One other current sketch — impressed by “The Recreation of Thrones” — options Rainn Wilson as a local weather scientist who’s trying to teach the rulers of Westeros on the hazards of the “Huge Oil Alliance:” Exxon Mobil, British Petroleum, Shell, and Chevron.
Again and again, Yellow Dot Studios makes use of comedy as a software to take purpose on the largest forces behind air pollution, greenhouse gasoline emissions, and environmental destruction.
In an interview with the Guardian, McKay mentioned that the dialogue round climate-based analysis from the scientific group is commonly medical and well mannered regardless of the urgency that it requires.
“It creates this type of skilled language that’s devoid of quite a lot of populist vitality…of anger, unhappiness, laugh-out-loud comedy, absurdism,” McKay mentioned.
In the end, for McKay, he envisions Yellow Dot Studios as a platform to interact with viewers on local weather justice in a approach that conjures up catharsis and motion.
And for any political leaders, lobbyists, and magnates watching, McKay is completed with notions of “let’s make good.”
“They solely reply to stress,” mentioned McKay.
Properly, stress and slightly pageantry.
The “Let’s Not Die!” occasion marks the primary time Yellow Dot Studios has staged a stay comedy occasion, however the headliners aren’t any stranger to local weather change jokes.
“I all the time say I don’t need youngsters [because] I don’t need them to endure throughout the mass-extinction that local weather change will quickly deliver,” Glaser posted on X, previously referred to as Twitter.
“However then once more it’d be good to have slightly one who appears like me to hang around with throughout all of the mayhem & loss of life [because] my telephone probs received’t have service.”
Kroll additionally riffed on local weather denial in a TikTok the place he performed “Greta Thunberg’s father.”
“Hey, it’s me, Greta Thunberg’s father Marc,” he mentioned in a Swedish accent, as coronary heart filters framed his face. “I simply wished to say I don’t agree with my daughter…local weather change is a hoax. I like utilizing plastic bottles. I believe fossil fuels are the good fossils.”
Locals hoping to nonetheless snag tickets to the “Let’s Not Die!” stay comedy present can go to the venue’s web site.
For $30, a ticket will get attendees into what Yellow Dot Studios is asking a really “sizzling” present.
In an instagram caption, the group teased: “That is going to be the most well liked present since… [checks notes on 10 straight months of record hot global temperature, 390 days of record hot global oceans, 3 straight years of near-record low antarctic ice, highest CO2 in 3 million years]… it is gonna be sizzling!”
Header picture courtesy of Yellow Dot Studios
