review: green hour: “What’s the role of comedy in a climate crisis? Comedic modes in environmental narratives.”

How can comedy frame ecological topics and what role does it play in communicating the climate crisis? The American Studies scholar Dr. Linda Hess posed this question at the beginning of her talk, preparing the stage to dive deep into different modes of comedy.

Using comedy as a tool for generating insight into the climate crisis seems unusual, given the seriousness of the concern.  Little attention has been paid to the use of comedy in this context. As Linda Hess pointed out in her talk, however, black humor and irony have been used to address the ‘end-of-the-world-aspect’ of the climate crisis, in ways that serve to decentralize the anthropocentric way of looking at nature. Linda Hess gave an example of two penguins in Antarctica standing next to two humans, talking like scientists–whereas the ‘actual scientists’ are making bird sounds.

Dinosaur 1: What is this giant fireball in the sky?

Dinosaur 2: Nothing. It has always been there.