Is climate change funny?
No it is not, it is a serious thread for the planet and mankind. People, animals, and whole ecosystems will die, and we do little to nothing to prevent this collapse.
Why Climate Change Humor Feels Wrong—But Isn’t
So why not laugh about it.
In this article I write about, why it is not only allowed to laugh and make jokes about climate change. I explain, why it is necessary. I will also try to establish, which jokes are ok and which are not. And I will tell some jokes.
Like this one:
We haven’t found a solution for climate change yet, but…
…we’re definitely getting warmer.
If you are desperate for a laugh, if you can’t have all the negativity about climate change anymore or if you are in rage because I think making fun of the apocalypse is ok, this article is for you.
Alternatively, you can listen to the podcast and watch the video on YouTube.
Even in the darkest times, people made jokes. May it be the concentration camp, the deathbed or during the pandemic.
It helps us to release anger, handle fear, or make us understand what is happening.
Humor is a great valve for all kinds of difficult situations. In fact, studies suggest that climate humor can help people process the crisis more effectively, reduce resistance, and even find common ground with those who think differently source.
But as helpful it is for some people, as inappropriate, others find humor in dark times.
The Emotional Chaos of the Climate Crisis
Climate change is probably the most complex crisis since human have conquered the planet. It is so big and so threatening that it is hardly understandable for one single person.
Nor is it for all mankind.
I wrote more about why, despite being the biggest crisis we face, we still struggle to respond meaningfully to it in The Biggest Crisis of it All.
People have different kinds of strategies to handle this uncertainty.
Different Ways People Cope With Climate Despair
Some try to get all the information and understand what is happening. Which can be very overwhelming for a crisis that affects all our systems.
Others are just ignoring it or, worse, deny it.
Yet another group is in rage because those who caused this crisis aren’t getting punished for it. They still prevent the world from fighting climate change. And worst of all, they profit from it.
I guess a part of me is still in this group.
When Humor Becomes a Survival Strategy
And then there are those, who make fun of the climate change. It’s their way to cope with what’s going on.
I actually wrote more personally about this in my Substack post, How Funny is the End of the World. If you’re into dark comedy, existential dread, and the occasional sliver of hope—subscribe to get my future takes straight to your inbox.
Or read Can you make jokes about the climate crisis?, a sort of spiritual sibling to this article where I touched on this idea more directly.
Of course, like everything else, it is a spectrum. You can be in one or more groups. You can also switch. Furthermore, you may begin with studying the climate crisis, become enraged and final find your way to humor, since everything else was senseless.
There are also different kinds of humor you can fall into. Sarcasm and cynicism seem to be the major genres of climate crisis comedy.
Followed by dark humor.
A study in Environmental Communication even analyzed online climate change humor and found it often reflects both resistance and denial—proving how complicated and layered this kind of comedy can be. source
While I like these genres a lot, I think there is one missing. A more optimistic one.
But maybe it’s naive of me to think that optimistic comedy is possible in times like this.
I guess there are no optimistic jokes about the holocaust. Another very dark time in our history.
And also a very comedic one.
Already during World War 2, there were comedians making fun of the Nazis. But particularly in the aftermath of the war, many Jewish comedians handled the horrific experiences with humor.
Often they were the first ones who even talked about it. They not only helped themselves understand what happened, but also many others, who could find words to express themselves. It was therapeutic.
This gets me to my next point.
What Jokes Are OK? And Who Gets to Tell Them?
It’s important who tells the jokes, who makes fun of whom.
There were also Nazi Comedians who made fun of Jews and all the other victims of the regime.
This wasn’t ok, not funny, and mostly propaganda.
Some may argue, they had to do it to survive, but I don’t believe that.
In a crisis, but not only then, you cannot make fun of the victims. This is not funny, only rude. The only ones who can make fun of the victims are the victims themselves.
Everyone can make fun of Nazis, but not of people dying in concentration camps. I don’t believe you can make a good joke about it. Some do it and label it as dark humor just to cover it that they are rude.
So it is important who tells the joke, and who is the target of the joke.
So let’s tell one. Or rather, I let a real comedian tell it. It’s one of my favorite jokes.
Punching Up vs. Kicking Down in Climate Comedy
In the Holocaust, it was easy to target the offenders.
In the climate crisis, it appears to be harder. Because we all are offenders on one hand and victims on the other. But some more than others.
The fossil fuel industry, the agricultural industry, the car industry, the aviation industry and certain politicians are certainly more on the offenders side than the victims one.
Europeans, North American and people from some Asian countries have contributed an enormous amount more than indigenous people or African people.
But the later two suffer more from climate change than we do.
So it’s ok to make fun of the oligarchs and other corrupt elites, It’s ok to make fun of people from rich countries, but not from poor countries. It’s ok to make fun of ourselves.
I think it’s also ok to make fun of the climate change itself.
Yes, You’re Allowed to Be Offended—And So Is Everyone Else
Now a short digression:
I don’t make rules about what you are allowed to say and what not. I truly believe you are allowed to make fun of everything. Even if you offend people.
First, because you can’t prevent that anyone will be offended.
Second, because offense is often necessary for progression.
But you shouldn’t get offended because people are offended by you. Every action gets a reaction, and as you are allowed to say whatever you want, so are those who you talk to.
What kind of jokes you tell, says a lot about you.
So, if it pleases you, make fun of the victims, but don’t be miffed, if you get a strong reaction.
End of digression.
How we argue—or joke—about complex things says just as much. I played with that idea in Pro and Contra – What Is Better?.
I think the best comedy is when the 1% are the target. Or even the upper 10%. Doing proper math, it should be ok for the lower 51% to make fun of the upper 49%.
It’s always about punching up and not kicking down.
Can Humor Spark Climate Action?
Especially with a crisis as big as climate change. We need humor to handle it. Maybe even to canalize our rage in the right direction. To relieve ourselves from the devastation.
Make fun of the victim-side inside of us, is the wrong thing to do.
We cannot only make fun of climate change, we need to.
It helps us. Humor brings us together, and it can even help us to spark action. It can motivate people to do something.
This is also true for the system change we want to achieve.
I’ve tried to sketch out what that kind of system might look like in The Definition of the Good System.
Dark Humor, System Change, and Why We Still Need to Laugh
I don’t think fatalism will get us any further. It has an absolute raison d’être for people who are currently at this stage.
If you’re struggling with that same sense of fatalism, I explored it more deeply in Is it too late to fight the climate crisis?.
But I think only humor can help us get out of this mess.
Or war.
There it is the dark humor.
My name is Ian DeBay.
I am the founder of iandebay.com. I am a content creator, blogger, podcast, YouTuber. This is my blog where I talk about system change, sustainability and other fun stuff.
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