Enviro-messaging is no joke

Written By Craig Reardon

Poster available for Green Tips by Rohan Chak on GreenHumour.com

By Nicolle K

Warning - Nudity Displayed at the Bottom (Literally)

Since the emergence of the mass media, comedy has often been used as a powerful means of making or underscoring a point – in our case, to illustrate an environmental folly on the part of a company, government or an individual.

British comedian Paul Foot waxes zaney and lyrical about current issues – maybe it’s time for you to find a new woman (or later he corrects himself about partners) if your critically endangered Rhino Horn is the only thing that’s ‘doing it for you’ (reworded to protect his far funnier phrasing!)   

Comedian Michael Hing who appeared at our Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April, 2023 spins that the cigarette companies are doing the earth a favour. One; they plant trees don’t they? Two; tobacco companies do such a great job of killing many of us over-polluting humans.

Committing a murder is carbon neutral… And killing someone younger is EVEN better - “that makes (IT) a carbon credit” !

Brilliant, except one certainly hopes that people don’t take these jokes seriously!!

Environmental Themes and Products in Digital world /Film/TV/Campaigns/Advertising  

Creators of comedy, social media stories, TIK TOK productions, Youtube video, film, TV drama, digital NFT creators, and even advertisers may instil environmental messages in to the plot-line of a scene, play, programme, video or advertisement.  These may be overt or just subtle messages, and for our purposes we might refer to these as Eco-screening. They might take the form of a deliberate direct campaign or more of an underlying or even subliminal message (eg placement of Who Gives A Crap Recycled Toilet paper at the top of a Shopping Bag).  

Ideally the eco screening (or environmental media) content will fall somewhere in the middle, between 'bright-siding' the cause, and an over-use of 'fear-mongering'.  

The term, ‘environmental media' includes eco-screening within its ambit. The Environmental Media Association (USA) holds annual awards ceremonies (since 1991) in relation to all manner of media containing environmental messages, prompts and content.

Eco screening can be a green backdrop, such as green products on display (solar panels, a recycling bin).  It may be incidental such as a green activity like main characters engaging in environmentally supportive actions (e-biking or taking public transport to work).  

Examples of  eco screening within the plot-line or comedy skit: Brothers and Sisters TV series: ordering in of the organic, free range turkey (Nora), several episodes about a character's involvement with a green start-up company (Sarah), Would I Lie to You comedy show (where a tortoise disappeared and turned up near a can recyling plant just before it was due to be reduced to pulp, another contestant orders in a bulk order of rechargeable batteries), Alan Carr You Tube - skit about the social prowess of free range chickens, Rhod Gilbert You Tube - expressing his frustration at not being able to buy a single loose (unpackaged) potato.  

I recall watching an episode of Australian TV series, Offspring and Nina walked in to her house carrying groceries in her reusable bags, and Dr Martin Clegg was rattling on about the various sustainable options.  More examples of eco screening are discussed in my book - Green Spin (Or) Promoting the Green Message

Also here's a fun article worth reading sourced from Grist online magazine from 'Ask Umbra' about who's the greenest character on TV. 

And, now there is the prodigious talent of Rohan Chakravarty, cartoonist (whose wonderful works are to be seen on green humour.com ).   Rohan’s cartoons feature throughout this site, and he has a website over-flowing with inspirational cartoons, products and T-shirts dedicated to conveying his concerns for wildlife and habitats endangered by industrial encroachment and climate change.

Green Cartoons 
Irony, and Sarcasm are commonly used by a range of environmental Cartoonists to convey the green message. Aside from www.Greenhumour.com  mentioned above, there’s Mike Swofford with his interest in Consumer and Climate excess. 

Seppo Leoinen's work on Sepponet, also - for his very colourful messages in his cartoons on a range of topics though he does tend to slip into his native tongue.  Both Rohan Chakravarty of Green Humour fame and Sepponet have obliged in allowing us to show their cartoons liberally on this site. 

For some EXAMPLES of effective CAMPAIGN VIDEOS about environmental issues - where humour plays a part, see below. 

Welsh Stand Up Comic, Rhod Gilbert on the frustration of packaging, and not wanting to get romantic and go travelling with his spare spud.

Follow the Frog Video (Rainforest Alliance – Products – Published 2012)

An Inconvenient Proposal – by Josh Rachlis Writer and Entertainer who uses his charm, lyrical talent, dance moves and quirky humour as his platform for plugging being green.

Weather Girl Goes Rogue 1 & 2

Both uploaded by Deep Rogue Ram. Warning: screaming occurs in these videos highlighting extreme climate change, but most would say the screams are memorable!

How can 'environmental humour' be used effectively? 
Green Humor can be used in our campaigns for: 

  • Helping our audiences to engage and empathise with green causes

  • Instilling hope, inspiration in to our campaigns, and stirring up gut reactions

  • Toning down the seriousness or gravity of the material to make it more accessible for the average person

QUESTION: Are mass campaigns which employ humour more appealing? 

ANSWER: Current social trends would say so.  With Chat Rooms, Memes, Facebook, You Tube videos, Commercial Advertising all realising the power of humour - the world has become our FUNNY OYSTER ....   so to speak.

Think Banksy and some of his socially or environmentally meaningful pranks – Sirens of the Lambs Video shows a Slaughterhouse Truck filled with Stuffed Farm Animals trundling around Manhattan, New York complete with megaphone ringing out the plaintive cries of animals going to their imminent slaughter. Tragi-comedy for some, poor taste for others.

Personally, I find it a powerful spectacle, but can see that a lot of parents with young children would find it in poor taste and liable to cause anxiety in their young ones. 

Source: Acclaimed Street Artist - Banksy NY.

Banksy and his emotionally provocative artworks pop up mysteriously around the world.

OR :

As an image, this begs the question – is the exposure of someone’s buttocks graphically an effective use of humour or effective just because of the shock value? Maybe the  message will resonate more because of the provocative nature of the image and the message it’s meant to convey. (We were unable to give an attribution for this image as it appears to have been removed from Google Search Results).

I personally prefer Josh Rachlis’ good-natured Inconvenient Proposal, seen above.  

Or you may prefer the Rainbow Alliance video, we saw above, alerting us to a memorable product campaign to save the rainforests:

Green Humour helps break down barriers, and is now seen in all walks of life including - funny educational or campaign videos on Youtube eg:

Also,

  • campaign blogs (eg Ask Umbra) and stories (internet, email) 

  • green cartoons - newspapers/website

  • more bizarre manifestations eg environmental pranks, flash mob appearances, black humour, or unconventional humour bordering on the unpleasant -  Planet Save - Point Finger Nails at Rhino Crisis. 

Eco-creative messages with humour are ideal where the subject-matter is relevant to our daily lives, such as, how we dispose of our foods/packaging,  how we manage pests and invasive species,  transportation, domestic choices, energy reduction in our homes etc.  

Humour may be less effective (even poor taste) in the context of global catastrophe such as nuclear plant disruptions or people losing their homes through sea levels rising.  It always depends on the context and the message itself. 

This is the formula (fairly tentative one we've come up with) for environmentally-friendly humour - four necessary ingredients: 

  1. Good-will factor - does the video, joke, slogan etc carry good-will inputs towards environmentalism itself, as opposed to merely satirising or lampooning environmentalism as its main objective? 

  2. In the case of videos, are the characters ones we can empathise with or identify with? In other words, does the video inspire our empathy? 

  3. Does the joke, video, slogan talk up the activity or message being promoted, rather than talking down a specific activity, and 

  4. Is the video, joke, slogan memorable, catchy or uplifting, and also funny? 

No one said environmental humor is easy to achieve - after all, our green messages can be quite prescriptive. In a nutshell, green humor/humour is fine if it's good- natured (not attacking the environmental movement or belittling people or their situations). There needs to be a strong or even subtle undertone suggestive of positive environmental action. And probably the best environmental humour is effortless and subtle and actually doesn't have to be gut-wrenchingly funny at all. 

Green Humour takes the message outside of the realms of seriousnessness and preachiness, and that's what counts.  

GREEN HUMOUR - CARTOONISTS AND WEBSITES INCORPORATING HUMOUR

This campaign idea might also apply to makers of TV advertisements which can potentially promote a green activity whilst also promoting a product.  

One possible definition for effective green campaign videos - The video:

  1. has a positive influence on behaviour change, in terms of social marketing. 

  2. incorporates aspects of education, empathy, action which I mention in my book, Green Spin (Or) Promoting the Green Message. 

  3. will usually consist of some form of story-telling 

  4. May have an element of humour making sustainability fun, and a little bit awe-inspiring.

Speaking of which, the amazing Rob Greenfield -  a very successful environmental stuntman and campaigner. 

He comes up with outrageous campaigns (involving shock and awe) like Composting on bikes, and in one Campaign he was Wearing an Entire Month’s (Average U.S) Garbage on his Back, to get the average American improving their recycling rates which are critically low compared with other Western countries.  

Rob's Waste Wearing Suit was designed by Recycle Runway, a Fashion Design Label which combines the notion of Fashion and Refashioning (Repurposing or Upcycling from Old or Vintage in to New).

Craig Reardon
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