During last week’s Becker/Rose Cafe, Prof Aaron Sachs came to talk to us about environmental humor, which at first seemed like an odd topic. Who would have thought that environmental comedy is a real thing? It was one of the more entertaining Cafe talks, as the tone and the topic of the talk itself was dark, satirical, and what Sachs deemed as “gallows humor.” I thought it was extremely interesting when Sachs pointed out how comedy is actually more effective than tragedy, as it helps make the situations feel more relatable. It’s interesting because many environmentalists like to warn people about the endangerment of the world and often this just alienates, scares, and paralyzes the people instead of encouraging them to take action. Using humor instead, it creates a more light-hearted atmosphere which is better than inducing guilt in an audience. Then Sachs proceeded to show us various clips as an example of this type of comedy. Rather dark jokes were made about overpopulation, as well as a proposal to build a safe highway for wolves. It’s difficult to strike a delicate balance when trying to inject humor to a serious topic. On one hand, it helps make the topic more palpable for larger audiences, but on the other, you don’t want to undermine the seriousness of the topic if the humor is not communicated correctly. Regardless, I really enjoyed Sachs’ talk and I appreciate the new perspective when approaching these issues.