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Programme
Completed ClimateComedyHealthTelevision

Laughing Matters

Finding the Funny in Climate and Health
How can comedy help audiences engage with climate and health, without sacrificing humour, creativity or entertainment?

That was the question behind Laughing Matters, an 18-month initiative delivered by OKRE and funded by Wellcome.

Working directly with the UK comedy community of writers, producers, commissioners, agents performers and academic researchers, the programme explored how climate and health themes can become a source of inspiration for mainstream comedy rather than a barrier to it.

Through research, industry engagement, creative development and broadcast partnerships, Laughing Matters demonstrated that climate and health can enrich storytelling, strengthen characters and generate fresh comedic possibilities.

CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS

Climate change is many things - terrifying, complex, dramatic. But funny?

The programme set out to test two common assumptions: that climate change is too bleak to be funny, and that researchers would be reluctant to see their work explored through comedy. Over five interconnected strands of activity, Laughing Matters found strong evidence that neither assumption holds true. Instead, climate and health themes proved to be creatively generative, opening up new possibilities for stories, settings and characters.

Researching what already works

The first strand of the programme examined how climate-adjacent themes already appear in successful television comedy. A report produced with Climate Spring analysed a wide range of mainstream comedy titles and identified recurring storytelling patterns and creative approaches. Rather than focusing only on programmes explicitly about climate change, the research explored how climate-related experiences already surface in everyday stories, relationships and conflicts.

The resulting report distilled these findings into a practical set of creative strategies that writers and producers could use in their own work. It also provided evidence that climate themes are compatible with commercially successful, audience-focused comedy.

Finding The Funny

Report ClimateComedy

Comedy & Climate report

Eight creative strategies
for climate comedy
In collaboration with:
View Report
“Creating the strategies report revealed the latent radicalism of the sitcom format itself. The ‘situation’ is an arena through which thematics can be explored and their impacts on characters shown without the need to verbalise or discuss them in a didactic way.”

Matt Nida

Laughing Matters Programme Manager, BAFTA-winning comedy producer

Listening to the comedy industry

Six roundtables brought together 54 writers, producers, agents, performers, broadcasters and commissioners to explore how climate themes might work in comedy. Across the discussions a remarkably consistent picture emerged: audiences respond to compelling characters, recognisable situations and strong comic worlds, not issue-led storytelling. Climate themes were seen as most effective when woven naturally into contemporary life.

One producer captured the prevailing sentiment: 

‘You can bake it into the world, you can normalise it, but you wouldn’t pitch it as ‘this is a show that’s going to tackle climate change’

Participants also highlighted comedy’s ability to connect with audiences emotionally and make difficult subjects feel more accessible. 

‘I think comedy creates the quickest way to connect to someone, in the fewest words. It can be the most memorable… more than serious, heavy lecturing.’ – Agent

Connecting researchers and creatives

In September 2025, OKRE hosted Climate and Comedy Cocktails, an innovative networking event designed to connect comedy creatives with climate and health researchers. Using a speed-dating format, 48 attendees explored topics including heat, food systems, infectious disease, flooding, mental health and climate solutions.

 

Researchers gained opportunities to contextualise their work for new audiences, while creatives discovered fresh story possibilities grounded in real-world issues. Participants spoke of increased confidence from the event in understanding climate and health issues and in recognising the comedic potential of these themes.

Bringing academic expertise into Twenty Twenty Six

The programme also demonstrated how expert insight can enrich commissioned comedy through its partnership with the BBC sitcom Twenty Twenty Six, written and directed by John Morton, creator of Twenty Twelve and W1A. 

OKRE supported the production by connecting the creative team with climate and health experts working on heat, sustainability, air quality, sporting events and human health. The advice informed storylines, world-building and character development while leaving complete editorial control with the production team and broadcaster.

 

'The idea that there are people out there who are gently reaching across genres and across platforms to say, ‘We’re here, and if you end up in this territory, we can connect you to the real people,’ is incredible.'

John Morton

Writer, executive producer and director 'twenty Twenty Six'

Supporting new comedy development

The final strand was the Laughing Matters Fellowship, a £50,000 development fund programme that awarded ten grants of £5,000 to writers, producers and creators developing original comedy projects with climate and health themes. The Fellowship supported projects ranging from sitcoms and comedy-dramas to animation, digital content and feature film concepts.

Participants worked closely with climate and health experts through workshops, one-to-one sessions and ongoing development support. The most successful collaborations went far beyond fact-checking, using expert insights to deepen characterisation, strengthen worlds and unlock new sources of humour and conflict.

A new model for climate and comedy

One of the programme’s most significant outcomes was the development of the Laughing Matters Model. Rather than treating climate change as a standalone subject, the model encourages creators to start with compelling worlds, situations and relationships, then consider how climate-driven health impacts might affect those characters.

This shift in perspective proved transformative. By focusing on lived experiences such as heat, flooding, food systems, mental health and infectious disease, writers were able to approach climate through relatable human stories instead of abstract environmental debates.

Across research, industry engagement, broadcast production and creative development, Laughing Matters demonstrated a genuine appetite within the comedy sector to engage with climate and health. More importantly, it showed that doing so can improve creative work rather than constrain it

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