Tim Robinson Takes On Climate Change, ‘I Think You Should Leave’ Style
We all know Tim Robinson as the irreverent weirdo from Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave. Now he’s putting his comedic talent to use fighting climate change!
Earlier this week, Robinson starred in a short called “You Expect Me to Believe That?!?,” produced by Yellow Dot Studios, a nonprofit that combats misinformation. In the sketch, Robinson plays Ted Rack, a mild-mannered American who tries to jazz up climate change messaging so that ordinary people can understand what’s at stake.
The sketch also stars Henri Drake, PhD, a real earth systems scientist at the University of California, Irvine. Rack dresses Drake up in a football jersey with a hilarious number on it, and then tries to wrap his mind around complicated concepts like “we’re all going to die unless we stop this global disaster right now.”
This isn’t the first time a comic actor has used their talents to address a pressing social issue. Remember that time Paul Rudd begged young people to wear masks during Covid? He held a skateboard and used slang and everything!
More recently, there was the time Nick Offerman dressed up as soil to promote sustainable farming practices!
On one hand, videos like these demonstrate the increasing desperation of trying to educate the public about life or death issues. Climate change is literally killing people! It could kill us all! How many people would have survived Covid if more people had worn masks? Trying to get people to care about this stuff can be maddening.
On the other hand, if we have to resort to drastic measures to make people take climate change seriously, I’m glad that Yellow Dot and Robinson had the idea to do it through comedy. I don’t know if one video will have a measurable effect, but maybe, just maybe, the broader strategy could move the dial a little? Maybe?
Because at this point, frankly, I don’t have any better ideas.
(featured image: Netflix)
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