No joke: Comedy can play a serious role in closing the political divide.  

On October 21, the School of Communication’s Center for Media and Social Impact (CMSI) hosted Comedy Saves Democracy, the first of two events it’s staging as one of the Kennedy Center’s six community partners for its 2023–24 social impact and comedy programs. The sold-out event, featuring six diverse comics from across the country, was produced and directed by Caty Borum, executive director of CMSI, and Bethany Hall, SOC comedian in residence. 

“The issues that we face in this country—the climate crisis, racial injustice, gender equity—are profoundly difficult to address so long as we remain polarized,” Borum says. “At the heart of democracy is the belief that people can work together.”

That’s not a punchline—but bipartisanship can start with one. Standups are particularly adept at rallying people together around a common goal: to laugh. They must listen to the audience, cross ideological divides to connect with others, and push through a joke that falls flat.

“Comedians have to get people to laugh with them,” Borum says. “If you go into a community that is not like your own and you can’t get people to laugh, you have failed. You have bombed.”

Among the standups who worked the mic at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage was Corey Ryan Forrester, who poked fun at his Georgia roots while also ribbing the liberal elite who look down on Southerners. 

“There are a lot of people who are like, ‘Oh, everybody in Georgia is a [expletive] racist. Well, you’re welcomefor the election,” he said, referring to the 2020 presidential race in which the Peach State went for Democrat Joe Biden by about 12,000 votes.

“Even when Georgia doesn’t go blue, it’s always 50/45. So that means 45 percent of the people that you thought were the dumbest on Earth are actually on your team,” Forrester continued. “And another 10 percent would be too if you weren’t such an [expletive] about it.”

CMSI will team up with the Kennedy Center again in March for the Justice Forum, a gathering of artists,storytellers, comedians, philanthropists, and media companies to discuss the power of narrative. 

“Using comedy as a way to inspire real change is genius,” says Kate Villa, director of comedy at the Kennedy Center. “We can’t wait to laugh along with CMSI this year.”