Humour Can Help Clear the Air on India's Pollution Crisis

Two recent events put Mumbai’s air quality crisis in the spotlight. The first went viral when tech billionaire Bryan Johnson abruptly walked out of Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath’s podcast, blaming Mumbai’s polluted air for triggering rashes on his skin.  

The second was a striking headline from a prominent Hindi newspaper in Jharkhand: “Jamshedpur’s air worse than Mumbai, Chief Minister orders probe.”  

The takeaway from both? Delhi is no longer the sole poster child of India’s air pollution crisis. Cities like Mumbai, Jamshedpur, and many others are grappling with toxic air, yet the national conversation remains fixated on Delhi—unless, of course, a high-profile figure is affected.

This underscores the need for a broader approach to shaping environmental discourse. To effectively mainstream air quality concerns, we must integrate them into various forms of communication—including art, music, pop culture, and everyday conversations. 

Why I Believe in the Power of Humour

“Buildings called ‘Sea View’ are now called ‘If you can see the view’.”

“The air pollution is so bad, the air purifier in my room said ‘dy-son’.”

"There are 50 shades of grey in the dust all around in Andheri."

"Roosters may be the wake-up call in some cities, but in Mumbai, construction noise is my alarm."

These were some of the punchlines shared by 20 leading comics at ‘Laughs Per Minute: Breathless Edition’, an air pollution-themed stand-up show in Mumbai. The 300-odd audience was as diverse as the city itself—18-year-old college students, 65-year-old retirees, lawyers, teachers, and artists—all laughing together. What connected them wasn’t just humour but a shared reality: they are all living with the consequences of air pollution.

The event, Mumbai’s first stand-up show dedicated to air pollution, was designed to bring a fresh approach to climate communication. Instead of heavy policy discussions or alarmist narratives, it used satire to make the crisis more tangible and relatable. The show aimed to spark conversations outside the usual expert circles, engaging those who might otherwise see air pollution as a distant or overly technical issue.

For the general public to take air quality seriously, they need to understand it better. But for them to understand it, information must be made more accessible. For years, air pollution discourse has been limited to academics, researchers, and policymakers. Conversations and discussions have been restricted to the same echo chambers.

We need to move beyond jargon-filled discussions, beyond images of Mumbai’s skyline vanishing behind a layer of dense smog, and beyond routine news headlines. We need to humanise the impact of air pollution to communicate its urgency effectively.

What better tool than humour to achieve this

A Proven Strategy for Public Engagement

The first time I witnessed the power of stand-up comedy in influencing national discourse was in 2015, during India’s net neutrality debate. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had invited public comments on the proposed Net Neutrality Bill but had received only a few hundred responses. Then, AIB—India’s most popular comedy collective at the time—released an explainer video breaking down the bill. Within 48 hours, about one million comments flooded TRAI’s inbox.

This happened because a group of comedians simplified the issue, gave people information, agency, and a call to action—wrapped in humour.

Now, imagine a similar movement to push air pollution beyond its current status as a “Delhi problem.”

A Chance to Shift Focus Beyond Delhi

Stand-up comedy has the potential to transcend demographic and cultural boundaries—bringing conversations on air pollution beyond Delhi and Mumbai, into smaller cities and towns where the crisis is equally severe but receives little attention.

India’s stand-up scene, though just a decade old, has exploded in the last five years, with sold-out shows across tier-II and tier-III cities. New videos emerge almost weekly, garnering millions of views across topics like relationships, jobs, marriage, politics, traffic, and infrastructure. Perhaps now, air pollution can enter the mix.

Take this as an opportunity to address the pollution crisis in smaller cities like Bhiwadi, Patna, Meerut, and Hisar—places that consistently rank among India’s most polluted but barely get national media coverage. In these places, where pollution concerns take a backseat to immediate livelihood challenges, stand-up comedy—one of India’s fastest-growing entertainment forms—could offer a refreshing way to engage audiences.

During Laughs Per Minute: Breathless Edition, jokes that referenced Mumbai’s pollution resonated with the audience because they reflected daily struggles. But humour’s power goes beyond metro cities. Imagine a comic from Jamshedpur quipping about how “AQI is just another way to check if you need to buy oxygen today.” Or a Durgapur-based stand-up artist joking about how their air is so dusty, it comes pre-marinated with industrial soot.

Using humour to discuss air pollution can spark conversations beyond the stage—making an issue often dismissed as “too serious” or “too urban” a topic of everyday dialogue.

The Challenge and the Opportunity

Of course, employing comedy to tackle a grave issue like air pollution comes with its challenges. There is a fine line between humour and trivialisation. One must tread this line carefully to avoid diminishing the gravity of the situation, which directly impacts the health and livelihoods of millions.

However, comedy also offers an opportunity to communicate the crisis thoughtfully and responsibly, amplifying the urgency of action. It can engage those who might otherwise tune out when confronted with dire statistics and bleak headlines.

More than just a one-time experiment, concepts like Laughs Per Minute demonstrate how comedy can serve as an effective climate communication tool. By making air pollution a topic of entertainment, we can encourage more people—across cities and demographics—to take it seriously.

In the battle against air pollution, we need all hands on deck—including comedians wielding microphones.

So why not embrace laughter as a tool for change, not just as a form of escapism?

After all, in a country where the air is thick with pollutants, a little levity might be exactly what we need to clear the air.

Brikesh Singh is the Convenor of Clean Air Collective and Chief of Communications and Engagement at Asar. He also ideated Laughs Per Minute, India’s first stand-up comedy show dedicated to air pollution, using humour as a tool for climate communication.