Comic Relief Declares Entire Zip Codes Temporary Comedy Zones, Residents Required to Laugh at Set Times
Comic Relief's new Neighborhood Festivals initiative has escalated: entire Los Angeles and Philadelphia neighborhoods are now designated Comedy Zones, with residents required to attend and laugh on a schedule.
Comic Relief has declared entire residential blocks in Los Angeles and Philadelphia to be temporary Comedy Zones, requiring every resident within the designated boundaries to attend neighborhood festivals and produce laughter at scheduled intervals, the organization announced Monday.
The inaugural event, staged on the Paramount Pictures Studio Lot, featured a rotation of comedians performing on flatbed trucks that then drove through adjacent streets, where residents had been instructed to stand on their porches and laugh at volume levels measured by decibel meters held by volunteers. Those who failed to reach the required laughter threshold were handed a pamphlet on the health benefits of mirth and assigned a follow-up session.
«We are not asking people to enjoy themselves,» said a Comic Relief coordinator. «We are asking them to participate in the eradication of childhood poverty through the disciplined application of amusement. A chuckle is a donation. A guffaw is a grant.»
The organization has trained a corps of 300 laughter marshals who will patrol the festival perimeter, ensuring that no silence persists for more than four consecutive minutes. Residents who cannot attend due to work have been issued personal comedy devices that play a recording of a live audience, which they are encouraged to activate during their commute.
In Philadelphia, the festival route has been extended to include a stretch of row homes where organizers have installed speakers on lampposts, broadcasting punchlines every hour on the hour. Local community groups have been enlisted to distribute schedules so that residents may plan their laughter around meal times and school pickups.
Next month, Comic Relief plans to expand the program to three additional cities, with a target of converting a combined 40 city blocks into what it calls permanent zones of structured cheer. «Eventually, we hope the laughter becomes self-sustaining,» the coordinator added, «and the volunteers can go home.»
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