20 YEARS OF PROVEN SOLUTIONS ALREADY BRANDED FOR COMEDIANS:
AI SAFETY / DISINFORMATION / FREE SPEECH / PRIVACY / FIXING OUR COLLEGES FAST

AI ISN'T FUNNY: BACKSTAGE

#1 Our 20 year Manhattan Project -- dozens of top world experts, thousands of students, artists, lawyers, and teachers --

is (as expected) now the last bipartisan and nationally-scalable solution standing.

We saw 2025 coming for two decades and didn't take a dime from MAGA, DNC, RNC, or DEI. This is a fire drill for us.

#2 The punchline is: We were 20 years ahead -- and still have a wide open lane -- because we built it with/for comedians.

Literally: Goddam Norm jokes & old Colbert/Daily Show bits.

And because you all have been our 'in case of emergency, break glass" option since 2005, we figured out to showrun/turn AI advocacy/higher ed into 80s Letterman and scale it. Very fucking fast.

  • #3 So we want to spin off AI Isn't Funny as it's own non-profit for the "Comedy Industrial Complex" ...


    ...and give comedians their proper seat at the AI table,

    Carson in the 80s leverage (via our IP and gameplans),

    and the tools to collaboratively showrun a multi-industry techo dumpster fire...to protect your own asses and help the actual experts unfuck this mess fast.

  • That video right above you is the best ten minutes you are going to watch/hear re: fixing/surviving 2025.

    Here's our only ask:

    Instead of doomscrolling on bullshit that won't work, give us 3-10 minutes to explain:


    Why comedy is key to AI.


    How to win this ballgame

    Why comedians/Norm are the best hope for post-AI humanity/democracy

  • THE CAVALARY AIN'T COMING FOLKS. WE WERE IN THE CAVALRY. THEY AIN'T COMING.

    But whoever controls "AI Alignment" controls the next century.

    And we'd rather try to Caddyshack this shitshow -- and go down swinging -- than live in a world of all Don Ohlmeyers and no Norms. Which is exactly where we are headed.

    BECAUSE AI ISN'T FUNNY (DON'T ACTUALLY CLICK, IT JUST SOUNDED GOOD) 
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PRESS and MEDIA

CBS: MINNEAPOLIS
FORBES
NBC: MINNEAPOLIS
(SACREMENTO, TOLEDO, HOUSTON)
HUMAN LAWYER
OMAHA-WORLD HERALD
PIONEER PRESS
NEBRASKA PUBLIC TELEVISION
NEXT GENERATION POLITICS
AI AND YOU / OUR BLACK NEWS

us defending norm on the news my first week at the bible college. click here for all press (including CBS the day before the election; my co-founder snuck in a shoutout to Theo Vonn b/c I hadn't hollered at him yet).

(Thank you to our clients, partners, and allies for putting petty bullshit aside and coming together to fight for everyone's free speech, sanity, and post-AI humanity.)

THE MANHATTAN PROJECT

NO ONE NEEDS A ROGAN FOR THE LEFT. BOTH SIDES -- AND EVERY GOVERNOR, COLLEGE, NEWS OUTLET, POLITICAL PARTY, AND TECH BRO -- WANTS ONE OF THESE.

  • Our “Manhattan Project”

    (a.k.a. AI/Disinfo/1A Governance, Education, and Advocacy platform)

    is the gold standard to fix things fast.

    And this system built out of comedian routines is the thing all the AI regulators are looking for, the tech bros can live with, and we can use comedy to teach it to anyone.

  • psst: at scale, it can network and train thousands of collaborators, citizens, students and partners

    (comedy fans/shows, colleges, companies, advocates, attorneys, and/or governments),

    strategically curate community content,

    and teach these simple methods to millions (very fast) to get everyone back on the same page.

  • We pitch it to people that you do not bullshit as a way to win the 21st century.

    It can do the "alignment" thing that let's any industry, state, or country dominate.


    It doubles as a nationally-scalable civilian information defense system.

    You can even drive it as a 'podcast' or network of them.

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WHAT'S UNDER THE HOOD #1

The punchline is that comedians are the DNA of our research.

  • Because what you all do for a living, and what my nerds and I are the top scholars in word in, and what the Constitution is based on, and what AI doesn't fucking understand is the same thing: rhetorical theory.

click for the details
comedian nerd cred

Publications: Academic, Public, and Industry


“I Want to Party With You Cowboy: Stephen Colbert and Campaign 2016’s Aesthetic Logic of Truthiness.”  The Joke is On Us: Political Comedy in (Late) Neoliberal Times.  In Julie Webber-Collins, Ed.  With Thomas Lawson Lexington Press, 2019. 

Free Speech in Post-Digital America.  Cross-cultural Zine Exchange.  Editor. Hennepin County Library: Permanent Collection.  With The Institute for Digital Humanity and the Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy.  September 2019. 

Fear and Loathing in the New Media Era: How to Realign Our Rhetorical Judgments for the Post-Postmodern, Digital Media Age. Dissertation.  Ohio State University, 2012.

“New Media, New English.” Reading and Writing New Media. Eds. Cheryl E. Ball and James Kalmbach.  With Jason Palmeri, Cormac Slevin, and Scott Lloyd DeWitt. Hampton Press, 2009.

“Are We the Rockstars We’ve Been Waiting For?” PopMatters. 3 Nov. 2008.

“Huckabee’s Family Guy Values.” Alternet. 21 Jan. 2008.

“A Hypothetical Problem.”  PopMatters. 17 Sept. 2006.

“Not Necessarily Not the News: Remediation, Gatekeeping, and The Daily Show.”Journal of American Culture 28.4 (Dec 2005): 415-430.

Art Exhibitions & Civic Forums:

“World Press Freedom Day: What Do You Have to Say?” Student Art Installation and Community Education Event. Hamline University.  Saint Paul, MN.  April 2017.

Press and Media Appearances:

“A Digital Civil War Threatens to Erupt Post-Election, Expert Warns, But Some Are Working To Keep Calm.”  Television interview.  CBS WCCO.  Minneapolis, MN: November 4, 2024.  Reposted at cbsnews.com.


“Why Isn’t There Social Media Forgiveness?” Television interview.  Breaking the News.  NBC KARE-11.  Minneapolis, MN: September 13,  2018. 

“Remembrance of Things Past Fuels Recent Run of Reboots, Relaunches, Remakes.”  Interview. Pioneer Press. Saint Paul, MN: April 21,  2018.   

“Post Emmys Cameo, Spicer Says He Regrets Battles Over Trump’s Inauguration Size.”  Television Interview.  Breaking the News.  NBC.  KARE-11.  Minneapolis, MN: September 18,  2017.  

Academic Presentations/Invited Talks

“What Norm MacDonald and Narrative Theory Can Teach Us About
Social Media Privacy Big Data Reasoning.” 
Hamline University.  Saint Paul, MN.  April 2017.   Invited.

“The Pillowman and Free Speech: A Post-Performance Discussion.” Hamline University.  Saint Paul, MN: 22 February 2016.  Invited.

“Campaign Narrative, The End: A New Story for the Narrative Model of Rhetorical Agency,” Rhetoric Society of America. San Antonio, TX: May 2014. 


“The New New Journalism: The Post-Postmodern Aesthetics of Narrative As Rhetoric.” The International Society for the Study of Narrative. Boston, MA: March 2014.

Rogue Publics. Competitive Workshop. Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute. Lawrence, KS: June 2013.

21st Century Presidential Rhetoric.Competitive Workshop. Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute. Lawrence, KS: June 2013.

“Audience 3.0: A New Rhetorical Ethics (and Aesthetics) for a Post-Remix Era.” Rhetoric Society of America.  Philadelphia, PA: May 2012.

“The Gentle Art of Accepting Enemies: New Media and the Rhetorical Aesthetics of Audience Exclusion.” The International Society for the Study of Narrative. St. Louis, MO: April 2011.

“Playing Out Remix,” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Louisville, KY: March 2010.


“End the Gaffe (And How Narrative Theory Let’s Us Do It).” The
International Society for the Study of Narrative
. Birmingham, UK:  June 2009.  Invited.

“2008: The Year We Re-Made Contact (or, Why Did Postmodernism End?)" Project Narrative Presents: Prophets in Their Own Century. Columbus,
OH: January 2009.  Invited.

“I’m Not There Anymore: The Return of Identity in the Post-Remix Age.” Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition. Louisville, KY: October 2008.

Ethos in a Remediated Age: Context, Character, and Community.” Rhetoric Society of America. Seattle, WA: May 2008.

“The Rhetoric of ‘Rhetoric’ in Rhetoric and Political Science.” Rhetoric Society of America. Memphis, TN: May 2006.

“New Media, New Curricula.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Chicago, IL: April 2006.

“The ‘Dean Scream’ Didn’t Happen (And How it Did).” American Popular Culture Association. Atlanta, GA: April 2006.

“Narrative Temporality in News Stories.” The International Society for the Study of Narrative. Ottawa, Canada: April 2006.

“Is It Something or Nothing?  Narratologically Situating the Music of John Zorn’s Naked City.” Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum. Columbus, OH: April 2004.

“[Something about postmodernism, American media culture, and Chinese hegemony]”  China Rising?  US Naval Academy.   Spring 1998.  Nominated by University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s  Dept. of Political Science.

Biased and incorrect AI and algorithms are destroying lives. The IDH knows how to help AI regulators without hurting innovation. 

Click here for the IDH's
AI Ethics victories and solutions.

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We fix the root cause, by re-finding common values across ideological, religious, and cultural “filter bubbles." 

Click here for the IDH's
disinformation victories and services.

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The privacy crisis is scaring the hell out of IDH students
on both sides of the aisle.

Click here for the IDH's
privacy victories and solutions.

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It's easy to be for free speech
and against hate and online violence:

Just remember that context
is a civil rights issue. 
And stop thinking like a robot

Click here for the IDH's
free speech victories and solutions.

WHAT'S UNDER THE HOOD #2

these "show running" systems are not fucking around

  • THE BACK ENGINE ON THIS SUCKER

    was designed to launch, power, and run a new hybrid ACLU/FIRE, non-partisan Brookings Institute (attached to a law school), cross-cultural PBS-y local news thing, PAC, ed tech start up (or online university), reality show/podcast, and international art troll farm.

  • WE ALREADY DID/PILOTED/DEMOED ALL THAT SHIT FOR THE THIRD TIME

    in 15 years (and had the ear of national/global players) under wartime conditions in Minneapolis (for $150k) before the bullet, Floyd, and the Evangelicals getting wise (that we were starting a 21st century political party in their basement) shut it down.

  • WE CAN SHOWRUN/TEACH IT ALL (PUBLICLY) AS A "PODCAST" WHICH IS A POLITE TERM

    for an interactive K-law school curriculum, the AI governance system every school/governor would murder for, and the political apparatus one team still doesn't understand is a world-changing possibility and the other team is doing.

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THIS IS HOW YOU WIN FOLKS

Think about the 500m the DNC spent and what a dozen minimally paid kids and handful of unpaid grownups did in 3ish years for 150k by properly showrunning hundreds of volunteers, experts, lawyers, students, teachers, and artists from both sides of reality.

  • We can do all this stuff with any industry. (Or the DOE or DOD.) At once -- using coordinated and crowd-sourced content/expertise -- faster and cheaper than anyone.

  • And to be complete assholes, we already started turning college and AI/ Disinfo/Privacy/Free Speech advocacy into 80s Letterman / 90s Conan / Tim and Eric / Eric Andre.

  • Remember: Jesus kids with no equipment and pricks threatening them with expulsion. They are ballsy AF.

click for the blueprints

CURRICULUM / PLATFORMS / STUDENT THINK TANKS and ORGS / WORKSHOPS / SPEAKING EVENTS / CONSULTING and AUDITS

We already teach this with comedians.
We could fully rebrand it very fast. Market for 3rd party
education (non-ideological) on First Amendment, AI, disinformation,
civics, and privacy is enormous.

CONSULTING / COACHING / AUDITS
SCALABLE GOVERNANCE PLATFORMS

Want me to get some of the smartest nerds in the world -- and a few hundred high school debaters -- cranking out Norm-based academic/legal research?

(We're also writing a book. Y'all are already in it.)

STRATEGIC PR / MEDIA CAMPAIGNS / CIVIC EDUCATION/ ART EXHIBITIONS / SCALABLE SOLUTIONS

Catalyzing allegedly impossible bipartisan and cross-cultural
coalitions and civic community conversations.

Or riling up an army of highly excitable Kat Williams and Larry the Cable Guy fans when they are both being fucked with by AI.

The key to winning this ballgame -- and making the AI and each other less dumb -- is to train everyone to be better rhetorical (i.e., comedy) critics.

That's what my art critic teams (and super nerds) do. (We also have an internationally-recognized art collective: www.theinstituteforaestheticadvocacy.com.)

SCALE THE MANHATTAN PROJECT FOR COMEDIANS / WIN THE GODDAM BALLGAME BY EASTER / MAKES A GREAT T-SHIRT

WHAT FUCK YOU MONEY WAS MADE FOR

WHOEVER "ALIGNS" AI FIRST WINS / DEFINES THE 21ST CENTURY.

"And your honor, I think it's only fair -- gosh darn it: I think it's only right and American -- that comedians and those sweet loveable Jesus Goonies at the IDH not only get a seat at the table, but the first seat at the table...

  • so our lawyers -- and 10,000 rabid Kat Williams, Larry the Cable Guy, and Hannah Gadsby memelords -- have something super special cooked up for you to explain why."


  • All the governors know they need to align/network a college (ahem; see The Norm Institute below), k-12, their Bar Association, and an industry.


  • Use your imagination re: why the ROI is potentially fucking gross and why we want it in a non-profit or B-corp for the public. 2 not mutually exclusive and easy ways to do this.