NRDC Event Honoring Julia Louis-Dreyfus Turns Into Hollywood Exec Roast: “These F***ers Are Going to the Moon”
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Comedy and the fight against climate change made for interesting bedfellows Tuesday night in Hollywood during the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Night of Comedy fundraiser.
The event celebrated Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who is on NRDC’s board of trustees, for her impassioned and committed work in the environmental fight, and use of her public platform to encourage voting and activism. But a series of stand-up sets that followed saw some of the town’s most powerful executives — Casey Bloys, Alan Horn and the man of the moment, David Zaslav — become the punchlines in a near roast-type show.
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Before the jokes flew, Louis-Dreyfus noted in her speech how “we get report after report from the world’s leading scientists warning us that it’s all over if we don’t act right this second to deal with the climate crisis, that more and more millions of people are experiencing the climate crisis right now, first hand — wildfires and hurricanes and droughts threaten not just their livelihoods, but their actual lives. So, that’s the bad news.”
“The good news is — oh shit, there’s no good news,” the star teased, before reversing course to say the NRDC is actually the good news, with “the expertise and the political brawn to fight like hell to get us out of all of this.”
“Is this global environmental fight something we can win, or are we just doomed? With NRDC leading the charge, you know we can win,” Louis-Dreyfus continued. “God, this is a big freakin’ war, and you being here tonight makes you a soldier in that war. So in this moment of peril and promise, let’s keep on fighting together.”
The remainder of the event, which was presented in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, featured a starry lineup of comics who let loose in front of an intimate room of Hollywood power players.
Pete Holmes was the first comedian to take the NeueHouse rooftop stage, joking there were “lots of movers and shakers out there to watch me bomb for seven minutes outdoors, on top of a WeWork.” Throughout the set he remarked on the audience’s blank faces, before eventually pointing at Zaslav and declaring, “There’s one face I can’t not look at and it’s yours, sir. He probably owns Viacom. Can you fuck me in the face right now, Jesus Christ.”
Nicole Byer and Tig Notaro also told jokes, and Chelsea Handler sent a video in support of Louis-Dreyfus, saying that many think solving the climate crisis is impossible, “which is why it’s appropriate that we are honoring Julia tonight, because time and time again she continues to achieve the impossible — an actress that has headlined not one but three hilarious and perfectly crafted shows; who gets better, bolder, braver and more beloved as the years go by. I love you.”
“I still have hope that we can turn this climate disaster around,” Handler added. “The world has already survived so many existential threats — plagues, droughts, meteors, Republicans.”
Leslie Jones was next to the mic, who ripped into the event, saying, “This is a comedian’s hell, this is where comedians go to die” and that she was going to curse out her agents for booking the gig.
“I’m destroying this whole first row, this is like a delight of fucking hors d’oeuvres for me,” she promised, betting that some there had a spaceship to get out when the climate collapses.
“You think they’re actually going to save the Earth? These fuckers are going to the moon,” Jones declared, before going around and asking several audience members, including the execs, for their astrological sign. She teased that Bloys’ sign was “dollar sign” and called Horn “Einstein” before deciding his sign meant that he has “a whole secret life, so fuck you and your basement fucking trolls you have under this building.”
Nick Kroll finished out the show, joking Jones had stolen all his material, including “insulting the most powerful people in Hollywood.”
“Little did you guys know you would give $1.8 million to just be assaulted by people who are dying to work for you,” he quipped. The event did indeed raise nearly $2 million for the NRDC’s work, which focuses on the right to access clean air, clean water and healthy communities for all.
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