DeSmog Canada recently revealed Andy Cobb and Mike Damanskis – two political satirists in the spotlight for their ongoing spoofery of the Alberta tar sands project – had an Indiegogo fundraising promotional video for their upcoming "vacation" to the Alberta tar sands ordered removed from YouTube due to an alleged copyright violation.

Alleged because under U.S. legal precedent (YouTube is a U.S. company), it's almost impossible to claim copyright damages for parody and/or satire. That won't keep Travel Alberta, the province's tourism bureau, from trying.

"The original inspiration for our project is that industry PR around the tar sands seems like a cross between a travel ad and oil company ad, inviting us to 'come to Alberta' and see for ourselves," Mike Damanskis told DeSmog. 

Demanskis has provided DeSmog with a copy of Travel Alberta's complaint, a screenshot of which can been seen below.

As the screenshot portrays, Travel Alberta is being represented by Denton for this complaint, a firm formed with the merger of international law firm Salans LLP, Canadian law firm Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP and international law firm SNR Denton in March 2013.

Under-explored thus far in the saga: the relationship between Denton and Big Oil.

A DeSmog investigation has revealed Denton is a major corporate firm representing Big Oil in all facets of its operations, from upstream, to midstream to downstream. Further, the attorney-of-record issuing the complaint, Jordan R.M. Deering maintains an attorney-client relationship with Big Oil. Fraser Milner Casgrain also formerly lobbied on behalf of Big Oil and also represented infamous climate change denier Tim Ball in court. 

Representing ExxonMobil Tar Sands Project, Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline 

Denton has "made the case" for many oil and gas industry clientele and works closely both with tar sands producers and also pipeline companies bringing the product to market. 

One of Denton's major clients for the past year and a half has been Enbridge, concerning the company's controversial Northern Gateway Pipeline set to carry tar sands crude from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia at Kitimat. From there, diluted bitumen ("dilbit") will be shipped to predominantly Asian export markets. Northern Gateway – by and large – is Canada's version of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline and has encountered fierce resistance. 

Denton explains of its legal role for Northern Gateway on its website as "advising on all aspects of the proposed dual pipeline…and the marine terminal at Kitimat…Counseling the client during environmental assessments and National Energy Board proceedings and providing advice with respect to negotiations with aboriginal groups and governments, shipping and navigation reviews, commercial structuring, finance and construction." 

A dues-paying member of the Alberta Chamber of Resources and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Canada's largest oil and gas lobby, Denton also enjoys another powerful client: ExxonMobil, the "Private Empire."

Exxon's the subject of Cobb and Damanskis' first tar sands-centric satire poking fun at Exxon's massive Pegasus tar sands Pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas, which aired on primetime on "The Rachel Maddow Show," as seen below.

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Travel Alberta is not pleased with Andy Cobb and Mike Damanskis, two L.A.-based comedians raising funds to travel to the province’s tar sands, the world’s largest industrial project. Today, Travel Alberta filed an official complaint with YouTube, claiming the comedy duo’s crowdfunding pitch video “Welcome to Fort McMoney” was in violation of copyright law for commenting on segments of the tourism board’s “Remember to Breathe” advertisements. YouTube has since removed the video. (Update 15.08.2013: a new version of the video can now be found on Vimeo).

Cobb and Damanskis were hoping to take the oil industry up on its invitation to visit the tar sands in person, a welcome that features prominently in ads by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), Canada’s largest oil and gas lobby body. CAPP’s ads, designed to play up the benefits of fossil fuel consumption, begin with the invitation “Canada’s Oil Sands: Come See for Yourself.”

Cobb and Damanskis decided they should do just that.

Travel Alberta also welcomes tourism to the province with the tagline “remember to breathe,” a marketing scheme Cobb and Damanskis find somewhat baffling.

“It’s just so egregious on so many levels,” Cobb told DeSmog in a recent interview. “I mean, can you imagine the brainstorming session of supergeniuses that came up with that? ‘We’re making an entire region smell like someone broke wind in a refinery, while destroying the climate for like, everybody everywhere. What’s our theme?’ ‘I know, respiration!’”

“It’s hard to imagine actual functioning human beings capable of spelling ‘Alberta,’ ‘remember,’ ‘breathe,’ and ‘to’ actually thought that was a great idea worth writing down,” Cobb said, “but it happened.”

The province of Alberta and tar sands supporters like Premier Alison Redford and Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver have attracted attention in recent months for their undisguised praise of the project and Canada’s lagging environmental record. Prime Minister Stephen Harper even traveled to Washington to convince Americans that Canada's environmental standards are top knotch. President Obama recently announced the fate of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline rests in Canada’s ability to handle its growing emissions problem.

Canada recently devoted $16.5 million to advertisements expressing the economic benefits of tar sands development.

Canada’s need to appear ‘green’ has never been so pressing. Yet attempts to ‘green’ the tar sands, including Oliver’s reference to bitumen – the mixture of heavy oil and sand that makes up the tar sands – as a “greener alternative” to other fuels, has made the general public increasingly skeptical about the veracity of this country’s claims.

The increasingly exaggerated claims regarding Canada’s tar sands, including the ‘ethical oil’ argument, stating the fuel source is morally superior to others, has onlookers, especially to the south of the border, shaking their heads.

“When I first saw former tobacco lobbyist Ezra Levant refer to the tar sands as, Ethical Oil,’ I nearly lost my mind,” said Damanskis. “He says they’re the ‘fair trade coffee of the world's oil industry,’ conjuring feel-good images of happy little subsistence elves that are just making an honest living. He might as well have said that they’re ‘the artisanal craftsmen of renewable, sustainable planetary destruction.’”

Cobb and Damanskis plan on traveling to Fort McMurray, home to the tar sands in Alberta’s north, to unravel the government and industry spin surrounding the resource. A part of that plan is a crowdfunding campaign hosted on the popular fundraising site Indiegogo.com where creatives can feature project pitch videos.

But for now, Cobb and Damanskis will have to improvise while they get a new video prepped for the site. (New Video here)

Although the team has filed a counter-claim with YouTube, according to Damanskis.

“Our project definitely falls within YouTube’s realm of Fair Use,” he said.

“Whenever anyone files a copyright claim or counter-claim on YouTube, you have to click this box that says the following: ‘I consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the district in which my address is located, or if my address is outside of the United States, the judicial district in which YouTube is located, and will accept service of process from the claimant.’”

The complaint falls under the purview of U.S. law, says Damanskis.

Although unlikely, he adds, “I am prepared to fight this in court.”

“It takes years – sometimes decades – for society to make changes. This climate change fight is different than other battles throughout history. Our planet really doesn't have decades – we have just a few years before we pass the tipping point,” Damanskis previously stated.

As for a comedic approach to one of Canada’s most contentious energy, environmental and First Nation concerns, Cobb and Damanskis say the merits are apparent.

“We aren’t trying to preach to people – it's harder to make changes in society that way. Individual choices are important, yet our energy policy is not determined by everyday citizens – it's determined by a very small number of wealthy and powerful individuals who spend millions of dollars to spread lies so they can get rich. We’re using comedy to fight back,” says Damanskis.

Cobb remembers how the humor of the Daily Show opened him up to thinking about the Iraq war in a who new way.

“There was nothing funny about the Iraq war, and there's nothing funny about the tar sands. But there's absurdity to be had by the eyeful, which is the base material for satire. That's the foundation for this project: finding the stories and comedy in human beings bravely responding to inhumanity. There's a rich deposit of it there to be mined. As it, y'know, were," said Cobb.

Cobb and Damanskis will be running their crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo for another 17 days. They are nearly one-quarter of the way towards meeting their $20,000 goal.

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Seasoned comedians Andy Cobb and Mike Damanskis have decided the Alberta government’s invitation to ‘come and see’ the tar sands is just too tempting. After all, the province’s tagline, they say, is “remember to breathe.” Sounds just like the holiday two hardworking jokesters from L.A. are in need of.

But before Andy and Mike pack up for their trip, destined to un-spin the PR surrounding one of the biggest and dirtiest industrial projects on the face of the planet, DeSmog caught up with them to ask a few questions.

1. What got you two interested in the issue of industry spin regarding the tar sands?

Andy: It’s just so egregious on so many levels. It’s the galling face of the most important issue of our times, climate change. So, y’know, there’s the whole “poisoning local populations, destroying the planet” angle, which is (I spose) bad enough. But as a comic and a videomaker the sheer craptastic-ocity (technical term) of their campaigns adds a special flavor to the whole thing. I mean, to have as part of their greenwashing campaign an invitation to visit an environmental disaster area as tourists? It’s just so in-your-face stupid and shameless that it’s more than an ecological nightmare. It’s a satirical wet dream. We had to take them up on it.

Add to that the Alberta tourism board’s catchphrase “remember to breathe,” and I just can’t stand it. I mean, can you imagine the brainstorming session of supergeniuses that came up with that? “We’re making an entire region smell like someone broke wind in a refinery, while destroying the climate for like, everybody everywhere. What’s our theme?” “I know, respiration!” It’s hard to imagine actual functioning human beings capable of spelling “Alberta,” “Remember, “breathe,” and “to” actually thought that was a great idea worth writing down, but it happened.

Somebody has to make fun of these people. And it’s the kind of Big Lie and absurdity that really has to be countered with humor. There’s no rational response to it, there’s no way to argue with that level of cruel untruth. It has to be made funny, I think, before it can be made to go away.

Mike: When I first saw former tobacco lobbyist Ezra Levant refer to the tar sands as, “Ethical Oil”, I nearly lost my mind. He says they’re the “fair trade coffee of the world’s oil industry”, conjuring feel-good images of happy little subsistence elves that are just making an honest living. He might as well have said that they’re “the artisanal craftsmen of renewable, sustainable planetary destruction.”

2. Do you think misinformation about large industrial projects like the tar sands is hurting public discourse about these projects?

Andy: Yeah, it doesn’t help. But it’s not just facts that will counter the millions of dollars being spent to greenwash this project. The facts have been against this project from the get-go, but it’s finding the narratives that make people listen that has been missing from this debate. That’s what we want to do, find funny, compelling counternarratives to this tidal wave of propaganda that will make this tough, enormous problem more digestible and accessible.

Mike: It takes years – sometimes decades – for society to make changes. This climate change fight is different than other battles throughout history. Our planet really doesn’t have decades – we have just a few years before we pass the tipping point.

3. What role does humor or satire have to play in informing the public about serious issues like climate change, environmental pollution, or threats to human and animal health?

Andy: I remember the buildup to the Iraq war, working at Second City in Chicago. It just seemed so huge, so blindly accepted by the media, so unstoppable. It wasn’t till the Daily Show and others started to make fun of it that it actually seemed worth protesting – like we needed humor to break down this enormous, impossible problem and make it seem human-scale, like something that could be addressed by people. That was inspirational for me as a comic then, and it’s a launching-off point for this project – the idea that humor is a necessary tool for people to understand and internalize problems of international scale.

There was nothing funny about the Iraq war, and there’s nothing funny about the tar sands. But there’s absurdity to be had by the eyeful, which is the base material for satire. That’s the foundation for this project: finding the stories and comedy in human beings bravely responding to inhumanity. There’s a rich deposit of it there to be mined. As it, y’know, were.

Mike: I was lucky enough to start my career as an intern at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart back in 2005, shortly after Bush won re-election. I was fascinated by the way Jon was able to use comedy to speak truth to power and influence public opinion.  

Climate change is a hugely depressing issue, and many people feel powerless to do anything to stop it. People don’t like to feel guilty for driving to work, or for going about their daily life – people don’t like to feel like hypocrites.

We aren’t trying to preach to people – it’s harder to make changes in society that way. Individual choices are important, yet our energy policy is not determined by everyday citizens – it’s determined by a very small number of wealthy and powerful individuals who spend millions of dollars to spread lies so they can get rich. We’re using comedy to fight back.

Humor can help relieve stress and forge friendships – the planet needs as many friends as it can get. By using satire to counter oil industry messaging, we can reach a new audience and talk about these issues in a way that gives people hope that we can make a change.

4. Are you looking forward to visiting the tar sands?

Andy: Totally. Comedy’s fun to make. If it’s not, it’s probably not very good. That’s the weird directive that’s the fate of a comic: better enjoy it, or you’re not going to do it very well. It’s like sex, from what I’ve read. I personally have no idea. That, unfortunately, is the other fate of comics.

Mike: Yes! We’re excited to trade an intellectual wasteland (Los Angeles) for an industrial one. For years, people have told me to “go to Hell.” Now they can get a tax deduction to send us there – and help save the planet in the process.

__________

To help Mike and Andy get to the tar sands – or Fort McMoney, as they’ve rechristened the region – go to their crowdfunding page at indiegogo. There you’ll find more information on the project, their budget breakdown, and why they are so committed to a hilarious tar sands takedown.

You can also watch some of their previous environmental hilarity here:

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.