Have you heard the buzz?  The diaTribe Foundation has officially launched Spoonful of Laughter, a video-driven comedy campaign, to represent, educate, and counter the stigma surrounding diabetes.  

T1D Exchange sat down with Matthew Garza, Director of the dStigmatize Program at the diaTribe Foundation, to learn more.

 

How did Spoonful of Laughter originate?  

“For a couple of years, we were focused more on the academic side of diabetes stigma through research and education — but we knew we couldn’t stop there,” said Garza, who helped kick off the diaTribe dStigmatize Program in 2022.   

“Our hope was to create a larger campaign that would open the conversation to more people, especially those who know about diabetes but have no real concept of what ‘diabetes stigma’ is.”  

“As we were planning what this might look like, I came across a TikTok video of Sam Morrison, a popular stand-up comedian,” said Garza. “It was a video about people who mistook his wearable diabetes technology as any number of random, crazy things — and it was hilarious.”  

“So, I brought it back to our brainstorming group and explained that while I didn’t have an exact use for it, I thought it could be something special.” 

“This video inspired the idea of using comedy to address diabetes stigma, and essentially, it’s what led to our Spoonful of Laughter campaign.” 

 

What is diabetes stigma? 

“Diabetes stigma is stereotypes, judgments, or prejudice against people who live with diabetes or diabetes itself,” explained Garza. 

“Stigma can look like many different things, including jokes and comments from well-meaning people. These experiences can make people feel alone, uncomfortable or ashamed, and blamed for their condition.”  

“It can also be more insidious. There can be outright discrimination when someone is treated differently or told they ‘caused’ or ‘deserve’ the condition and its outcomes.” 

“When what’s said is misinformed, it can leave someone feeling like, ‘Gosh, am I the only person who understands what’s going on here?’” 

 

Why do we need creative ways to address stigma? 

“Lecturing people about what stigma is — and why it should be stopped — only works so well,” said Garza. “Instead, we’re using comedy to lower people’s guard and showcase what stigma actually looks like, including why it’s harmful, to create a kinder future for everyone affected by diabetes.”   

 

Is Spoonful of Laughter primarily a video-driven campaign? 

“Yes, the main source of content are our short comedy videos,” explained Garza. “A few of the videos are ‘stand-up clips’ while some look more like ‘sketch comedies,’ similar to SNL, and finally, some resemble scenes found in sitcoms.”  

“We launched Spoonful of Laughter on Instagram a few months ago where we’ve been growing our community and building awareness in advance of the video launch.”  

“It’s very different content than what diaTribe typically produces, so we wanted to build a space to hone our messaging around this campaign — and showcase the different ways we’ll use comedy to address diabetes stigma, even outside of the core videos. That’s why it has its own home base.” 

 

Let’s talk about the co-creators 

“We’ve spent the last year co-creating the Spoonful of Laughter campaign with comedians, artists, producers, and other advocates to ideate and film a collection of short videos.”  

“Working with five comedians (Sam Morrison, Kelsey Bascom, Justin Eastzer, Kesha Carter, and Ashley Monique), the videos are set to educate about diabetes and pushback against stigma and stereotypes — while encouraging people to be more curious and open to understanding diabetes, instead of reverting to fear and judgment.” 

“This first phase of the campaign leans more towards T1D largely because of the organic brainstorming nature of the collaboration. With four of the five comedians living with T1D, jokes and content lean towards that. But the overarching goal of the campaign is to destigmatize diabetes broadly, and our plans for future iterations will open the conversation even more.” 

 

Looking for a dose of diabetes humor? Follow @ASpoonfulofLaughter on Instagram and give them some likes and shares. Together, we can help change the narrative around diabetes.