“Bad Environmentalism”: Irony, Bodies, and Spatio-Temporal Complexities in the Environmental Campaign <i>The Legend of Nose Hair</i>

Environmental communication often abstains from irony because of the perceived negative effects on audiences. However, these views are increasingly challenged, and the frivolous term “bad environmentalism” has been adopted to question the prevailing conceptions of irony as unsuitable for environmental communication. Yet, little is known about this affective genre. Additionally, existing studies of environmental irony are conducted in liberal settings, not accounting for how it can be used in illiberal contexts. This paper explores a successful Chinese environmental campaign that uses irony to raise awareness about air pollution. The paper argues that ironic effects are made through the use of spatio-temporal complexities and bodily mutations, creating an environmental campaign that is both compliant and critical of political policies. By using body/space/time as conceptual elements in this specific context, we find that “bad environmentalism” can introduce subtle ways of being ironic in environmental communication, which is not restricted to liberal settings.