INSOMNIA THEATER (LABOR DAY EDITION)! Filmmaker Ted Balaker is coming out with an awesome and important new film called Can We Take a Joke? this fall. The documentary will feature brand new interviews with top comedians, including Gilbert Gottfried, Penn Jillette, Jim Norton, Lisa Lampanelli, Adam Carolla, Heather McDonald, and Karith Foster. It will also include interviews with authors Jon Ronson and Jonathan Rauch, as well as free speech specialists like Ron Collins, Bob Corn-Revere, and me.

My organization, FIRE, has been working with Ted on this project from the very beginning. In order to support free speech, satire, parody, and comedy on campus, we just launched a new fundraising campaign. Under this new campaign we will support the right to be funny on campus (and the right not to be punished when you fall flat), produce a lengthy video of our interview with comedian Penn Jillette about the essentiality of free speech and comedy, and, at risk of protests and disinvitations, plan screenings of Can We Take a Joke? on campuses next spring.

Look out for more news about the documentary in the next few months. In the meantime, sign up for the film’s email list at its website, follow the Twitter account, “like” the Facebook page, and check out the interview Ted did with Reason’s Nick Gillespie to learn more about the film: