Red Nose Day

Overview

Red Nose Day is an fundraising event for Comic Relief, a charity committed to raising money for childhood poverty throughout the world. The fundraising culminates on Red Nose Day, in which Comic Relief holds a live event, featuring standup comedy, sketches, and documentaries. The organization has raised more than $1 billion worldwide.

Background

On December 25th, 1985, Comic Relief launched on the English television talk show Late, Late Breakfast Show from a Sudanese refugee camp. Four months later, the charity held the first, live fundraising event, “Comic Relief Utterly Utterly Live at Shaftesbury Theatre in London "(shown below).^[1]

Red Noses

In advertising materials for Red Nose Day, celebrities typically don Red Noses, which people can also buy for charitable donations. The symbolism of the nose is to connect the charity to comedy (the red nose of a clown) and to raise awareness for the event.

Development

On February 8th, 1988, Comic Relief held the first Red Nose Day telethon, which featured more than 150 celebrities and comedians, raising more than $19 million. To date, Red Nose Day has brought in more than $1 billion globally.^[2]

Also in 1988, a US chapter of Comic Relief launched. Comic Relief US was a televised event created by Bob Zmuda, televised by HBO, and hosted Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams.

The second Red Nose Day, Red Nose Day 2, was held on March 10th, 1989, raising more than $34 million. Since then, the UK event has been held bi-annually in March.

On February 4th, 2013, the Comic Relief YouTube page uploaded a video documentary (shown below) on who has been helped by the organization in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Red Nose Day. Additionally, the organization said they have helped 3 million Africans affected by HIV; provided 1 million vaccines, helped 7 million in urban slums; and assisted over 1 million in the world's poorest nations.^[3]

Red Nose Day (US)

In 2015, Red Nose Day was formally brought to the United States. Unlike its British counterpart, Red Nose Day is held annually in America. That year, the band Coldplay released a viral video, Coldplay's Game of Thrones: The Musical. The video received more than 23.4 million views.

Love Actually Reunion

On March 22nd, 2017, a trailer for a reunion sketch featuring the cast of the film Love Actually was released (shown below). It currently has more than 577,000 views on YouTube. The sketch, which will premiere at Red Nose Day on May 25th, 2017, is one of the most anticipated sketches of Red Nose Day 2017.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References