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David Suzuki prepares for a video interview after a meeting with the Editorial Board at The Globe and Mail in Toronto on April 11, 2012.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail

'Take my planet, please!" How about a big round of applause for David Suzuki, ladies and gentlemen? He'll be here all week, or at least until our greedily raped and pillaged Earth boils over, spelling doom, apocalypse and godless horror for all mankind.

When the Just For Laughs Festival recently announced performers sharing a late-September bill in Toronto with headliner Louis C.K., one highly unlikely gagster stood out. But seriously, folks – David Suzuki, author and environmentalist, cracking wise on carbon footprints?

"It's an opportunity to meet a wider audience than the one enviros normally reach," says Suzuki, reached in South America. "It should be a lot of fun, although I cringe a bit when I think what might come my way."

Asked for a sample of his routine, the PhD funnyman said his act wasn't ready yet. He did, however, share one of his favourite jokes, a Jay Leno quip: "According to a new U.N. report, the global warming outlook is much worse than originally predicted. Which is pretty bad when they originally predicted it would destroy the planet."

Hey oh!

"The message of environmentalism is pretty grim, but one of the ways for activists to retain our sanity is a sense of humour," explains Suzuki. "I think, for example, Rick Mercer's videos and rants, in many ways, are far more effective than our ultraserious scolding."

So there you have it. David Suzuki just flew in from the Amazon rain forest. And if his arms are tired, his message is not.

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