Comedian raises money by replying to men demanding to know when International Men’s Day is
'Make a note. It’s today. Put it on your phone to repeat every year,' Herring tweets
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Your support makes all the difference.Comedian Richard Herring has continued his annual tradition of reminding Twitter of the date of International Men’s Day while raising money for charity.
International Men’s Day, a global event that was relaunched more than two decades ago, is celebrated on 19 November.
The aim of the day is to raise awareness of issues that many men face around the world, including physical and mental health issues.
Every March, Herring makes it his mission on International Women’s Day to respond to the spate of tweets that appear from naysayers asking why there isn’t an International Men’s Day, informing them that the observance does in fact exist.
Eight months later, he is doing the same on International Men’s Day and using the attention his tweets receive to raise money for charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).
“It’s November 19th and I don’t know if you know it, but that’s International Men’s Day,” Herring states on his JustGiving fundraising page, which has a target of raising £10,000.
“You seemed to be really bothered about it on March 8th, so don’t forget about that now and make a donation to the Campaign Against Living Miserably and help prevent male suicides.”
Throughout the morning the comedian has tweeted numerous responses to Twitter users who wrote in March about their lack of knowledge about International Men’s Day.
One person tweeted: “When’s International Men’s Day then?! Of course there isn’t one. So much for equality!!”, to which Herring replied: “Today is the day that you thought didn’t exist.”
In response to someone else who asked if there is an International Men’s Day, Herring wrote: “It’s genuinely today. What are you going to be doing?"
He continued, stating: “Would you say the problem is that men are only interested in IMD when they think there isn’t one, but don’t want to do anything when it comes around? Genuine question.”
In a subsequent tweet, Herring revealed that today’s responses reminding Twitter users of the existence of International Men’s Day were all scheduled in March.
Several people praised the comedian for raising awareness of the awareness day.
“You absolute genius, sir. Kudos on the best use of Twitter since at least 8th March,” one person commented.
“Brilliant work Richard, laughing harder today than I did in March!” another remarked.
To read more about International Men’s Day, click here.
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