Dwight Schrute once said, “Identity theft is not a joke, Jim,” after one of Jim’s best pranks. Now the actor behind the iconic The Office character is making a joke of his own name to prove to us all that climate change is also not a joke. In a new initiative to raise awareness for Artic Basecamp, Rainn Wilson posted a funny video announcing his new, over-the-top, and memorable unofficial name change in an effort to fight climate change.
Due to the actor’s weather adjacent name, he came up with many hilarious new alternatives for Rainn Wilson to help raise awareness and promote action around the climate crisis. Both Arctic Basecamp and Wilson posted a video of the actor explaining why this silly action is important. The reason for the name change is so world leaders at COP27 will take notice and take action against the evergrowing issue in the Arctic. Wilson started the video saying:
Hi there, I’m Rainn Wilson, or should I say Rainn Fall Heat Wave Rising Sea Levels And We Have To Do Something About It Now Wilson. Sorry to get so dark, so quick. You see, what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic. As the polar caps melt, it drives up risks throughout the world, including extreme weather events that affect all of us.
Wilson said “as a cheap little stunt” to help save Earth he would be changing his name on social media, and on his “fancy writing paper.” He lived up to what he said too, on Instagram, he changed his name to Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson, as you can see here:
This initiative is something anyone can participate in, Wilson told viewers they can go to the Arctic Risk Name Generator and change their names too, as you can see in his video:
The goal of this initiative is to raise awareness of the “global risks of Arctic weather change.” He then asked people to go to the site, and change their names to let world leaders and influencers know they need to enact change. On top of changing his own name, he also provided new names for various celebrities, which included:
- Cardi The Arctic B Melting
- Jack Black Carbon Is Killing Us
- Ty-Phoons Are Increasing Burrell
- Amy Poehler Bears Are Endangered
- Harrison Why Not Drive An Electric? Ford
- Samuel Earth’s Getting Hot As L. Jackson
- Leonardo Di-Polar Ice Caprio-s Are Melting
Wilson has been an activist for a long time. On election day he posted an Earth graphic that said “Vote as if your future depends on it.” He has also been raising awareness for the Lide Foundation, which helps “at-risk adolescent Haitian girls” by way of education, art, and health. Those are only the two most recent things he’s advocated for, as well. It’s amazing to see him using his one-of-a-kind sense of humor to raise awareness for important issues like climate change, women’s rights and voting.
Along with changing his name for change this year, Wilson also starred alongside Daniel Radcliffe in the wacky, and well-reviewed biopic about Weird Al, which was one of the weirder, for lack of a better term, entries on the 2022 movie schedule.
After you change your name, you can go check out Wilson’s work in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story on the Roku Channel, and you can always go back and watch Dwight and Angelas’ best moments in some of the best episodes of The Office, which can be streamed with a Peacock subscription.
