The presidential election and its frenzied aftermath have provoked a wide spectrum of emotions, but for many on both sides of the aisle, laughter isn’t among them.

This weekend’s nation-wide What a Joke festival aims to change that, with three nights of stand-up comedy performances at five venues across D.C. and in 33 cities around the country (plus Oxford in England). All of the proceeds from this year’s event, conceived and organized in the months since the election, will be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The event is the brainchild of Emily Winter and Jenn Welch, New York-based comedians who took to Facebook in the days after the election and found comedians across the country sharing in their low spirits.

“I was feeling very upset. I messaged Jenn and I just said we have to do something,” Winter says. “We didn’t know what it was going to be.”

Inspired, Welch imagined a multi-city benefit festival, although she had never organized one. Once they decided to shoot for inauguration weekend, the timetable was tight.

“I was like, ‘Let’s do this big dumb thing!’ and Emily was like ‘Okay, let’s do it,’” Welch says. Winter, naturally, credits Emily for her ambition.

Here in D.C., local comedians Katherine Jessup and Linsay Deming got involved, frantically reaching out to comedians, booking venues, contributing to the festival site, and organizing other logistics in the compressed timeline. An event on this scale would typically require six to eight months to plan, Deming says.

Most of the comedians that Jessup and Deming contacted were eager to participate. Given the escalating racial tensions nationwide, the organizers sought to include comedians from a wide range of backgrounds.

“We wanted to make a diverse festival that was really a celebration of unity and diversity,” Jessup said. “We are better when we hear a lot of different voices.”

Winter and Welch hope to unify the far-flung events with a few consistent features: an intro video that plays before each performance; a social media campaign with the hashtag #WhatAJokeFest; and an ongoing sale of red hats, emblazoned with “What a Joke” instead of “Make America Great Again.” Ten percent of the proceeds from the hats go towards the ACLU, and the rest will help fund What a Joke Festival this year and beyond, according to Winter and Welch, who thought of the hats as a joke and were surprised to find that people actually wanted to buy them.

Audiences who come expecting nothing but Donald Trump jokes and other political references might be disappointed. Welch and Winter didn’t instruct the local organizers to structure their events around politics, and Jessup and Deming made a point to tell the D.C. comedians to focus on whatever content suits them, topical or otherwise.

The organizers of What a Joke are under no illusions that their event, or even the sum total of their donations to the ACLU, will make a difference in national affairs. But they want audiences to enjoy themselves and feel a spirit of community, even when divisive politics are at unprecedented levels.

“A comedy show is not going to change what’s happening in the halls of Congress—not immediately,” Jessup says. “We want people to come out and to realize that there is a community of people who probably feel the way they do, and want to find a way to spend their time constructively but not so seriously or heavy.”

In the rush to set up their three events in Brooklyn and oversee the nationwide rollout, Welch and Winter haven’t had a chance to see how many donations have rolled in so far. If the political climate remains as dire as it is now, though, Winter and Welch are prepared to turn the event into an annual tradition.

“We don’t want it to be four years of this situation in our government. Every time we think there’s an out, it looks like it’s not going to happen,” Winter says. “We’re hoping that if this year goes well, we can get our ducks in a row and keep it going for the next four years.”

January 19-21 at venues that include Bier Baron, Songbyrd Music House & Record Cafe, Drafthouse Comedy Theater, Wonderland Ballroom, and Dojo Comedy.. Tickets and the full lineup are available on the event website.