Though Phoebe Robinson and Alex Edelman have opposing opinions on ice cream principles, both stand-up comedians believe in the importance of reaching people through the power of making them laugh.

Robinson, who is also an author, podcast host and was the co-star of HBO’s “2 Dope Queens” joined Edelman, whose most recent Broadway show Just for Us recently premiered on HBO, at the TIME100 Summit on Wednesday in a conversation moderated by TIME Editor in Chief Sam Jacobs.

“If you’re making people laugh, they’re listening, and they’re receiving. So now maybe their hearts and minds are a little bit more open,” Robinson said. “We’re definitely missing a lot of levity right now. Everyone’s yelling ‘I’m right,’ ‘No I’m right’ on this point. Okay, everything can be right and then nothing gets accomplished. I really love comedy being that conduit to force openness and change.”

Edelman said the idea of empathy in comedy had played a significant role in the premise of Just for Us, in which Edelman, raised an Orthodox Jew, infiltrates a white supremacist meeting. “If you want to actually reach someone, you actually stand a much better chance by extending your empathy and trying to listen to them without trying to convince them,” he said.

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