There has been a barrage of celebrity political videos on TV lately. I have heard a lot of cynicism about whether or not they make a difference – or worse, that celebs are just attention-starved and will do anything to be recognized.

When I hear the apathy, and worse the snark, it always makes me feel a little sick inside. Maybe because I am one of those people who has spent the last 20 years of my life using comedy to shine a light on creeps with power.

So, as we come to the end of this election cycle, I thought it might be helpful to tell you what I have experienced when creative friends get together and make some noise. Change happens. It's not bullshit. It's not self-serving. It is awesome.

It was a natural progression for me to go balls-out into politics as, over the years, my career has developed into more or less "call-and-response" comedy. If it happens, I am reacting either on stage, in videos or on radio and TV.

So, when 2011 rolled around and the relentless attacks started on reproductive rights in congress and statehouses across America – oh, like 1,000 bills proposed to curb access to services from Pap smears to abortion – I decided to devote my creative energies touring the country doing comedy shows to benefit Planned Parenthood. I knew humor got people to sit up and take notice. I have built a career using comedy to expose hypocrisy.

But now the rhetoric was escalating at warp speed. It seemed like each week, in every new town, some implausible piece of vaginal invasion legislation was happening. So touring for Planned Parenthood seemed like a no-brainer. The shows were packed and I was helping raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Planned Parenthood, all across America.

Then, just when I thought the idiocy couldn't get any thicker – BAM! A panel of men were called before Congress to discuss whether religious institutions that employ secular people should be required to cover birth control in their healthcare plans.

Sandra Fluke, a young law student at Georgetown University, one such Catholic institution, who was an advocate for having birth control included in these plans, was not allowed to speak before the panel. So, she took to the airwaves to address the issue. Her appearances on news programs caused a rabid anti-woman backlash, and she was labeled "a slut" and worse by the likes of radio talkshow muculent, Viagrasaurus Rush.

In the heat of all of this, I got a Facebook message from actor and activist Martha Plimpton, asking if I wanted to join forces and do something about all this "slut"-shaming.

The idea was simple: create an advocacy group called "A is For" that has a few goals: first, to launch an amazing website with the most up-to-the-minute reproductive rights news, which could serve as hub for women and men to share their stories about why protecting reproductive rights is so important; and second, to raise money for the groups like pro-choice organization Naral and the Center for Reproductive Rights, which are fighting the big battles. Our logo would be a scarlet letter "A", reclaiming the symbolism of The Scarlet Letter and our hope was that women and men would wear the "A" proudly, announcing to the world: " I am a sexual being, I support all aspects of reproductive health and I will not be shamed into silence about it."

Last March, then, I ventured to LA and met with a group of amazing women Martha had assembled, and so we started making videos, making scarlet A's, and defining what our mission would be. And seven months later, we have women and men walking around all over the country wearing that scarlet A, proudly declaring their support for women's reproductive rights.

But I also wanted to expand my reach and make some videos that address issues using the language I speak, that candidly combine truth and humor, and hit hard just what is at stake in this election. I was inspired by my pal Sarah Silverman, who, during the 2008 presidential election, made a huge difference in Florida with her video "The Great Schlep", creating an amazing call to action, simply being her. No censorship, no worries about who it would offend, just Sarah: knowing and trusting that her hilarious voice and message would generate action. It did.

And then, in 2012, she scissored her dog in the name of introducing to a whole lot of people who may otherwise have never learned about him a major GOP money-machine named Sheldon Adelson. And no one but Sarah would think of calling for arming the elderly in the name of exposing voter suppression laws. People sat up and took notice. They laughed. Then they Googled. Then they got angry. Then they got active.

I wanted to do that with my repro rights videos. I raised some money on Indiegogo, teamed up with the amazing creative team at Revolution Messaging, made six videos and launched Lady Parts Justice.

Our first video, called "It's the Law", is an uncomfortable, hilarious and real video about a law in some states that forces a woman to pay extra for a medically unnecessary vaginal probe that takes pictures of her womb before she can terminate a pregnancy. That video had 635,000 views in 72 hours. My inbox was flooded with questions asking whether the law was real, or saying that they were shocked to find out that laws like this exist; they asked us if we can please make more videos that expose other pieces of legislation which these creepy politicians are trying to pass.

Some told me they hadn't realized how bad it had gotten and thanked me for the reminder. That was exciting. But when people asked where they could get more information on other awful laws proposed or passed, it felt pretty cool to say, "Go to 'A is For'", knowing all the detail was there.

But now the assaults on sanity have started to feel like relentless cluster bomb attacks: seems like half of my day is spent slack-jawed staring at the news, gobsmacked as unqualified kook after unqualified kook keeps getting elected spouting things like women no longer die during childbirth, or that the chunks of toxic bilge that spew from antiquated factories have nothing to do with our melting earth, or maybe the weirdest of all, that more than a few folks, some of whom sit on the US supreme court, believe a bunch of cells in a woman's body and Walmart are people.

But when I talked to people about what affected them the most, it was not about a specific issue, rather the epidemic of how a lie gets repeated over and over again – and how the media seemed pretty lax at calling out the bull, and thus these lies were starting to become truths. Someone needed to correct the record. And who better to do that than comedians?

So, in one phone call with comedian and fellow troublemaker Elon James White, and FilmAid executive director and make-it-happenist Liz Manne, we came up with the concept of "Actually". Our plan was make series of videos using clips of some of the most egregious political lies, and then we turn to our most trusted information sources – comedians – to correct the record. Each rebuttal starts with the word "Actually": the word that so many of us say right before opening a can of whoop-ass.

We wanted to do it right, so to produce them, we called the folks at Schlep Labs who had made all the wonderful videos Sarah Silverman had done. We pitched the idea to American Bridge to see if they wanted to finance the project. They were in, and in less than a month, and for way less than the millions poured into rightwing political ads that push lie after lie, we had Rosie Perez, W Kumau Bell, Elon James White and Jay Smooth all doing amazing videos setting the record straight.

The best part for me was that Sarah and I, who usually spend our limited time together laying in a hotel bed with a few dogs and some junk food, watching a Law and Order marathon, teamed up and took on that hideous notion that "Corporations Are People." Voila, Actually.org was born: a fact-checking website with added fun. Could there be a better public service?

Now you have some answers about whether or not these celebrity ads work. They do wake people up, and using humor backed up with facts is an amazing one-two punch for re-energizing some folks who have been feeling deflated about politics. And there is one other thing you should know: many of the celebs you see in these ads face opposition from managers or agents who tell us not to step up because it may offend some conservative network executive, or alienate the viewers of certain cable channels. They warn we will be branded as partisan.

Hell, I've already been branded as a whore and worse because I dare speak out about the radical notion that because women are sexual beings they should have all the access they need to affordable healthcare. I'll take "partisan".

I tell you this because when you see ads where someone famous sticks their neck out for a cause, they are taking a risk that they may lose fans and work.

Actually, they do it because they believe in something greater than themselves. So, when you feel like shitting all over a celebrity for speaking out and taking a stand, remember they don't have to; they are chosing to do something for the greater good, and are willing to take a hit for it.

All I ask is that if your first response to seeing a celeb talking about an issue is "What an asshole", think about what they are saying. Then, think again.