How many times have I heard it? “We need comedy now more than ever.” Friends. Acquaintances. Business associates. Strangers when they learn that for decades I ran a comedy club on Broadway with my name on the marquee. Those words just pop out of their mouths. I heard it after Sept. 11, during the 2008 financial collapse, and during the pandemic, and as we head into the most fraught election season in my lifetime, those words ring like a drumbeat in my ears. With this presidential election finally here, we need comedy more than ever. But we need it in a way that might surprise you — we need it together, not alone on our iPhones giggling at some snarky X post. Hear me now and believe me later: laughing in a group of laughing human beings in a live setting, sharing the same experience, soothes the soul. It is a good thing for all of us, no matter political orientation or beliefs. This is how comedy can carry us through this rocky period. This is comedy’s legacy: a force to unite us. We must laugh with each other and at ourselves, together, rather than at each other from across the aisle or across the country. I think about how comedy and its role in our society have changed during the 40 years I have been in the biz, especially how we now engage with it. Historically, when there was a tragedy, comedy was part of the healing process that bound us all together. Indeed, the combination of comedy and tragedy goes back to Aristophanes and ancient Greece, the birthplace of democracy. Let’s jump ahead to Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and David Letterman — yes, they all touched on current affairs in opening monologues, and timely political jokes. “Saturday Night Live” has played a powerful role in our election cycles — as it has with its cold openings (Dana Carvey as a tottering Biden? Jim Gaffigan as an overly emotional Walz? Hysterical) so far this season. But in the past, comedy was more of a side dish. Now it’s become the very center of our national conversation. Political comedy on programs like “The Daily Show,” “Real Time with Bill Maher,” “The Joe Rogan Experience” and a host of other contemporary comics are the main course, the way so many of us get information. I marvel at this, and wonder how healthy it is. Or maybe it is absolutely necessary in such times — a buffer between us and reality. And it’s front-and-center in this election, like it or not, with cracks about one candidate’s laugh, memes about cats and comments about garbage. When we began the New York Comedy Festival in 2004, we had roughly 50 comics at seven venues for a total of 16 shows. Now after 20 years we have more than 200 comedians in 50 venues throughout the city. In those days, comics worked in clubs and bars. Now they fill theaters and arenas like Madison Square Garden. So, you see what I mean when I say it’s growing. This year, the festival starts a few days after the election. When we planned it, we wanted to avoid Election Day itself. But the way things are going — and if recent presidential elections are any indication — the counting or re-counting may still be underway when the first show, “Dead Funny – An All-Star Tribute to Joan Rivers” takes the Apollo stage starting Thursday. Remember when Election Night meant the election was actually over? Will there be claims of fraud, ballot stuffing or folks being turned away from polling places? Will the Democrats’ switch to Kamala look in retrospect like a brilliant play or a heavy-handed mistake? Will we be too stressed to think about anything but the future of our country? One thing is for certain, we will need a laugh — and probably more than one. Because no matter whose side you’re on, win or lose, reality will be awfully hard to take for half the nation. I’m betting we will all hunger for a big dose of laughs as the smoke clears, and we’ll want to laugh with others laughing all around us. We are all in it together. I know we can laugh together. I just know it. If I’m wrong, well, the joke’s on me. Hirsch ran an eponymous comedy club in Manhattan for 40 years, and founded the New York Comedy Festival, which is celebrating 20 years this year from Nov. 7-17.