Tuesday, March 31, 2009
blog 7
Satire is a way to make a point by ridiculing your subject. You present an issue and then present it in such a manner that its point seems ridiculous. To be effective you must make it clear that you are ridiculing your subject because it can look like your supporting it if you don’t. I think the Colbert Report and the Daily Show are good examples of satire. They present political issues in a way that make some points seem wrong or ridiculous and that use jokes, emphasis and sarcasm to great effect. By presenting it in such a manner they make political points clear why at the same time appearing comedic.
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That's Very true that you must make your point clear that you are ridiculing because it can look like your supporting it....The daily show is a great example of a satire, along with saturday night live and comedy central...good response...
ReplyDeleteThe "appearing comedic" part seems important. Certainly most of the examples we've cited have that as a component. I just finished watching six episodes of a tv program, at a friend's suggestion. The British version of a show called The Office. The writer(s) is(are) brilliant. The episodes seem at first purely comedic, almost sit com. But as the season progressed (I guess it was the first season that I watched), the writers kept incrementing up the parody and satire, until by the end of the sixth (and final) episode, I found myself squirming in my seat for fear that I may possess some of the qualities that were being parodied on the show. I was deeply disturbed, actually, by the biting wit of the show's creators. I saw a couple episodes of the American version of the show, and it was very funny, but, the satire was not quite at the level of the British version. The American version is cute and funny. The British version takes a stab at human behavior that we must all exhibit to one extent or another, and is therefore, uncomfortable to watch.
ReplyDeleteQuestion is, are we willing to be the subject of satire and parody? How open to criticism are we? Does the comedic aspect make it easier or more difficult to accept, when it's directed at us? Perhaps this is part of the reason that there was such a backlash against Clemens when he published Huck Finn. People may not have been too happy to be the target of satire, that is, if they understood that they were in fact Twain's targets.
Hey I think that satire doesn't just exist in comedy but it usually is used in comedy because it is easier to understand satire through viewing ridiculing something or somebody on a comedy show. When I used to watch Chapelle show, there was nothing but satire and crude humor on that show. The humor that comes with satire really does make it seem a little less harmful to others, but then again, satire is to ridicule somebody in a very specific but ridiculous way.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. A good satire should not leave a person questioning if it really was a satire. I like the Daily Show and Colbert Report, but I really hope their is no one out there who takes the Colbert Report as fact.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think daily show is a good example of satire, too. Most of the people know that, the things act in the daily show can’t be happened in our daily life; but they are from our daily life. Sometimes we just can’t see something until someone point out for you. I think maybe that’s the power of daily show. Let us to see the issue that we can’t realize in our everyday life by using the exaggerative way.
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