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Satire and Parody
The Serious Business of Making Fun
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Also known as:◦ A spoof◦ A send up
The point is to make fun of a person or situation
Examples:◦ Saturday Night Live sketches◦ Weird Al songs
Tone is usually “tongue-in-cheek” or humorous
Parody
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_w9XO9zBePXE/SueFgHSw_qI/AAAAAAAAB3M/X9JzL3-ZQtc/s400/oscars_cartoon.jpg
Example of Parody
May be humorous or serious in tone Targets a specific person or situation Unlike parody, satire has one of three main
aims:◦ to make people aware of a problem ◦ to warn against a situation or problem◦ to promote reform of a situation
Examples:◦ The Daily Show with Jon Stewart◦ The Daily Onion◦ http://www.mediaite.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Jon-Stewart.jpeg
Satire
Satire Example
http://patriotupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/truth-oscars-cartoon.jpg
Every satire or parody has three main elements:◦ A purpose:
To make fun or light of a situation To call for reform To warn To raise awareness
◦ A target: a specific person, issue or situation◦ A tone: a specific attitude on the part of the
author◦ An audience: a set of people towards whom the
text is directed
Four key elements
Where it started…18th Century/Restoration Period
Why it started…The culture began to emphasize reason and intellect over so-called emotional arguments
Who it started with…Dydren, Swift, Pope, Defoe, Johnson, Lord Byron
Forms of satire…novels, short stories, poems, skits, cartoons, videos, films, blogs, websites
What’s the big deal about satire?
has a clear target. exaggerates and distorts the target provides recurring, unrelenting sources of humor. sets up a certain distance between the character
and the audience. does not consider the inner feelings or motives of
the target. confronts the audience with the difference between
what the characters say and do and what we fully understand by their actions.
Pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable, touches a nerve.
How do we recognize satire?
Satire is by nature unfair and the target is only life-like, not a true copy.
A satire fails if the audience thinks it is unclear, stupid or offensive--or chooses, instead, to embrace the trait or person being satirized as admirable. ◦ If they say, “That offends me,” or “Life’s not like that so I don’t
get the point,” or “Hey…maybe we should all be more like that,” then the satire is not very effective.
Remember as well…If it is to be funny, then that sense
of shared moral meaning must exist in the audience as well—it can’t be just something that enrages you…it must enrage your audience as well.
Final words on satire
It may seem easy to put together a satire or parody.
However, satirists have a wide range of tools at their disposal
One of the most powerful tools is irony We’ll look more at these next time.
Cute but so what?
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