Satire
In a society where almost every newspaper headline brings about more bad news, satirical pieces are designed to be a comic relif whilst still adressing the issue. In “The Modest Proposal” by Johnathan Swift, he makes reference to the problem of poverty in Ireland but uses this serious issue to add a comic twist. He is still maing people aware of the issue, yet they are not bogged down by the politics of it.
People enjoy satirical works such as “Borat” as they seem to confirm or broaden our pre - conceptions of certain people, places or things. It pokes fun at some things that are deemed as serious issues within society but shows a new perspective on them and presents them in a way that appeals to an audience not willing to accept the real weight of the issues. ’Scary Movie’ is not viewed as satire as it makes fun of certain things that are not necessarily present within society. Elements such as Aliens landing on earth or zombie girls that emerge from televison sets. In many ways, this movie is of poorer comic value than a piece such as ‘Borat’ and most of the jokes are slapstick humor. Satire forces the audience to broaden their minds and think about the jokes. Much of the humor is linked with real life scenarios and if you are not aware of the issues, then satire does not seem funny. People like how they can realte the jokes from the works of satire to real life issues and see some truths and lies within them.
I enjoy satire most of the time especially when there is truth beneath the humor. In one aspect it teaches you not to take yourself to seriously and be open to interpretation. On the other hand, if the satire is designed to offend people or places it can become unfunny and seem distasteful.
I enjoy certain types of satire that are not too heavy in the weight of their content. Television shows such as ‘Family Guy’ and ‘The Simpsons’ are a couple of my favourites. They present their satirical jokes in a somewhat tasteful way and if you are too young to understand it just goes over your head without making the viewer think twice about what that meant. One of the more controversial pieces of satire is ‘Team America’. Although many comedic elements were included, some of them are offensive to certain groups or people.
I am interested to read Mark Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn’ and to discover what type of satire is involved in his novel.
Yeah, Team America was tough to watch–part of what Parker and Stone do in their movies (and on South Park) is satirize, or at least provoke, people’s reactions to offensive content. And while I’m pretty okay with offensive comment, I have to draw the line somewhere.
Posted December 7, 2006, 11:32 pmI agree how Scary Movie is only making fun of stupid things that no one is going to truly think about, while Borat brings up issues that, while we are all laughing about, we are also sitting in our seats thinking about how horrible it is. And I didn’t find Team America hard to watch, I actually found it funny, but now that I look back to it I was laughing at something that I should have seen as offensive.
Posted December 7, 2006, 11:52 pm