Wednesday, October 12, 2016
PB1A - Satire
The genre I chose for this first project builder is Satire. Satire is a genre of literature that uses sharp humor for the purpose of mocking social issues and society in general. There are a few different classifications of satire: Horatian, Juvenalian, and Menippean. Horatian satire mocked human error instead of evils so the reader can understand what's being criticized and can laugh at themselves. Juvenalian satire uses strong irony and sarcasm to aim at people in power (public officials, governmental organizations). Menippean satire usually aims at bigots, braggers, etc.
Satire has plenty of different conventions. The form of comedy mostly aims at groups of people other specific people. Its humor is ironic, witty and extremely exaggerated. It is also implicit and assumes the reader is aware of the situation being criticized. Satire is aimed towards those who can understand the topic being criticized. Knowing of those events or people will allow the reader to appreciate the humor more. The purpose of satire is mainly to criticize foolishness and corruptness, whether it is of a society/group, or an individual. One source of satire is excerpted from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel by Mark Twain based in post-slavery America. This story mocks America’s justice system at the time of its publishing. "The judge and the widow went to law to get the court to take me away from him and let one of them be my guardian; but it was a new judge that had just come, and he didn't know the old man; so he said courts mustn't interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he druther not take a child away from its father. Although the townsfolk know of Pap's drunkenness, abuse, lack of education, and overall poor character, the court gives him custody because he's the biological father”( Twain, 16). Another Example is from The Onion, the well-known news satire organization that publishes articles on the international, national, and local news. One of its articles was titles was titled “Trump Vomits Immediately After Seeing Everyday Americans Up Close.” The false articles spoke on how Donald Trump is sick to his stomach at the sight of normal citizens, implying he only spend his time around highly-wealthy, people in power, which is not entirely true.
Possibly the greatest source of written satire is the script/ screen wright of Saturday Night Live. SNL is one of America’s longest running television shows that are comprised mostly of comedy sketches. Saturday Night Live has taken comedic shots at any American President, Presidential Candidate, governor or mayor of the last 40 years. In the very first season of the show, Chevy Chase brilliantly portrayed President Gerald Ford as a bumbling idiot. In 2008, during the Presidential race, Sarah Palin (VP Nominee) and Hillary Clinton (Pres. Candidate) where portrayed by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Sarah Palin was portrayed goofy and clueless by Fey, exaggerating how the female politician acts in real life.
Sources: The Onion Huckleberry Finn Satire Conventions
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Jonah,
ReplyDeleteWe talked about this in class, but just to reiterate: satire is more of a STYLE of writing than a specific genre. You could have satiric news articles, satiric plays, satiric songs, satiric memes, etc. Satire itself, though, is an idea that spans many different genres.
So, you brought up The Onion, which is a great way to think about all of this. Think about our “Nesting Doll” activity in class: on one level, “news articles” could be considered a genre. Then, you could have “satiric news articles” as another sub-genre. (But THEN, you could even have something like “satiric news articles HEADLINES/titles.”)
Let’s think about the genre of satiric news—what common surface-level features do they share? Well, like you mentioned, the information isn’t true—it’s obviously false. They’re intended to make us laugh, and in order to do that, the reader probably needs to have some kind of background understanding of the topic. But think about the way it’s written: how, exactly, is it like a news article? What elements of an ACTUAL news article does it contain? Do they include fake interviews/quotes? Do they open up with a “set the stage” sentence that is supposed to hook us? Do they end with what we—as readers or citizens or something—should expect next?
In ENG 101-108, I’m trying to train you to become super-observant so that you can get down to the nittiest of details and adhere (if that’s what you want to do) to the audience’s expectations for all the different genres that you’ll write here on out. By gaining a deeper and more critical reading awareness, you’ll be able to adopt/adapt writer’s choices (their writing) into your own writing. You’re off to a good start, Jonah.
Z
The examples given of satiric writing/acting were very accurate. Jimmy Fallon has mastered the art of written and acted out satire with his history of TV shows such as, as you stated, SNL, the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and the Tonight Show. You're written sources and quotes were nicely chosen as were the entertainment sources. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was one of the best possible selections for an example of Satire. I also never knew that satire was broken down so far as who was targeted for each satirical act.
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