Post Class 3-21-2010

As a follow-up to our discussion of Jenkins on Tuesday, we brushed over the differences between satire and parody. A few simple examples that came to mind when I think of satire are Jonathon Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" and (a more contemporary example) The Brady Bunch Movie, wherein the fictitious Brady Bunch family resided in the typical suberbs of 1995. The film was a satire because it critiqued family values preached on the original Brady Bunch Show from the 1970s, as these "family values" were tested in a new era - the 1990s environment. Sketch comedy shows like Saturday Night Live or Mad TV are also considered satires, because they tend to comment openly on current and topical social issues. When I think of parody, Scary Movie comes to mind, obviously because it is parodying other horror films. Two others would be "The Daily Show: with John Stewart" and "The Colbert Report;" these two shows are comedic parodies of actual nightly news reports and should be treated as mere entertainment.

However, I found myself watching "The Colbert Report" earlier this week and was pretty impressed with one of Colbert's "news" segments, in which he discusses Senator Patrick Kennedy yelling in front of Congress for the lack of press coverage on our war in Afghanistan. Kennedy complains that the media is clearly covering the Eric Massa scandal, and ignoring efforts to end the war in Afghanistan. Colbert sides with Kennedy in satirizing a media obsession with dodging "convoluted details." In this bit, Colbert presents the word "Afghanistan" next to his face while discussing some monotonous, yet pertinent information regarding our troops in Afghanistan. Then Colbert quickly looks into a different camera and excitedly tells some "juicy details" pertaining the Massa scandal, usually ending with a funny punchline. He then looks back and talks about Afghanistan for a few moments, and pulls away for tantilizing details of the Eric Massa scandal. Colbert continues this act until, hopefully, you get it.

I thought it was a good example of satire, especially when the critique is centered toward our media. So, I thought it was pretty funny. Here's a link to it, if you want to check it out:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/267525/march-15-2010/the-word---afghanistan