(the weekly reading links weren’t working for me when i wrote this)

This week in class we covered the comedic ‘genre’ of satire a genre in which I have a decent amount of experience in consuming, though I’d struggle to come up with a solid definition. Though I know how to identify satire finding the difference between it and parody is a little harder. In class we discussed that the difference between the two is that while parody draws on aesthetic conventions, satire draws on social ones, though parody can be used as a form of satire.

I enjoy a lot of satirical media though I sometimes find there can be troubles balancing the social commentary and the actual humour, one example is the episode of ‘Corey White’s Roadmap to Paradise’ which was all bout the ‘War on Drugs’. Personally I didn’t really enjoy it as it almost felt like the fact it was meant to be comedic was forgotten and it just became very dull and overly preachy, which would have been fine had I not had the expectation for comedy going into it. The brass eye episode I felt was far more effective as it maintained humour throughout while also shedding light on a real issue.

My group media artifact was focused on the recent trend of ‘naarmcore’ which is, in essence, rich (usually white) online influencers and younger people co-opting an indigenous word and turning into a weird sort of fashion-trend where everyone acts like they are the most unique people on the planet. To satirise this we made a ‘naarmy’ recruitment video that makes fun of both this trend and over-the-top army commercials aimed at our generation. We decided to make a satirical parody as we felt like we could be more creative by drawing on already set aesthetic conventions.