My understanding of parody as a comic form has vastly evolved since studying and producing a media artefact this week. I found it interesting within the weekly reading ‘Definitions Genres and Forms’ by Neale Stephan and Frank Krutnik (1990) the emphasis on comedy as a traditional method of portraying the working and lower class. It’s interesting to ponder how comedy has evolved over time, from references to Aristotle to modern day film, however, its traditional origins of basking in humour through depictions of the middle-lower class has still been maintained in modern media, and I wonder why this may have come about/ been sustained.

“Even within the more restricted fields of cinema and television, comedy is, and always has been, marked by its formal diversity. ” (1990)

A prominent component of this week’s readings that I understood was the true multiplexity of comedy as a genre, and how it compares as a mode, means of narrative, and component of media; particularly how it combines and melds with other genres so consistently through time. The genre is incredibly multifaceted, and many media can be considered ‘comedy’ even without meeting specific criteria within comedy as a definition of genre (such as having a happy ending [1990]), which is part of why it’s so difficult to define and analyse at times, and what made this week’s explorations quite intriguing to me.

“In considering comedy, then, we are confronted by a set of terminological distinctions, a variety of forms, and a number of different generic criteria, all of which only correspond with one another to a limited degree.”

I also understood parody further thanks to Joe Toplyn’s chapter ‘Parody Sketches’ (2014). His detailed steps on writing parody inspired me and my group in the formulation of our own parody ideas. For example, his first listed step “For your topic, choose a video that’s ripe for parody.” quotes that it is important to choose a media where “most people have seen it.”. This directly influenced my group’s decision to make a parody of reality TV. Reality TV is consistently watched within Australia (76% according to ACMA [2021]). We also noted that our ‘angle’ in reference to Toplyn’s work could be summarised to something like “It’s a reality TV show but it’s about some students doing a project with an incompetent classmate”, instead of the typical associations of drama, wealth and upperclassery typically associated with this genre. Our production was heavily influenced in tandem with specific reality TV shows such as The Bachelor, Staged (a large influence on the Zoom call aesthetic), Keeping Up With The Kardashians and even simply the vast talent in shows like Masterchef, unrelatable to the ordinary young adult cooking frozen meals). Similarly in alignment with Neale and Krutnik’s appraisal, our content focuses heavily on the middle-lower class, in this case students.

References

• Neale, S. & Krutnik, F. (1990), “Definitions, genres, and forms” in Popular Film and Television Comedy. London: Routledge, pp. 10–25.
• Toplyn, J. (2014), “Parody SketchesLinks to an external site. to an external site.” in Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV, New York: Twenty Lane Media, pp. 239–261.
• Executive Summary: A brief summary of key data found within ACMA’s 2021 study ‘Australians’ viewing experiences of, and attitudes to, Australian-made reality television programs aired on commercial free-to-air channels’. Source: adapted from ACMA 2021.
• Setuniman (2015) Coup 1E42 [Song]. freesound website, accessed 01/04/2024. https://freesound.org/people/Setuniman/sounds/276266/