Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre – Week 5
Causing Cancer
- What is your understanding of the comic form and concepts explored this week, with reference to the reading(s), in-class discussion, and/or your own research?
The comic concept that we have explored this week is Satire. Immediately going into this week’s exploration, I wanted to know what the difference was between Satire and Parody. While they do go hand in hand for some situation, they differ.
“Where parody, as we have seen, draws on – and highlights – aesthetic conventions, satire draws on – and highlights – social ones.” (F, Krutnik, and N, Steve, 1990, p19).
We watched three examples of satire in class which all highlighted the social issue of drug use, however they were all different in their approach. To outline their approaches, I will focus on their primary targets, who are they attacking?
- Brass Eye. — episode 2, “Drugs” (1997) – The British news outlets and the way they exaggerate stories.
- Chappelle’s Show. — “Tyrone Biggums” sketch from season 1, episode 2 (2003) – Drug users and the education system
- Corey White’s Roadmap to Paradise — season 1, episode 10, “The War on Drugs” (2018) – Government drug programs
These works all intend to humour their viewers, however they also build meaning and intent. Especially Brass Eye and Corey White’s piece, they want point the finger and prove that the news we are fed is not always as it seems. I found the Dave Chappelle’s piece was quite funny and ridiculous. While he does use satire in this piece, because of its fictional approach, a serious message of the currupt education system or intent does not feel reached.
- How does your media artefact respond to these constraints and concepts?
We decided to experiment this week with a non-fiction approach. We created a segment show titled ‘Causing Cancer’. Our primary target is the medical industrial practices and constant research for cancer provoking chemicals. Our secondary target is news outlets that are constantly reporting on ‘what gives you cancer’, and never giving enough detail as to how or why.
Writing the script and creating this work in general felt quite ridiculous but that is how we felt when we discussed the absurd number of things that will give us cancer… well what we are told by news outlets. For example, tampons, sunscreen, too much wine, too little wine ect!!
- What have you learned about comedy’s relationship to other forms/genres by making this sketch?
It has been great to learn how comedy can be used as a dominant tool in highlighting social issues. Thinking more about it, we laugh at something that is funny, that should be a good thing. However, sometimes with a satire approach, you laugh, and then question your reaction due to the nature of the comic messaging. I laughed at Chappelle’s skit, however I then thought, ‘imagine if this was real, a man, high on drugs at a primary school, swearing his head off and scaring the children’ – of course in real life that is not actually amusing but very worrying. Making fun of a serious issue should not communicate that it is not serious, rather it is just another one to reach a target audience and help them understand what the issue is. Many people tell jokes or laugh at things to hide/distract from pain, satire is somewhat similar.
Reference:
Krutnik, Frank, and Steve Neale. Popular Film and Television Comedy, Taylor & Francis Group, 1990. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rmit/detail.action?docID=178274.
Created from rmit on 2024-04-11 02:45:44.