Satire And The Colbert Report

Satire is used in all types of media. Examples can be seen in books, television shows, and even the comic strips in the morning paper. Most people don’t notice it though, because they don’t have an understanding of what satire is, and what purpose it serves. There are a few different types of satire, and several different techniques used to make it effective. These can be seen throughout the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, and in the television show Saturday Night Live.

In Lisa Williamson’s article, “Challenging Sitcom Conventions,” Williamson describes HBO’s original comedies as generally being different from the network sitcoms from the technical, aesthetic, and contextual elements. She mentions one of the examples of HBO’s comedy series, “Curb Your Enthusiam,” to provide how the show approaches in using a docu-real style that benefits the show’s storyline, and this is also evident in the second and fourth episodes of the first season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” titled “Ted and Mary” and “The Bracelet” respectively. While still following the sitcom structure, the show subverts the expectations of standard sitcoms by implementing docu-real style, realistic production value, and the approach of going beyond

However, Peacocke fails to recognize that Family Guy airs tamed comedy for entertainment by demonstrating how many elements that are portrayed on the show exists in our society today without intentionally hurting its viewers.

Comedy has become a part of a vast majority of television shows, especially satirical comedy, rising to the top with shows such as: The Daily Show, Chappelle’s Show and Saturday Night Live to name a few. These satirical comedies have had a vast and continuing impact on the discourse in today’s society. By examining “Black White Supremacy,” by Dave Chappelle and “Conservative Libertarian,” by Jon Steward, through their use of satire, we can see that skits such as these have a lasting impact on society by creating discourse on the objects being mocked. “A Black White Supremacist,” by Dave Chappelle highlights the absurdity of racism by parodying members of white supremacy groups such as the KKK. Whereas, Chappelle is addressing a social justice

Movies I found that use stereotypes of people of color to come off as humor are Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood and Boyz N The Hood. Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is a movie about an African – American coming back to his old community that happens

The article “South Park and the Carnivalesque” written by Alison Halsall delves into both parody and satire within the context of the program. South Park’s Carnivalesque humor, or carnival laughter “is a method by which popular culture in general, and South Park in particular, provides liberation from constraint” (Halsall 24). South Park makes it a point to use humor that provokes the inherent “dirtiness” that we contain, in an attempt to expose cultural aspects that generally go undiscussed (Halsall 34). Through profanity, South Park brings carnival humor down to the basic grotesque humor that serves to “critique linguistic sanitation” (Halsall 34).

The comic by Jim Sizenmore provokes comedy. The comic is used to flip the gender roles in the workplace and make men the joke instead of women. “the phrase girl talk- uttered here by a female executive- gets transformed into a sly joke” (434). Women are usually made a joke in the workplace because many assume they cannot do the job a man can, but this comic made the woman the executive in a meeting, and turned it into her making a joke about the men. “…gets transformed into a sly joke, one that inverts conventional gender hierarchies by making men the object of humor.”

Introduction As defined by Merriam Webster, satire is a way of using humor, irony, sarcasm, and exaggeration to ridicule and criticize something or someone (“Satire”, n.d.). The overall purpose of satire is to draw attention and to criticize issues to create a moral change in society. In 2005 Stephen Colbert debuted in “The Colbert Report”, which is a parody of pundits on Comedy Central’s channel. He is now currently a comedian and talk show host on CBS “Late Show”. Stephen Colbert's testimony on Capitol Hill in front of the House Judiciary Committee demonstrates an exaggerated conservative news pundit and uses his television persona to take on a bias foolishly favoring government.

One example of satire in “Los Vendidos” by Luis Valdez would be the secretary asking for a Mexican-American. When the secretary first comes in she say “As I was starting to say, I’m a secretary from Governor Reagan’s office, and we’re looking for a Mexican type for the administration,”(p. 1292) but that's not really what she was looking for. What she was looking for was a person who looks, acts, and speaks American but has Mexican blood in them. It’s proven when she had denied the revolucuionario model because it was “made” in Mexico.

Throughout my modest proposal, there are many variations of satire used, and some are present more than once. Exaggeration is present in the case with the kid and his American History 101 test. The problem of something so miniscule in this world is dragged out to something so devastating that the kid can not get any sleep, his face turned pale and he could not walk right. The same form of satire is used in Becky’s problem relating to her prom pictures of 2017. She is so worried about a zit appearing on her face that she cannot think about anything else, and that thought consumes her brain every second of the day.

Satire is the use of humor or ridicule to express the stupidity of an individual, government, or company. Through the use of this literary technique Enlightenment thinkers, or philosophers, composed arts to mock several ideals of the time period. Several philosophers at the time were using satire to write novels, the most famous of which was a thinker named François-Marie Arouet or more commonly known by his nom de plume Voltaire. Voltaire wrote a fictional novel called Candide which follows the main character, Candide, through a difficult journey from nobility to farmer. In this writing, François-Marie Arouet used satire to ridicule several beliefs of his time period including the military and social inequality of women.

One of the all-time, greatest shows to ever grace my television screen is, none other than, The Office. Michael Scott, played by Steve Carrell, is every embodiment of how one should NOT talk and act in American society. His language and communicative style completely opposes that which is acceptable. Consequently, I thought what better for me to use in this assignment then a scene from The Office that makes me burst out into laughter time and time again – Season 3, episode 1: “Gay Witch Hunt” (17:00 – 19:45).

At some point in life, almost everyone encounters a situation where a joke is told that makes them uncomfortable. During a comedic routine by Daniel Tosh at the Laugh Factory, an unnamed audience member felt particularly disturbed by one of Tosh’s jokes. After Tosh told one of his famous rape jokes, she pointed out to him and the audience that “rape jokes are never funny.” He was quick to respond, saying that it would be funny if she was raped right there. Although her

This study looks at correlations between watching TV political comedy and watching more formal sources of information like debates. The authors argue that there is a positive correlation between the two medias and also that the younger generations may be more effected by political late-night comedy. It explains that younger people watching these shows will adapt a negative view of democracy like many comedians show, especially Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show.

Many audiences of stand up comedy enjoy hearing their favorite comedian entertain them. But what would one think when a comedian cracks a joke about a sensitive topic, for example, a tragedy that affected hundreds of people. Some may argue that, comedians are not supposed to overstep the boundary of controversial jokes. These controversial jokes are linked with political correctness—which is used to describe language, policies, and measures that are taken to avoid offense to certain groups of people. Comedians are not compelled to restrain from controversial topics due to the topic not being sugar-coated, the higher level of contemplation that the joke can reach, and the job of the comedian—to make the current issue manageable.