Reani King

Satire and Parody as a Genre

Definitions:

Parody: The imitation of either formal or thematic elements of one work in another for

              Humorous purposes. www.newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Terms/parody

Satire: Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.       

             Candy Berry. An attack on someone or something by making it look ridiculous or worthy of scorn; although satire is usually funny it differs from comedy: whereas comic laughter needn’t be directed at any particular target, satire is always derisive.

            www.newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Terms/parody

Example:

       Satire: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 1989. Shows one man’s vice and stupidity through a series of events.

       Parody: Scary Movie 2 . Movie imitates several different movies including:

                     The Exorcist, Chalie’s Angels, and Poltergiest.

Representational genre: drama or dialogue

Narrative genre: Comedy, Romance

Subject genre: movies, songs, novels, plays, books

Identifiable Highlights:

 Satire: Imitates the natural or acquired absurdities of mankind, ludicrous in accident, situation, and character. From Comic Theory and Practice  handout.

Parody: Adds a comic twist to a portion of The Exorcist.

Additional Examples:

Satire: Liar,Liar, Gulliver’s Travels

Parody: Airplane, Naked Gun

Alternative names/related genres:

  Comedy, burlesque

Questions:

What do you think motivates writers to come up with the ideas for parodies?

Why are satirical comedies so popular?   

Class Discussion

Amiee Anne: Any time something serious is made light of it becomes humorous. Everyone has gone to look for a Christmas tree.

Kelly: When something gets so big like Michael Jackson’s “Bad” it needs to be taken down a notch. In this case it was Weird Al’s “Fat”.

Dr. White: A parody is a way of saying O.K. we’ve had enough of this.

Dr. White asked a question about what qualifies Liar Liar a satire.

Reani replied that at the beginning of the movie the teacher asks the children what their parents do for a living. The son of Jim Carry’s character says that his father is a liar. The teacher says “A lawyer?”

Dr. White: This movie is a satire about lawyers.

When commenting on the parody of The Exorcist

Dr. White: Isn’t there a whole parody on The Exorcist?

Student: Yes, Repossessed.(laughter from the class).

The class also discussed the musical parodies done by Cledus T. Judd.

One student commented that he liked the artists that he makes fun of and the singers of the original songs are sometimes in his videos.

When discussing the motivation of writers to write parodies one student told the class that they wouldn’t choose a movie that no one had seen.

Student: You would parody the big money making movies.

Question #2

Aimee Anne: You see people doing ridiculous things that you would like to be able to do.

Kelly: You get to live through the actions of the people in the movie. For instance, in The Faculty we can’t really take the actions of those in the movie, but boy I have a list.

Dr. White: Satire and Comedy blend in and out. I appreciate the two presentations (on satire & parody). I will rewrite the section on satire to include some of the ideas that the two presenters brought out.