Satirical Comedy : Fice Essay

In the film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a confabulation took place between a nonsensical King Arthur and a soldier with a keen interest in birds. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail we see everyday acts of chivalry, being hilariously mocked. “What, ridden on a horse?”

It is not unseasonable to believe that because stereotypes are appearing so commonly in comedy, they will reinforce those stereotypes rather than help society rid itself from them. Extinguishing stereotypes is impossible. Researchers have determined that the creation of stereotypes is a natural function of the brain (Paul, par. 2). In attempt to make light of a problematic issues, comedians use stereotypes to denounce stereotypes. The first thing that we should understand is that comedy is comedy. This does not mean that it should not be taken seriously as frequently advised. Comedy should be embraced and takes seriously but not in the

Manbearpig: Half Man, Half Bear, Half Pig, but All Global Warming? South Park is a popular animated comedy series written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. While the episodes of South Park are always humorous on the surface, each show usually has a deeper, much more profound meaning and moral. One episode of South Park entitled Manbearpig, named after the monster in the episode, has a particularly potent deeper meaning. On the surface, the episode pokes fun at monster stories, politics, and specifically Al Gore. Deeper down, however, this monster story can be read as a national allegory alluding to the dangers of global warming, the problems with the politics behind global warming, and the eventual doom we will all face

This piece analyzes the sitcom in comparison to stand-up comedy. In the chapter “What’s So Funny About America?” sitcoms are broken down into elements that contrast those of stand-up. Marc describes the two forms of comedy as very different. He states that sitcoms depend on “familiarity, identification, and redemption of popular beliefs” while stand-up normally relies on “the shocking violation of normative taboos.”

But there is a common point exists in both their works: the exploration to the relationship between human and the increasingly mechanized society. Although it might be argued that the narrative logic in silent comedy is irrational and the gags are surreal and dreamlike, the fantasy world in slapstick comedy is more or less reflect the real society and the uncertainty as well as curiosity when people confront the new changes in their day to day life. As Bilton writes, ‘comedy’s fantastical harmlessness, its tendency to code phenomena as nonsense, its relief of anxiety via the explosive but innocuous release of laughter – all these suggest the comforting panacea of entertainment.’ Maybe the most comfortable way for people to face the unknown is to make the uncertainty into something that can be laugh about, that is, the slapsticks.

Ever since the times of Ancient Greeks we see comedy in theatre, and now in film, that points out human flaws that are laughable. Irony in satire is there to make us think about our flaws, whether they are individual, social, or political. If satire in theatre used to make people laugh at individual flaws like greed or lust, at the same time it served a purpose to prompt change. However, the way that stereotypes are used in current films, not only prompts adverse change, like reestablishing negative stereotypes, but it also all too often infringes on sensitive subjects like racism and feminism. Through an analysis of a movie Spy, one can see how a stereotype of a woman is used to show that deviations from it leads to terrible implications, and all kinds of failures. The movie Spy intends to emphasize that women can play an important role in today’s society and work environment; however, the negative character in Spy comes due to a weight disorder and overly comical female character image Cooper (Melisa McCarthy) who is doubted, not respected, and discriminated against. Ultimately, the lead character’s central purpose is to provoke laughter, not admiration.

Throughout Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Oscar Wilde routinely uses satire throughout the story amongst character dialogue and actions to scorn the Victorian society audience. Oscar uses satire to mock love, and the concept of marriage as well as the Victorian-aristocratic class system and society mentality. The play is described as “A trivial comedy for serious people”. Satire makes this seemingly serious play into a comedy, but nevertheless Wilde uses the play to tackle subjects such as marriage, hereditary priveleges, education, the Church, sexual roles and language, and also tells us that

István Czachesz has stated that scatological humour is “the simplest and perhaps the most ancient dramatic device to make readers, onlookers and listeners laugh” .Nevertheless, nowadays we often treat ‘toilet humour’ as a vulgar form of comedy, thus the discussion of this unsubtle and grotesque humour is limited. However, within this analysis I will endeavour to refute this affirmation by demonstrating that scatological humour is a means of astutely underpinning certain aspects of humanity. In light of this, it is worth discussing the motivation of this humour within the medieval texts le pet dou vilain, La Farce du Menuyer and la chanson d’audigier. Pursuant to the fact that “Writers dating from the medieval times… felt relatively at ease

“The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde is a satirical play about the absurdity of upper victorian society and their ludicrous beliefs about marriage. One line in particular, spoken near the beginning of the play, really sets the overall attitude for the remainder of it. One of the main characters, Algy, is trying to get information out of another main character, Jack. During their conversation, Jack makes a point to say that he has told the whole truth at that point, pure and simple. Algy, in relation to what exactly the truth is, states that its “rarely pure and never simple” (Wilde, 6). For the rest of the entire play, we experience just how convoluted the lies given by upperclassmen have gotten. A prime example of this statement in action is when Algy finds a cigarette case that has Jack’s name on it and is Jack’s but up until this point Algy has known Jack as Ernest so Algy has no idea whose cigarette case it is.

‘A Comedy of Errors’ is a traditional play by William Shakespeare. In 2009, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s ‘As Told by An Idiot’ performed to a primary school a comedic, imaginative version of this play. It included many techniques which make it an example of a combined arts piece. It is also made more comedic to appeal to the younger audiences. The performance included actors, a band and dancers. The actors of the show became the band when they were not on stage. It also allows the audience to get involved during the performance. The troupe used little in the form of backgrounds but made up for it in the ingenious and truly imaginative ways they used props and their own skills to bring the story to life.

Satire is a term applied to any work of literature or art whose objective is

“The Office” is a popular comedy show that originated in the UK and ventured into the U.S. It is popular among mostly millennials but can be cross-generational because of the different cohort groups that are represented in the show. The run down is that it’s a mockumentary about a mediocre paper company called Dunder Mifflin and the workers that cohabitate within. With Michael Scott being a kind, lenient yet socially unaware and naive branch manager also having an extremely wide variety of personalities coexisting in this primary social agent the episodes never fail to entertain. Exemplifying very simple humor, this show can be argued as mind numbing comedy, however, I believe there are so many sociological layers that are only evident

Gender is one of the most basic forms of human communication and one of the most essential forms of expression in society, yet the concept of what gender actually is is greatly skewed, over-dramatized, and politicized. Almost every form of media, education, and/or entertainment rigorously enforces the ideals to which culture holds and views people of different genders. Most of this is done so by oppressing individuals who do not fall within the provided spectrum. Society finds a language of humor in transsexualism, intersexualism, homosexual expression, and other means of crossing the socially constructed boundaries of what the public deems gender ‘is’ and ‘is not’, and it poses groups of people as the punchline to a joke. Like many forms of oppression, this works to dehumanize and objectify as well as comically stereotype the people who fall into the category of ‘queer’ in their expression, therefore justifying passive ignorance in the public eye. The consequences of this autocratic ‘gender/sex binary exclusive’ mindset are deadly.

Philosophy, comedy, tragedy and epic. What do all of these literary components have in common? They are all still commonly known and widely used in today’s literature, but where did they originate? The answer is ancient Greece. Greek writers from as far back as the eighth century BC have shaped our modern literature in such a profound way that could never be ignored. Homer’s Iliad is a prime example of Greek literature that has impacted modern works. One such modern story influenced by Homer’s work is the Ranger’s Apprentice series written by John Flanagan. More specifically, the fifth and sixth books of Ranger’s Apprentice shows quite a few elements from book twelve of the Iliad, which details the battle at the Grecian wall.

Last year when I signed up to take a humanities course and saw that there was a course called Sacred Humor, I was pretty excited. I had no idea what I was in for but the title of the course made it sound like it would be entertaining and just funny in general.That’s how I picked this class, I saw the name and said ‘oh this sounds cool’ without actually ever reading what the course was about. And even though I had heard of you as professor from my suitemate and friends, I still wasn’t sure I would be getting myself into. In my mind I think I was expecting a class of about jokes and finding topics that many find to be very touchy but finding the humor in. But that is not what I got; what I received was taking a dive into the Bible, that many claim isn’t supposed to be funny, and deconstructing the stories and finding the humor within them.