Ahhhh grade 12, off to a fresh start and an on time blog post. The unit this post will be focusing on is satire, now what is satire, the correct definition is
Satire: “A literary work that ridicules its subject through the use of techniques such as exaggeration, reversal, incongruity, and/or parody in order to make a comment or criticism about it.”

To my understanding of what satire is, is it’s pretty much a parody but you learn something from it. So instead of completely making fun of a topic and not learning anything, you come out with some extra knowledge than before. In class our teacher, Ms Willemse, presented the class with numerous examples of parodies and satires that really helped me with the understanding of what satire is. My personal favourite is the SNL video called Found Footage: Steve introduces the iRack. This is satire as it uses the form of parody as the poke and make fun of the Apple Keynote events but is classified as a satire as they hide and mask the fact of 21,000 American soldiers that were sent Iraq in their performance by using puns and humour.

Since the start of a new school year, the PLP class has written multiple essays all focused around the driving question, How are style and form used to impact meaning? There are a multitude of different styles and forms used to impacted a meaning, but each style caters to a specific audience. For example the style of satire is used a lot to impact a meaning by using the help of humour, so those who appeal to humour will most likely understand the meaning and message trying to be conveyed.
Once the class had a solid understanding of the driving question we were all sent off to create our own video using satirical techniques.

Satirical techniques include:

Exaggeration: To enlarge, increase, or represent something beyond normal bounds so that it becomes ridiculous and its faults can be seen.

Incongruity: To present things that are out of place or are absurd in relation to its surroundings.

Reversal: To present the opposite of the normal order (e.g., the order of events, hierarchical order).

Parody: To imitate the techniques and/or style of some person, place, or thing.

 

 

My video was partnered between Nash, Cashel and I (fellow pulps, and friends), but our teacher told us specifically not to have a group video. So we abided by her rules but we work together to create 3 mini episodes of a TV show called, “Playground Politics” each episode focuses on a world leader who have childish aspects to them. Nash played the well known new president of America, Donald Trump, this leader has multiple childish aspects but his main ones are calling other names and making fun of them, for example calling Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man”.

Next, Cashel played Kim Jong Un, very similar to Trump Kim Jong Un also likes a bit of name calling, for example calling Trump a “Dotard”. Finally, me, I played Vladimir Putin who is very petty and uses petty revenge when he does not get his way. Many political leaders who stood in his way or made fun of him went missing days after trying to knock down the force of Putin.

Our main satirical techniques used in our video were, exaggeration, and parody. The use of parody was present throughout the whole video. As it was a parody of the three world leaders being portrayed as children at a playground either playing or fighting with each other. This can also be seen in the real world as how Donald Trump and Valdimir Putin have been accused of helping each other many times. Also how Trump and Kim Jong Un through countless of insults to each other via social media. Exaggeration was used in the form as making the leaders into children playing with each other in the play ground.

In my video, parody and exaggeration was present throughout every scene. The first scene is Trump asking Putin for help to win the popularity contest, this relates to the accusations of Putin helping Trump win the 2017 presidential election. The next scene is two boys making fun of Vladimir and one of them goes missing, this is a parody and exaggeration of the conspiracy theories of how some Russian politicians go missing after making accusations against Putin he did not agree with. Lastly is a montage of Trump and Putin being friends, this relates to Trump’s tweet saying if Putin is going to the Miss Universe Pageant he will become his new best friend.

I have learnt a lot this unit, especially about the use of parody and satire to help impact a meaning. I also learnt that some TV shows hide and try to convince others of their political views by masking it with satire and parody. For example SNL makes Donald Trump look like a fool by exaggerating every mistake he does as they disagree with his political views. Most importantly I have learnt a lot of ways to impact a message or meaning through different styles or forms.