I can safely say that humor is basically my entire life. Be
it lame puns, potty humor, or dry-as-a-desert snark, I love to joke around and
laugh at the funny around me. Though there is one comedic device that is so
hard-hitting, yet so misunderstood.
That would be satire
To me, executing satire is like setting up a fireworks show.
It takes considerable time and wit to set up, and once it goes off, it’s rather
loud and obnoxious. And many people don’t care to look at the display and
complain about the noise instead. Point being, people can mistake satire as
being dead serious way too easily. And when people get offended at satire, it’s
almost like a joke in itself (I also love meta-humor).
A common target of offence is the show South Park (which I am
solely watching for research shhh). Just like one doesn’t say “MacBeth” in a
theatre, one doesn’t say “South Park”…. pretty much anywhere in public. The
show cracks up the offensiveness, violence, language, and all-out grossness up
to eleven. And yet they handle satire oh so well. The main reason being that
everyone and everything is a target. There is no “acceptable targets” and
rarely any bias. A short list of everything South Park has made fun of can be
found here.
In many an interview the creaters commented on said case and
said that “[Parker and Stone] describe themselves as ‘equal opportunity
offenders’,whose main agenda is to ‘be funny’ and ‘make people laugh’, while stating that no particular topic or group of
people be spared the expense of being subject to mockery and satire”
That kind of non-discriminating humor is what I admire. Mark
Twain, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn spares no one in his
written landscape. He pokes fun at all sides of race, class, age, and who knows
what else.
Looking at a specific South Park episode, I believe “The Tale
of Scrotie McBoogerballs” would be an appropriate example, mainly because it
satirizes banned books. The script can be found here as well as the actual episode,
if you prefer to watch (Fair warning, both have pretty rude language, but from
what I hear in the hallways, I’m sure any high-school student can handle it).
The basic idea is that the four main boys read The Catcher
in the Rye for class, while being told that the book was extremely
offensive. They read the book and find nothing wrong with it, only that the
main character swears some. The boys think that they can write a book that’s
WAY more offensive than that and write The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs. In fact, it is so offensive that whoever
reads it promptly vomits, and then hails the book as literary genius because
despite the grossness, it was just that good enough to become a national
phenomenon. People even try to find a deeper meaning in the book, as well as align
it with a sociopolitical agenda, despite there being no deeper meaning than
being purposely barf-worthy offensive. There are also jabs at the idea that banned
books cause people to have a desire to kill others. These examples have been
exaggerating the reactions to shocking/brilliant literature as well as people
finding very distant meanings in books than what was intended (with apologies to
all English teachers…). All though any
ridiculous or exaggerated behavior the world might have regarding this book,
the boys were the young commentators of the absurdity satirized.
While effectively parodying and exaggerating aspects of
southern life such as (but not limited to) supernatural beliefs held by slaves,
feuding families, religious revivals, and racist sentiments, Mark Twain also gives
Huck Finn not just a series of adventures, but an opportunity to provide
insight to the behaviors satirized. Another thing the two mediums have in
common is that the perspective provided is one of a kid. And while either Huck
nor Kyle nor San, Kenny, nor (definitely nor) Cartman might be at all exemplar
people, they all seem to have some kind of perspective on what’s going on, and
might be able to notice what’s wrong. And through that commentary and satirical
humor, Twain, and Parker and Stone can make a point and jab at follies indiscriminately, while being funny all the
same.
Sources: Satire comes in many forms, but the ones I focused
on were of parody and exaggeration, as well as the broad use of subject matter.
Through class time and life experience I have learned about what makes satire
satirical, though really, a fart joke would get a good amount of laughter as
well and it doesn’t take much to execute. But humor is humor, and learning
about it is less painful than a lot of things we could be doing
Also I would like to thank Dearest Reader for staying with me
all 800-something words. In this 144 character age, you really are a true
soldier. I salute you.
