Representing America - American Literature AP - Blog

Stewie Situational Irony

Family Guy is known for its clever use for satire. In this particualar episode, Stewie appears on the side of his mom's bed and seems as if he needs her urgently because of the use of his mom's first name which is Lois. After Stewie screams her name for the twenty-seventh time, she answers in a frustrated tone. Surprisingly, Stewie replied, "Hi."

This is an example of situational irony because when Stewie screams his mother's name so much, viewers tend to think that he wants something very important like he needs his diaper changed. Instead, just to annoy her, Stewie says, "Hi". It's unbelievable how simple and clever the transition from Stewie saying Lois to mama. This is the reason why the writers of Family Guy get so much praise for their work.

Name Twenty

 

 

When one thinks of satire in general, what often first comes to mind are cartoons such South Park, The Simpsons and in this case, Family Guy. This particular clip is no exception and is chock-full of satire. First, before the actual plot even kicks in, one of the infamous Family Guy "cutscene" comes in. They make fun of Beethoven being almost completely deaf by the use of parody. Imitation of the composer in a humorous and extremely exaggerated way is only the warm up for what is about to come.

When Stewie tells Brian the name of his song is "Suzie," Brian sarcastically responds: "Wow, a song named after a girl... there aren't a million of those already." Not only is this sarcasm, but it is also an example of an understatement. Stewie, offended, tells Brian to name a bunch, to which he rattles off a total of 31 without hesitation.

Even though there is no really profound deep meaning about racial issues, Family Guy is making a couple social commentaries: 1) Beethoven was too deaf to be a good composer and it shows in his music (according to them) and 2) there are a ton of songs named after girls. But, even if the commentary is extremely shallow, it gave me a good laugh and I think that's all the writers wanted.

The Importance of Being Earnest: Satire at its Finest

The movie (and play) The Importance of Being Earnest, is one of the most perfect examples of satire in our culture.  Although it is set in England, it makes fun of the upper class.  The play uses dramatic irony to show how Oscar Wilde sees the upper class as too formal and snobbish.  It is dramatic irony because the characters in the play obviously think that they are high class with their multiple houses and butlers even though the author thinks that the upper class is too snobbish.  

The show also uses hyperbole to make its point.  Every character in it is exaggerated.  The characters Jack and Algernon are both willing to change their names to Earnest just because the women they love say that they will only love a man named Earnest.  This is an example of how much emphasis Wilde believes that society places on love and how important it its to us.

Weird Al Yankovic - "Fat"

 

This is a video by "Weird Al" Yankovic called "Fat". It creates humor with parody and situational irony at the beginning of the video. The song and the video are a parody of Michael Jackson's "Bad". This video is a parody because it replaces all the words to Jackson's song but still keeps the beat and the rhythm. The reason why it is because the video focuses on the issue of obesity in America. It uses hyperbole and dramatic irony to highlight this. The hyperbole would be the fat suit suddenly inflating when there is a showdown between the two groups of fat people. The video also uses dramatic irony when the two fat guys ambush Al and ask him why he isn't eating with him and making fun of him for being on a diet.

The video is supposed to show frequent and prominent obesity is in America. It makes you think about your eating habits. For me, personally, it sends that message "if we continue to eat fast food, this is what gang showdowns are going to look like in a couple of years except without the dancing". The video force you to look at your lifestyle and think about how your eating habits are affecting your body. It criticizes the fact that, at the time, a large number of  Americans were and still are becoming more obese. This video sends the message that we should eat healthier to live longer

Criticism... will it ever end?

All of the books weve read this semester have been criticisms of America at some point in history: The Scarlet Letter brought light upon fallacies in Puritan society, The Crucible showed us the flaws in Puritan society and during the Red Scare,  Frederick Douglass exposed us to the reality of slavery and racism before the Civil War, Huckleberry Finn poked fun at the ignorance of uneducated racists, The Catcher in the Rye emphasized the "cheesy-ness" of the 1900s, and MacNolia slapped us in the face with a real look at racism in America through the eyes of a black girl growing older. That's quite a list there, and I'd say weve been taken through a pretty good chunk of American cultural history just through reading all of these novels.

Reading all of this cultural criticism and satire got me thinking about the flaws of today's society. I know we're not perfect - America is full of capitalists, elitists, and racists, just to name a few. We might not be as religiously oppressive as the Puritans, but there are still religious battles fought today, sometimes violent ones. We abolished slavery and experienced the Civil Rights movement, but that doesn't mean that race isn't an issue, and it certainly doesn't mean that other types of oppression don't exist today. While we've been reading about imperfections in American culture of the past, we should also stop to realize all of the imperfections in today's world.

This is why I truly hope that future writers will write about us, that in a hundred years English classes will be reading about the flaws in our culture, just as we are doing right now. Our world is not perfect, and it most likely never will be. Criticism in the form of literature should last as long as this world does to open humanity's eyes to the mistakes of their ancestors and make future generations analyze the flaws in their own lives.