Representing America - American Literature AP - Blog

Buckwheat Sings

To give some background, Buckwheat was a character in a series called Our Gang (Little Rascals) that ran from 1934-1944. The "Buckwheat" character was subject to controversy in later years because it contained elements of the "Sambo" or "Jim Crow" stereotypes.

Eddie Murphy made a series of Buckwheat videos in the 1980's. He appears as an adult Buckwheat and highlights the issues with the Buckwheat character. This video appeared on SNL and uses parody and hyperbole to make fun of and criticize the Buckwheat character. Eddie Murphy uses parody by imitating Buckwheat's hair, clothing, characteristics, etc. He uses hyperbole to exaggerate Buckwheat's behaviors for comic effect.

Are you wearing ladies underwear?

This scene above from Shrek 2 is an example of a parody in the literature of satire. The scene shows all of the fairy tales characters going to save other fairy tale characters. It is a parody in sense because it begins with the Mission Impossible theme song. This sets the mood for them to do something totally bad ass. Then it shows the famous puppet Pinocchio going down the tunnel by his puppet strings to save Shrek, Donkey who is now a stallion and Puss in Boots. One the way down he gets tangled and the Gingerbread Man jumps on him. They need Pinocchio to tell a lie to make his nose grow so the Gingerbread man can reach Shrek. They tell Pinocchio to say he's wearing ladies underwear, and when he says it his nose doesn't grow. When he says he's not wearing ladies underwear his nose grows. 

This shows how Shrek 2 is making fun of the common stereotypes of all of the fairy tales. It shows us that fairy tales are not real and that we shouldn't believe them to be true so people won't try to live up to those expectations. In every movie of Shrek, there are plenty examples of satire and they all try to get the point across that fairy tales are stories and are not true. People want fairy tales to be true, with all of the happy endings and the princess being rescued from the tower surrounded by a moat. The truth is that all of it is made up and we just have to accept it. 

Wii Fit Parody

This parody of the new spin off of working out called the Wii Fit, is quite hilarious. The director, or at least the narrator, uses irony throughout the entire video to conduct a complete opposite meaning of what the product is attempting to have people do.

The Wii Fit sends a message to the viewers of its commercials and the consumers that buy the product that working out can be as easy as pulling out your Wii, standing on a white piece of plastic, and moving the equivalent amount of walking about a half of a block. Also, through the original commercial, the Wii is advertising the product to be something that can bring the whole family together to have fun, but lets be honest, when one wants to get in shape the first thing they think of is not usually how they can get their family involved.

The real message behind this, I believe, is the unconscious image that the media embeds into the heads of many Americans that a perfect body is necessary for a happy human and the Wii is telling America that it is as easy as moving your leg back and forth to get that ideal body. 

The parody includes situational irony through elaborating on how what the people are doing in the commercial is the close to the exact opposite of what you have to do to get in shape, is very comedic and does successful take on the ironic form of satire.