Representing America - American Literature AP - Blog

Stolen Valor Act

In one of my classes last week, we discussed ethics and how it affects people in our society. This specific situation deals with a man who claims he had gotten medal of honor in award for his duties in the military, and because he lied they accused him of  violating the "Stolen Valor Act."

 

He pleaded that this was a violation of the 1st ammendment (which I agree). The stolen valor act, to me, is quite controversial because this act is attempting to make speech, like satire and parody potentially a crime just because they arent truthful (4:50-5:05). Is this act justified under this certain situation? It doesnt seem realistic considering tv shows like Tosh.0, Daily Show, Colbert Report are fueled off this type of humor.

Just Eat It

 

A parody is one example of satire. It is basically used to show foolishness in humans, organizations, or governments. It usually ridicules society to effect political or social change. Weird Al Yankovic's songs are a perfect example of parodies.

Weird Al is an artist who creates parodies of many popular songs. Specifically in this song he uses the song "Beat It" by Michael Jackson to help him send a message out to our society. In this parody, he is basically arguing that Americans take things for granted and are very stubborn. He says at one point, "Well don't ya know that other kids are starving in Japan, so eat it, just eat it!" This argues that Americans are picky which proves that we take things for granted. He is criticizing the way Americans are by creating a song that calls them out on their mistakes. If people know about the embarrassing truth, they are bound to change sooner or later. 

Would You Pass?

 

On a recent episde of Conan, host Conan O'Brien pretended to take a U.S. citizenship test because of the recent government proposal that U.S. citizens should have to take the same U.S. citizenship test that immigrants are required to take. This is a recurring skit on Conan's late night show, and is particularly effective because of its satirical nature. When Conan brought his show to Chicago last summer, he even had mayor Rahm Emmanuel give him a 'Chicago citizenship test'. Conan is criticizing the fact that hopeful U.S. immigrants are expected to be able to pass this test when many current American citizens would not be able to pass the test. Although Conan's message, or at least his show's message, is that the current U.S citizenship test is not a fair decision factor for who deciding who should be allowed to be a citizen, he adds humor to the situation through also criticizing American culture, such as it's obsesion with pop culture and celebrities, and it's lack of knowledge on important current issues. He also relates to his audience through his satirical humor, such as when he says that no one cares about the location of the Liberty Bell or Mount Rushmore. Thus Conan is able to voice his / his show's opinions about serious issues in an entertaining, appealing way without sounding forceful or dry. Satire has the power to not only give a voice to important issues, but to spread awareness of these issues to a wider audience that may not have been aware of them otherwise. 

Elephant Irony

The following story in this link perfectly fits the definition of Irony, it is just like the goldilocks example that Mr. Heidkamp used in class today. The story makes you think that its going to be a happy story with a happy ending, but all of the sudden it slaps you with the good old irony, check it out. pretty funny

READ THE STORY FIRST!!

Man and Elephant Irony story

 

 

Race in American Culture

The blogging assignment for American Studies -- due by Friday, 3/1 -- is to write an original argument in response to the following AP-style prompt:

For all the progress in regards to racial understanding, awareness and acceptance within American society and politics over the past 200 or so years, American popular culture -- with only a few notable exceptions -- has seriously lagged behind, continuing to appear mired in the era of minstrel shows with their simplistic yet powerful and damaging racial stereotypes.

Henrietta Berdanine, professor of Critical Race Theory at Northern Jackson College (1973-)

In a well-organized essay, defend, challenge or qualify Professor Berdanine's view of race in present-day American popular culture. Whether you agree or disagree with her assessment, show your awareness of historical racial stereotypes and support your conclusions with an analysis of specific evidence from American popular culture, such as films, TV shows, music, fashion, books, commercials, etc.

All the requirements for a strong original argument apply -- in terms of a complex thesis, coherent organization, logical use of evidence, awareness of the opposing side and clear, eloquent and original language and voice.  But since you will be writing this on the blog, for an audience larger than just our class, feel free to be looser with paragraph structure and a bit more informal or personal with your language.

Extra credit (due during this or our next blogging cycle):  Discuss a work of contemporary American satire -- a film, TV show, song, etc, from the last few years that uses the techniques of satire to make a larger point about society.  Even though we are in a unit on constructing race, your example does not need to involve race as its primary subject matter.

Your post should include the following:

1. A summary of the work of culture -- maybe including a link to a video or lyrics.
2. An analysis of how the work uses techniques of satire -- irony, hyperbole, understatement, and/or parody.
3. An analysis of how the work is not simply making fun of certain people or institutions but how the work is trying to criticize and ultimately change society. 

Note that we're asking you to do more than just #1 -- giving us an example.  You need to analyze that example.

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.