Extra Credit Blog

Extra Credit Blog: Satire

Compose a blog analyzing modern societal uses of satire, and their effects.  Blog should be 1,000 words in length.  Blogs for extra credit are due Friday, March 18, by 8 AM.

            Irony is the essence of satire and every satirist today uses it, because every satirist is writing about the lack of wholeness in their subject. Satire used to be only a literary genre, but present day, it has been transformed from over the years to be commonly found in the graphic and performing arts as well.  In satire, shortcomings and follies are held to ridicule with the main intent to embarrass certain individuals or society itself, hopefully ending up with an improvement. Satire is usually meant to poke fun and get people's attention, but its greater purpose is to provide helpful social criticism using witty ways to prove a big point.  In our society, satire is used on billboards, commercials, T.V shows, and movies.  Satire is just a way for people to get their views on different things out without offending anyone and to bring a light-hearted feeling to it. By grabbing multiple readers' attention through this satirical humor, a lot that would normally be looked over, can be communicated to get important tasks done. Today, satire reaches its audiences through many different types of media, which are ranging from comic strips in the newspapers, to TV programs, stand-up comedy acts, online videos, books, songs, skits and other various shows.

            Fake news is also a very popular form of contemporary satire; a trend led in print by The Onion and carried on by the Humor Times, and online in numerous internet sites like The Giant Napkin. In particular, satirical television shows have become very popular and have a huge following. Thousands of people have said they stay up late now and began changing their habits so that they can watch David Letterman, The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report.  On shows like these, the hosts pick on certain issues going on all over the world and make them humorous to get viewers interested and informed on what's going on around them. Stephen Colbert’s television program, The Colbert Report, is enlightening in the methods of modern satire in America. Colbert's character is an opinionated and self-righteous commentator, who, in his TV interviews, interrupts people, points his finger at them, and unwittingly uses a number of logical fallacies. In doing so, he demonstrates the principle of modern American political satire: the ridicule of the actions of politicians and other public figures by taking all their statements and beliefs to their furthest logical conclusion, which ends up revealing their perceived hypocrisy.

            Satire is also used on the radio. It is shown through radio shows and music that is played all over the radio. In result, this ends up targeting a younger audience because radios are played a lot on commutes in the car and also as a way to keep up with listening to modern music.  Like TV shows, this is a way a lot of information is passed along, and it is effective because of its ability to draw audiences in so well. For instance, radio shows like "Wake Up Call" from 107.9 The End, do exactly this every morning, each and every day. Thousands of listeners from throughout the Sacramento area wake up and listen to this show because of the humor and quirky ways of the hosts.  It helps get them up and moving, ready for the day in a positive way because of all the humor. The radio show uses satire of celebrities and plays fun games including the popular, War of the Roses, to draw viewers in to listen to their show. These funny and satirical aspects disguise the messages about important issues locally and also around the world that they want to put across to listeners and make this station the station to listen to.  Most means of entertainment use this method of satire to gain popularity today.

            In what is known to be the most famous model of satire in English, Jonathon Smith’s A Modest Proposal, is the epitome of irony and satire. This satirical author, among many others, have shaped what the meaning of satirical writing is today. He guided modern writers to make moving, meaningful satirical pieces of their own. Even though satire in modern times is a bit different due to new technology and innovations, the same underlying points are there masked by humor to prove points to people and to make necessary changes.
            Satire is most commonly used to point out and poke fun at politicians, political issues, war, or any other major points a creator is trying to make. The sarcasm and humor found in satire is used in lyrics of movies, songs, TV shows, and any other types of entertainment in order to convey major points across to as many viewers (or listeners) as possible.  Satire is extremely effective because it lies in our entertainment, which is a major part of the American lifestyle today. Satire is a common way seen more and more often to target everyone with hopes of getting everybody's attention to make changes and improvements on big things or even just small every day issues.a  melancholy  Irony is the essence of satire and every satirist today uses it, because every satirist is writing about the lack of wholeness in his subject -- its lack of moral or human healthiness. Take what is probably the most famous example of satire in English, Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal written in 1729. It is the epitome of irony.

Irony is the essence of satire and every satirist today uses it, because every satirist is writing about the lack of wholeness in his subject -- its lack of moral or human healthiness. Take what is probably the most famous example of satire in English, Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal written in 1729. It is the epitome of irony.

 More information and persuasion can be put forth to readers in an interesting way, making the communication of issues more effective.

Blog #3

In today's society, an idea such as eating a child would surprise any sane human being. Jonathan Swift's essay, A Modest Proposal, provides an outstanding case for the perfectly logical and beneficial idea of eating our children of the world today.  He explains the perks of the idea. For example, he says that it will protect the tradition of marriage, make a great sense of fashion, decrease the number of beggars and homeless people on the streets, prevent abortions, and leave more money for the rest of society. Even though eating a child is straight up cannibal-like, the way Swift explains his reasons makes it sound completely reasonable and normal. He says that he heard that "a young healthy child well nursed, at a year old, [is] a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled." From this comment, we assume that a child would taste good. He goes on to say that "a child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone... [it] will be very good on the fourth day."  Here, he is saying that a baby is capable of providing many hearty meals which would greatly help the famine problem for many families in the difficult time of the country. The baby would/could also serve as an entertainment dish during dinner parties. It seems like the baby might be seen as a delicacy to eat because they take a year to mature and nine months in the womb of its mother.  

 nursing them to plumpness. Also, he said marriages and life in the home would be dramatically improved for the men would no longer have any want to beat their wives while pregnant for damaging the little bundle of cash inside of them. Swift tends to use negative connotation when referring to the people of Ireland.  He uses satire to dehumanize the Irish, and compares them to cattle, calling the women “breeders” and the children “saleable commodities”. 

However; Swift not only points out the perks of feeding the starving and hungry country, he take his proposal to new heights when he mentions the babies' skin being used to "make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen." Now the children would be considered fashionable as well as a good meal. His proposal will benefit those woman, or "breeders," also in which they will each be paid eight shillings per annum for selling their children to be eaten and will also be reimbursed for the money they spent on the first year of

           Throughout this essay, Swift leaves some important things out. He never mentioned how the Irish people would react to his proposal.  I do not think that everyone would agree with his viewpoint, in fact, most people probably would not agree with him. Since he would have to go through the Irish government in order to make it legal, how come nothing was said about that?  Another thing he did not mention was how the decision of which babies would be killed or which would be spared was made.  It is obvious that every single baby born could not be killed because the Irish would become extinct after the adults died. So I would like to know, which babies would be privileged enough to stay alive?  Would it be the poor or the minorities? I can see many problems with that decision if indeed it does happen. Although Swift had many good components to his “Modest Proposal”, he lacked several key parts of his persuasion. 

               I think that Jonathon Swift is looking for one solution to solve many problems in this essay.  If the men in Ireland are beating their wives uncontrollably, maybe the Irish Government should increase the punishment for domestic violence rather than jumping to the conclusion that eating children will solve all of their problems.  I think that Swift assumes that his proposal is solely selfless and he has no personal gain from it. Instead, he proposes this for the public good of his country. His proposal is to help advance their trade, provide for infants, relieve the poor and give some pleasure to the rich. Even though his intentions seem to be good, it is very highly unlikely that anyone in their right mind would ever go through with this plan.  I personally think that it is ruthless and absolutely repulsive. However, I do think it’s very good of him to be thinking of ways to help rebuild the Irish economy, but a more rational proposal would have been a better solution I think. More people would probably think about a realistic proposal to solve their issue.

                       

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