Humor

In this study I will be analyzing the Onion and The Daily Show. There are elements of satire, hyperbole and exaggeration.  Both Onion and The Daily Show have elements of satire. 

Onion Article

The Onion site is a satire news site. The topic of the articles varies from politics to video to sport news.  The news comes in different forms of media from photos with a title to a short article. The Onion have short articles to make the content more absorbable. By writing short articles, the audience are given signs of satire and make themself clear that this is a satire article. The articles are mocking a person, people or certain people’s action with sarcasm. For example, the article “Trump Admits 18 New States To Increase Competition For Medical Supplies” uses satire, absurd and situational irony to make fun of Trump’s response toward the virus. Trump’s priorities of the business side of countries over the medical emergency is the main subject of the article. What makes this more funny is the exaggeration. The statement of “We’re sending 300,000 surgical masks to a new state in the middle of Maine we’re calling Clovis. Nobody lives there, but it’s going to help drive up demand” is an exaggeration of how Trump wants good business. The author exaggerates the event to the point that it sounds ridiculous like how Trump is using 300,000 surgical masks to help drive up demand for the mask. This is an example of absurdity. The big exaggeration could be also considered as hyperbole like the number of masks used. Both exaggeration and hyperbole contribute to the satire aspect of the article.

 

The Daily show is a satire tv show that reports news with the host Trevor Noah. The main focus of the daily show on politics like making fun of Trump’s presidential decisions.  The main video I wanted to focus is “Trump Blames Everyone But Himself For Coronavirus | The Daily Show”.  This video is an example of how satire is utilized. All of the elements help with the satire aspect of the video. The video’s music helps with making fun of Trump by having a contracting tone. There are some exaggerations to how great of a decision Trump made. The editing is also key in the effectiveness of the satire. The contacting statement of Trump from the heading of the video. Like how all of the statements are Trump shifting blame from himself to everybody else, while the heading of the video in the beginning is “ The Greatest Moment Presidential Leadership”. The people who watch the video will know with the title that these statements are not the “ The Greatest Moment Presidential Leadership” . The editing helps with the transition between statements and how they string together under the same heading in order to deliver this video. Also the editing of the American flags on the side of the video further supports the heading of the video – “ The Greatest Moment Presidential Leadership”.  The contrast of the  two messages nails the sarcasm of the heading and reinforces the message contained in the title.

The Daily Show Video

 

The Onion uses exaggeration, absurd humor and situational irony to help the satire aspect of the article. While the Daily show video uses the format and the sound in order to help deliver the central message of the video. Both Onion and Daily show used satire to prove a point. It is very impressive how Onion can deliver a sense of sarcasm through text since text has a hard time conveying emotions. The difference is the different medium that both of these satirical messages convey though. The way they convey their message is different, but the technique is similar.

 

Take always

The main thing I have taken away from all of this research is the main topic of my humor project should be about politics because it is easier to make fun of Trump’s decisions and Trump’s character and demeanor like him an easy target for satire. Another thing I am taking away from this is to keep the medium of my humor project short like the Daily show video and Onion article. If it is a video it should not be longer than two or three minutes.  

 One of the inspirational aspects of the Onion article gives a sense of the satire or sarcasm through text from. When a person speaks, he or she can use a different tone or expression to indicate a sense of sarcasm. While in text form, there is no such thing as different tone or expressions. The thing I learn that makes something seem sarcastic is the contrast between two messages that strongly emphasize one side of the message over the other. The technique of  exaggeration or even hyperbole helps enhance the message and the satire aspect.  If the subject is so exaggerated toward one side of the argument or message to the point of stupidity, then it is a hint toward the audience that the other side of the argument might be true.  The technique hyperbole can serve the same purpose. Exaggeration could be used to make fun of the other side of the argument or message. I can use this in my Humor Project by exaggerating the action of the subject in drawing or exaggerating the physical feature of the subject as well to convey the message  I want to tell.

Onion Article – Trump Urges Loosening CDC Restrictions To Let Coronavirus Get To Work

Another inspiration is how both the Daily show video and Onion article uses multiple mediums to convey the message like the music, the structure of the video or article, etc. Sarcasm is better conveyed with friends or people who are close to you, but in order for the audience who are total strangers to get the sarcasm, the author or editor of the satire medium needs to use everything in their tool kit. A very long article  indicates that there is some credibility to the subject written, but since there is sarcasm, you can not take everything seriously. The authors need to keep it short. During my project, I would like to have everything work for me in order to convey the message I want to convey. The music, the tone and everything also could enhance the main message. I would like some contrast between the two messages or arguments in my project as well. 

The last inspiration that I found after researching these two Humorists is how clear the central message is after reading through the article and watching the video. Although there can be different interpretations on the video, most likely the audience get the same message or interpretation. I would make sure the message is clear by having a strong sense of satire and have a good structure or composition to the video or art pieces.  

 

Description of Proposed Project

I am going to be working alone. The form of humor I am developing is satire. The subject is going to be Trump because this is the political subject I have the most familiar with. Satire, Hyperbole and exaggeration are the main three techniques I am going to use. I will try to create a video with a couple of satire comics or create a video that is about Trump’s slow response to the virus. . I am excited for this because I get to draw one of these satire comics.  I will try to keep the video short (under 3 mins).  If this gets approved,  I will start looking at more examples of satire comics and I will sketch some rough sketches of comics.

 

ARVE Error: Mode: lazyload not available (ARVE Pro not active?), switching to normal mode