#11: Analyzing Satire in Popular Culture

 

Summary: Satire exists in various styles and formats, including images, articles, actor portrayals or other media. Satire is usually created to provide humorous or sarcastic commentary about pop culture, politics, or current events as it explores various viewpoints about topical issues and American culture. Satire has the ability to convey ideas about social values or current events that can be powerfully persuasive. By critically analyzing satire in popular culture, individuals examine the impact of comedy, persuasion and social commentary.

 

Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to…

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• analyze various forms of satirical imagery, videos, articles.

• examine how satire often portrays deeper topics or serious event and the social commentary surrounding them.

• create a media product that demonstrates how satire can represent various viewpoints about a factual story or event. 

 

A. 10-15 Minute Overview: Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to mock, criticize or expose vices, abuses, and shortcomings of an individual, corporation, government, or society itself into improvement. Satire often portrays serious matters such as historical or news events that would normally be taken very seriously in a humorous or sarcastic manner. Consider the following memes and discuss what larger, serious underlying message or event the meme is portraying and/or mocking.

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There are usually underlying concepts behind satire and how it interacts with factual current events. By applying our knowledge of satire and its relationship with current events, students are have the ability to glimpse the relationship that comedy, specifically satire, plays in how the public interprets global events.

 

Divide students into pairs or small groups and assign one of the following three articles from the 1) Washington Post article about satire stories on social media and Poynter.org articles that describe 2) the fine line between humor and outright falsehoods and 3) how there are many websites that claim they are writing satire when it is actually false information. Then discuss the following questions as a large group, encouraging the students to compare and contrast their articles with each other:

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• How do the stories in these articles differ? How are they similar?

• How do these articles demonstrate the difference between satire and “real” news?

• Where does the line between satire and fact become blurred or overlap?

• Why do some people mistake satire for actual news?

 

[Sources: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/08/19/facebook-satire-tag-could-wipe-out-the-internets-terrible-hoax-news-industry/ and https://www.poynter.org/news/era-fake-news-april-fools-day-funny-anymore.

 

B. 20-30 Minute Lesson: Compare and Contrast Satirical Videos and Articles

 

Satire often plays a role in how the public perceives current events, popular culture, corporation and society as a whole.

 

Watch this short advertisement from Suncorp (2:09). Next, compare it to a generic brand video by Dissolve (2:50). This spoof might make advertisers cringe for how little it actually exaggerates, but it makes a good point regarding the way images are used to catch a consumer’s attention and create emotion.

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1. What role does satire play in the representation of current events?

2. Does the public have difficulty differentiating between satire and fact?

 

Next, read article #1 from PBS NewsHour regarding President Obama’s veto of the Keystone Pipeline expansion or any reputable news story. Next, read a satirical article #2 on the same topic by the satirical publication The Onion.

 

Divide the group into pairs or groups of four. Create a comparison chart on the board or use the chart below to list the commonalities and absurdities between the two articles. 

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