Satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
That’s directly from the Directory, read it many times before you continue.
Writing Satire is easy, writing good satire is hard.
Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is satire to show that our hero Huck was not lead away to help a runaway slave by evil temptations, that he is ashamed of. Another is Catch 22 joking of military men and all that goes in it, and its hilarious without too much afford.
Dr. Strange love, or How I learned how to stop worrying and love the bomb, directed by the ever brilliant Stanley Kubrick, is a fantastic satire to take inspiration from. I’ve seen it myself, and absolutely love and recommend it to everyone. Like Catch 22, it is based in the military, but we have a more bureaucratic side of things, during the Cold War. Through most of it, we are in a board room that the League of Doom would call “much” with military officers all in the same room. It was based off the Cold War, and its very cynical but it worked.
They did everything right with it, and made it brilliant.
The ex-Nazi Dr. Strange love, was obviously a Nazi, considering his goofy German accent, and he addresses the President of the United States as Mein Führer. He does the Nazi salute because he has “Alien hand syndrome” and he slaps his hand not to do so.
The ending made it perfect, especially as Dr. Strange (Peter Sellers) is completely improvising his final speech. Ending with the vocals of Vera Lynn crooning over stock footage of bombs exploding.
As much as I could go on, and I have, I want to move on to some deeper territory.
(Real Quick: One of the best lines was an exchange during a scuffle between two of the officers. They began a small fight and another very boldly declares: “Gentlemen! You can’t fight in here, this is the War room!” Which is one of the more well known, and insanely funny regardless of who says it.)
Now, on to the deeper stuff: Charlie Chaplin and The Great Dictator. This was a Holocaust film, and Charlie is playing a carbon copy of Hitler as a man named, Adenoid Hynkel. It could have been bad, I mean it really could have. Chaplin did his homework and made sure he did the best he could have done for the role. The beginning we have him performing a speech similar to Hitler’s, where Chaplin is basically speaking gibberish, and its really funny.
In Chaplin’s defense, he himself said he would not have done it if he knew the true brutality of the Nazis. Because the movie had begun filming in 1939 and they finished six months later. Germany invaded Poland during that time.
Yeah.
But in a small twist of irony, when he went to Berlin, the citizens showered him and loved him, while the Nazis hated him. But the intentions behind it was not to mock Jewish people and their plight. What was happening was mocking Hitler, and the Jewish people were not dressed like stereotypes.
Speaking of Jewish people, Mel Brooks! An absolute talented member of Hollywood who wrote and starred in some hilarious shit. The Producers was one of the more amazing movies, and a Broadway show I’m not kidding, that Mel Brooks wrote and directed.
It starred Zero Mostel and the late Gene Wilder who played two men who wanted to commit fraud, by writing a flop of a play and sell shares of production. They write a play so awful they know it flop, “Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden.” And it is just as insane as you’re mind is letting it go. They think they got away with their scheme until intermission comes and they find out, the audience loves it. Their scheme has gone awry, and the end is so damn funny I won’t tell you. But the point was everything that happened in it, was humor.
Mel Brooks wanted to demean Hitler with a fantastic way, with humor. Though mixed in the bag of critics, many people did love it, it was given 91 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and the second high rated comedy after the Wizard of Oz.
Some people don’t think you can write a Mel Brooks movie today. My point I’m trying to say is: Yes, you can. But how you do it, and what you talk about is important.
Mel Brooks made Blazing Saddles and was aware of everything he did in it. It was a parody of Westerns, had the N word very often in it, and was offensive with every scene.
Mel Brooks didn’t have his black character lynched on screen, and had him outwit the Lyncher and got away. Brooks himself knew what you could not do, saying the N word was warranted in the context of the movie, being lynched was not appropriate even in the context.
That’s important. That’s very important. Maybe a white guy who wrote a movie about a Western with a black dude.
You have to be self aware of what you do, especially in comedy, especially in Satire. Mel Brooks wrote a Nazi Satire as a Jewish man who fought in World War 2 against Germany. You know what he didn’t do for comedy: lynch a dude in a Western.
Shocking jokes in comedy are different from shocking someone because you want too or for the sake of it. A shocking joke has to be either shocking, or not at all shocking and that’s the irony.
If you want to shock just because you can, and with no real humor, its not satire. Satire does not have to be real, shocking, or subtle, that is the point. But don’t let anyone call Satire for bad writing.
Love, the Not Social Kid.
This is shit real life? 