Political, Racial, Satire

 In the contemporary society, satire is used in various ways to criticize social and political philosophies. Major methods used to display satire include television shows, movies, and radio broadcasts. Also books, articles, and blogs use satire to form a bias or convey to the reader an overall message. Whether it is criticizing the government administration, or stereotypes of race, satire could be looked at as either a reasonable joke or a provoking attack. However, considering the current state of the world, humor can be widely appreciated.

One example of a political satire is the extremely popular television show Saturday Night Live. Saturday Night Live or SNL for short incorporates many satirical jokes in their skits that both criticizes and mocks the political and social aspects of the United States. In the television show, the actor Will Ferrell takes on the roll of the preceding president of the United States, George W. Bush and which the show characterizes him as an unintelligent and dim-witted person. Will Ferrell as Bush says, “I start my day thinking about the warming of the globe and how we can get it warmer” and, “it seems that liberals and godless tax raisers are trying to make me look bad, by using such things as facts and scientific data” However the fact that Bush is unintelligent could go beyond discussion and debate between the people. The mocking of George W. Bush truly reflects the feelings of the American people towards the Bush Administration. The Bush Administration is characterized to be weak and unprofessional through the persona of George W. Bush as displayed by Will Ferrell. Maybe the reason people criticize President Bush was for the action of declaring war on Saddam Hussein in Iraq based on little to no evidence of the supporting cause of possessions of mass destruction. Or that he permitted the inhumane methods of torture to gain valuable information. Or that he reacted to the disasters of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina with little to no urgency and did not deal with the matters immediately. All these facts sum up the reasons of hostility towards the Bush Administration. However, at the age I was when these skits came out, I had very little knowledge on the political ideologies of the United States. My opinion of the president was shifted to a cynical nature because how he was represented in the show. In a sense the satirical methods used to humiliate Bush, had me more informed and involved in politics. Another example of political satire is the article “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift. In this article, Swift sarcastically proposed the absurd scheme of resulting to cannibalism to solve the poverty issue in Dublin, Ireland. Throughout the whole article he gives hints of mockery that should indicate that his proposal is not valid and that there is a bigger meaning. Such as how people will eventually love the taste of human meat, and that they could use their skin as clothing. This in fact should indicate that the proposal is invalid because it not only ridicules people as savages, but it also implies that there are no moral standards in modern society. In reality, Swift wanted to criticize the Irish government and how they were dealing with the poverty issue or lack of. He clearly displays this by including solutions, which he jokes should not compare to cannibalism, such as lowering taxes and putting in the trust that if people get more involved in the political and economic factors in Ireland would increase the overall wealth of the nation.       It is highly debated that the incorporation of political satire in television shows and others would promote the changes of attitude in politics such as elections and political parties. However, political satire can also get people more involved in politics because it stirs emotions and in a way make people feel more politically involved.

On the other hand, racial satire is of distinct differences than political satire. In racial satire the author or actor is trying to establish an ironic mockery of racism that confronts the social issues in the world. Another example of a television show that used satire, but primarily dealt with racial satire was the Chappelle’s Show. The Chappelle’s Show was composed of skits that used stereotypes of races with intent to point out the absurdity of the racism and for the audience to better understand it. In the show Dave Chappelle plays a character named Tyrone Biggums, who is a black drug addict, he says “Why do you think I carjacked you, Rhonda?” and “That's impossible, Rhonda. How can you sleep when you're high on crack? Chinese riddle for you.” Tyrone is portrayed as a low life criminal and what he says and does is exaggerated to be what the majority of blacks are criticized to be like in society. The show emphasizes racism and stereotypes in a silly way in hopes that the audience will understand that they are aiming for a satirical effect rather then that of a serious and attacking nature. However it is reported by the words of Dave Chappelle himself that some white folks did not understand the satirical effect he was trying to accomplish. Instead they believed that he was actually humiliating the black race and his jokes were of all seriousness in the degrading of the black community. This resulted in the cancellation of The Chappelle’s Show because Dave felt there was too much pressure and hostility towards his parodies which he hoped to expose the stereotypical and racial ideologies of the world. However, others did understand the racial satire which The Chappelle’s Show was trying to accomplish. For me, the show taught me a lot about racial discrimination and stereotypes. As a Filipino, I have encountered racial discrimination in my life. Understanding racism is very important in the society. The fact that almost everyone in the world does not matter which race, is discriminated against and stereotyped at some point in their life deprives the hostile effect of racism in that the society has developed. The Chappelle’s Shows exposed this societal racism and unified different races. I believe Dave Chappelle should bring back his show for the good of mankind.