Today, we're going to look at the history of satire.
What forms it can take.
"- Captain Klenzendorf. Heil Hitler. - Heil Hitler.
- Heil Hitler. - Heil Hitler.
- Heil Hitler. - Heil Hitler."
"- My fellow actors.
What the world needs is an international advisory committee
who truly understands global politics.
namely us.
- Matt Damon."
"- Wow, this is so metaphorical."
- And how filmmakers have used it for decades.
"- Alright. Let's get to it."
This is "What Is Satire".
"- Please stand.
Kazahstan is number one.
Exporter of potassium"
- So, what is satire?
And how does it work?
Author Phillip Roth gives us a concise definition.
Satire is moral outrage transformed into comic art.
A work that mocks or ridiculous a social institution.
"- According to Wadiyan propaganda,
Haffaz Aladeen was born in 1973.
He did not know his mother who died in childbirth.
Cultural norm.
"- Whenever you feel sh*tty, that's 'cause of gluten.
- That's not true. - It is.
- Who the f*ck told you not to eat gluten? -It's just true.
- You don't even know what gluten is. - I know what f*cking gluten is.
Gluten!"
- Or belief system.
"- Why us, huh?
Why black people?
People want a change. Some people wanna be stronger,
faster, cooler.
Black is in fashion."
- It can be funny.
"- We lost! We f*cking super lost, man!
Tell him, McClusky. Tell him what time it is.
- I don't believe you people.
- What do you mean "you people"?
- What do you mean "you people"?"
- Or it can be heartbreaking.
"- I haven't cried like that since Titanic."
- But there is one thing that is absolutely necessary in satire.
A target.
- ♪ I'm so ronery. ♪
♪ So ronery. ♪
♪ So ronery and sadry arone. ♪
- As long as there have been power structures,
there have been satirists critiquing them.
♪ Sitting on my rittle throne ♪
- Now let's go back to where it all started.
Ancient Greece and Rome.
Most scholars point to a collection of plays
written by Greek playwright Aristophanes
as the earliest satire examples.
These narratives used real people and situations of the era
as the subjects of light and playful mockery.
Now that we understand the origins,
let's look at some modern examples
using the three main types of satire.
Horatian, Juvenalian, and Menippean.
Probably the most recognizable is Horatian satire.
Named after the writer, Horace,
who was famous for his humorous ribbing of Roman society.
This type of satire is overtly comedic.
Light in tone
and milder in its critiques.
"- Hello, Peter. What's happening? - Um...
- I'm going to need you to go ahead and come in tomorrow.
So if you could be here around nine, that would be great.
Okay?"
- Whether it be about American imperialism.
"- We'd been doing our best to keep the world safe, Gary.
But now somebody has to fight the terrorists with WMDs.
And intelligence tells us they plan to use them.
Isn't that right, Intelligence?
- That is affirmative.
- All right, team, that's it.
We've got a job to do.
Let's go police the world.
♪ America. ♪
- ♪ America. ♪ - ♪ F*ck, yeah. ♪
♪ Coming again to save The motherf*cking day, yeah. ♪
- The fashion industry.
"- There's no denying Jacobim Mugatu has used cheap Malaysian workers...
to make his and most of the garment industry's clothes.
- Hey, Mugatu! Screw you and your little dog too!
- Look out! She's got an egg!"
- Modern politics.
Dwayne Elizondo Camacho, five-time Ultimate Smackdown Champion...
and president of the United States...
had called a special summit with the smartest man in the world.
- So you smart, huh? - No, no.
- I thought your head would be bigger.
- They will make you angry about a particular subject,
but after all the laughter
they'll make you think.
"- Let's get you sworn in."
- Dr. Strangelove was released in 1964
at the heart of the cold war.
And it's a great example of a satire
tackling a dominant political issue of the era.
Nuclear brinkmanship.
"- Now then, Dmitri.
You know how we've always talked about the bomb.
The hydrogen bomb.
- Well, boys, I reckon this is it.
- Nuclear combat toe to toe with the Russkies.
Irony is laced throughout the dialogue.
"- And bring me some cigars, please... Havana cigars.
- And that will be all for you, sir? - Yes.
- Then I'll see to it right away.
- Try one of these Jamaican cigars, ambassador. They're pretty good.
- Thank you, no. I do not support the work of imperialist stooges.
- Oh. Only commie stooges, huh?"
- And highlights how oblivious these men are
to the power they wheel.
"- Whole point of the doomsday machine is lost
if you keep it a secret.
Why didn't you tell the world?"
- And the consequences of failure.
"- Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room."
- No fighting in the war room.
Ha-ha. That's rich.
And the war room itself
is a great example of satirical exaggeration.
Which is comically massive and extravagant
clearly illustrating the military-industrial complex bloat.
"- If the pilot's good, see... I mean, if he's really sharp
he can barrel that baby in so low...
You ought to see it sometime. It's a sight!
A big plane like a 52. Vroom!
Its jet exhaust frying chickens in a barnyard!
All these techniques make Dr. Strangelove a quintessential Horatian satire.
"- Mein Führer.
I can walk!"
- A gut-busting comedy that lampoons the absurdity of nuclear war.
Now, what if instead of making the audience laugh,
we want to make them angry.
Enter Juvenalian satire.
Horatio's darker, and more cynical counterpart.
It's named after Juvenal a writer known for his abrasive
and vicious rhetorical attacks
on Roman elites and power structures.
It can still be funny,
but it is often more derisive
and rooted in drama.
"- We don't go out anymore.
We sit in the house and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller.
And all we say is, please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms.
Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel belt and radios.
And I won't say anything.
Just leave us alone.
Well, I'm not good at leave you alone.
I want you to get mad.
Then we'll figure out what to do about the
depression and the inflation and the oil crisis.
But first, get out of your chairs...
open the window, stick your head out and yell...
"I'm as mad as hell...
and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"
"- Welcome to fight club.
Think of "Fight Club".
"- The first rule of fight club is
you do not talk about fight club."
A Juvenalian satire of consumer culture...
"- We're consumers.
We are byproducts of a lifestyle obsession, celebrity magazines,
television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear.
Rogaine. Viagra.
I say never be complete.
I say stop being perfect.
And toxic masculinity.
"- I felt sorry for guys packed into gyms,
trying to look like how Calvin Klein or Tommy Hilfiger said they should."
- We can also look at Neill Blomkamp "District 9"
and "Elysium".
Both of which tackle racial and economic inequality.
"- The creatures were extremely malnourished.
And they were very unhealthy.
They seem to be aimless.
There was a lot of international pressure on us at the time
and the entire world was looking at Johannesburg.
So we had to do the right thing.
- What was a temporary holding zone soon became fenced, became militarized.
And before we knew it, it was a slum."
- One of the most celebrated Juvenalian satires in recent years
is Bong Joon-Ho's "Parasite".
" - Wow, this is so metaphorical."
- Of course, there are jokes in "Parasite".
"- Da-song is an artist by nature.
Look at his painting.
- It's a chimpanzee, right? - A self-portrait.
- Yes, of course."
- But the real satire of the film lies in its straight face depiction
of the vast gulf between the haves and have nots.
"- Our entire family got hired!
- That's right, Dad!"
- We can see irony in the noodle dish
prepared by Moon-gwang.
A dish using instant noodle
topped with expensive beef.
A symbol for the collision between rich and poor,
which lays at the heart of "Parasite's" message.
"- Why don't you just eat the ram-don?
- Shall I? - No wait. I can give it to my husband.
There's sirloin in here."
"- Da-hye.
Do I fit in here?
- What?
- In this setting, do I fit in?"
- At times, it's heartbreaking.
And then it's disturbing.
And finally...
"- See that American there? Just go get him a hug.
Go! Run! Let's go!"
- Our final form of satire is Menippean.
Little is known about the Greek writer Menippus
because all of his work has been lost to time.
Menippus satire can vary in tone,
but its line of attack is a belief or moral attitude.
That attitude can be racism.
"- Hey man. I can't see f*cking s*it out of this thing.
Hey, Marty. Bring any extra bags."
- Greed.
"- Was all this legal?
Absolutely, f*cking not!
But, we were making more money that we knew what to do."
- Sexism.
"- So, what means this feminism?
- It's the theory that women should be equal to men
in matters economic, social...
- Now you are laughing. - Yes.
- Well, that is the problem."
- Anything the filmmaker deems to be morally repugnant.
"- JoJo Betzler. 10 years old."
- "JoJo Rabbit" is a Menippean satire
which has a pretty clear target.
Fascism.
"- I swear to devote all my energies and my strength
to the savior of our country, Adolf Hitler."
- Writer-director Taika Waititi, adapted "Caging Skies".
A novel with a darker and more serious tone
and added his own comic sensibilities
to create a satire
that is both tragic and hilarious.
Consider the presentation of Hitler
as JoJo's imaginary friend in the script.
He's a charming buffoon
who floats through life with carefree, whimsical abandon.
By depicting a cartoonish exaggerated Hitler.
"- You're going to be the best. You can do it. - Heil Hitler.
- Heil Hitler. - Heil Hitler."
Waititi heightens the absurdity of fascistic beliefs.
Like this ludicrous biology lesson.
"- Fangs. - Fangs, Ja.
- Serpent tongue. - Serpent's tongue, Ja.
- Scales. - Ja, scales.
Because, once upon a time, a Jewish man mated with a fish.
We, Aryans, are one thousand times
more civilized and advanced than any other race."
- Irony is also on full display in JoJo
using a German cover of "I Want to Hold Your Hand".
During the opening credits.
The rather vibrant and unexpected color palette.
"- Dancing is for people who don't have a job.
Dancing is for people who are free.
It's an escape from all this."
- And the absurd delusion of propaganda.
"- I caught a Jew. Real one.
- Oh, Jew.
I saw some that they caught hiding in forest last month.
Personally, I didn't see what all the fuss was about.
They weren't at all scary and seemed kind of normal."
- The tone of "JoJo Rabbit" is indicative of the wide range of tone
and Menippean satire can take.
It can be anything from slapstick.
"- Don't do that."
- To tragedy.
It's all Menippean, as long as its target is a belief or moral attitudes.
"- You're going to put this on, okay?
You're gonna forget about that disgusting Jewy cow up there.
And you're going to come back to me where you belong.
Right?
- F*ck off, Hitler."
- You can probably tell at this point that satire takes many forms.
"- You went full retard, man.
Never go full retard."
- But to write an effective satire of any type,
here are some steps that can be helpful.
Step 1 - Identify a Target.
What system or widely held belief do you think needs changing?
Step 2 - decide which type of satire
would help achieve your goals?
"- Sit your monkey ass down.
I know sh*t's bad right now with all that starvin' bullsh*t.
And we runnin' out of French fries and burrito coverings.
- But I got a solution. - That's what you said last time, dipshit!
- That's what I thought!"
Step 3 - decide how you'll use filmmaking techniques
to bring satire into the project.
Are there sets or costumes, which can be exaggerated?
"- Hold on, vato!"
- Can you inject irony into the dialogue?
"- For the last time, I'm pretty sure what's killing the crops
is this Brawndo stuff.
- But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes.
- So wait a minute. What you're saying...
is that you want us to put water on the crops.
- Yes. - Water. Like out the toilet?
- Well, I mean, it doesn't have to be out of the toilet, but, yeah, that's the idea.
- But Brawndo's got what plants crave. - It's got electrolytes."
- Would a particular character or symbol be a perfect analogy for a larger idea?
"- Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator had come to replace water virtually everywhere.
When the Brawndo Corporation simply bought the F.D.A...
and the F.C.C...
enabling them to say, do and sell anything they wanted."
- If you go in with a clear target and strategy.
"- Welcome to Costco. I love you."
- Your screenplay and final product will be all the better for it.
"- There was a time in this country when smart people did things.
People wrote books and movies.
Movies that had stories.
So you cared whose ass it was and why it was farting.
And I believe that time can come again."
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