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Hey wisecrack jared here. And today we're talking about one of the funniest and weirdest shows on television
Atlanta what makes Atlanta so thought-provoking is that it's
Simultaneously one of the most realistic and one of the most surreal shows on television
It's this seemingly contradictory combination that makes the show one of the most interesting and hilarious
Shows on the air so welcome to this wisecrack edition on the philosophy of Atlanta spoilers ahead
And hey McKeith, if you're watching this one's for you, buddy, but first a quick breakdown for the uninitiated
Atlanta has a simple premise. Earn a Princeton dropout needs to find a way to make some money
So he links up with his cousin Alfred aka paperboy and becomes his manager all the while
he tries to balance his relationship with the mother of his daughter van and becomes friends with Alfred's roommate Darius, but this simple premise is
deceiving as the show which creator Donald Glover described as Twin Peaks with rappers pushes the boundaries of reality to
insane lengths for both comedic and dramatic effect and it accomplishes this by using both
Surrealism and realism. Let's begin by defining our terms
Realism is any set of restrictions to a creative work which demand that it adhere to the dominant assumptions about what is and isn't possible
Realism presents the world with minimal interference from the perspective of the artist
one of the best examples of contemporary
Realism is the work of British filmmaker Ken Loach who uses his films to presents the gritty reality of British life without any
sugarcoating his most recent film I
Daniel Blake tells the story of a man struggling to stay financially afloat in the brutal bureaucracy of the British welfare state and
Unlike the typical Hollywood tale of overcoming poverty Daniel Blake dies alone in a bathroom stall before receiving justice
unlike this harsh realism surrealism
Pushes beyond the limits of reality if Ken Loach uses the camera to show the world precisely
As it is someone like David Lynch uses it to create something which exceeds our logical expectations
Now it's also worth noting that most comedic television is neither realist nor surrealist
But simply fiction with no real claim to authenticity. This is why it doesn't matter that
The Manhattan of Seinfeld is just a soundstage in Los Angeles or that Kevin James could be married to three different beautiful women in two
different CBS shows now that we're clear on the basics
Let's get into the Nitty Gritty of Surrealism with the og surrealist Andre Vuitton who is to surrealism what Guy Fieri is to donkey sauce
represent Burton was a French writer working in the early 20th century who viewed surrealism as both an artistic and
political tool one of the ways in which ritand describes
Surrealism is a psychic automatisms in its Peters State by which one proposes to express the actual
Functioning of thought have you haven't had your daily micro dose of LSD yet?
What Burton is saying is that surrealism uses art to express what's really going on at both the personal and social level?
Surrealist art might confuse us at first but on the other side of this confusion
We can see the world in a new light
So how do you take an art form that aspires to?
Exceed reality and combine it with an art form that takes the exact opposite approach
well
Let's find out first on realism Atlanta makes a deliberate effort to portray life in Atlanta accurately
especially for people struggling like her it removes the
Fictionalized glamour of say a rap video and instead gives us the sometimes not so pleasant
Reality behind the facade take paper boys apartment while the network
originally wanted him to live somewhere that would fit the stereotype of a rappers house the show puts him in a pretty
Standard Atlanta apartment building where someone like paper boy would actually live or read man
He also is usually profusely sweating because Atlanta is king hot and anyone who had portrayed otherwise with makeup is a liar
meanwhile
Earn lives in a storage unit and works a series of odd jobs while trying to make it as a manager when they're in need
Of sustenance paperboy and daria's don't just get wings from an anonymous restaurant. They go to Atlanta institution jr
crickets and ordered lemon pepper wet wigs a regional staple not available outside the six seven eight and four Oh
Area codes he made you to lemon pepper joints
But he's got the sauce on
No
Lemon pepper wet this commitment to realism makes the city of Atlanta a character in the show
this stands in stark contrast to surrealism while its realism is important Atlanta's embrace of
Surrealism has produced its most memorable moments. Whether it's a Nutella sandwich guy on the bus. This is a symptom of the way things are
Not the way things necessarily should be
Fight this out
A black student wearing white face in class a strip club DJ speaking to earn yo, just look at it
Create a canoe black a school t-shirt or most things Darius does really careful
Very cool Atlantis world is full of seemingly nonsensical
Characters and events Atlanta often blends the surreal and the real together in the same scene including the one we just discussed
After being told that the chef hooked him up
we see a magical glow coming from the wings showing the viewers from outside Atlanta precisely how
Magical and revered these wings are but often the use of Surrealism can ask us to rethink
What we take for granted in the season 1 episode
Nobody beats the Biebs Paperboy is playing a celebrity basketball game with the son of Justin Timberlake and host blown Justin Bieber
Well, the idea of paper boy dunking on Bieber is perfect enough on its own
The real twist comes when we see Justin Bieber and he's well black
This is a clear subversion of our expectation
And while this surrealist casting might seem confusing it creates some wonderful comedic moments
Cool but what's most important is that besides being black atlanta's justin bieber acts just like the real justin bieber he treats
reporters and fans like she
Acts like a spoiled brat has a huge entourage and can't fathom the idea of anyone getting more attention than him
After acting like an asshole for much of the episode bieber holds a press conference where he apologizes for his behavior with a new song
Okay something that Bieber actually did in real life
This surreal take on Bieber's very real behavior leaves the audience with a crucial question
Namely would his behavior be perceived differently if he were black
Black Bieber would please Burton as he's used not just for surreal humor
But forces the audience to rethink their assumptions about reality in this case does our culture
forgive white celebrities for bad behavior of waffle ding celebrities of color to a different standard an
even weirder example of surrealism takes place in the same episode
While paperboy and ern are busy at the celebrity basketball game Darius heads to his local gun range to let off some stress
But his range mates get pissed when they noticed Darius his target poster isn't a human outline
But instead a picture of a dog this raises the question who the twitch shoot a dog target you can't shoot dogs
What are you a psycho but then we're forced to consider. Well, why would I shoot at a human dog? I mean, that's weird
This is way too specific. It's also a potential nod to white people's over-the-top obsession with their dogs
Which nobody a wisecracking white - nope not not even a little bit
I did not know people like dogs this much a use of
surrealism that is quite literally hard to see takes place in episode 8 of season one in which earned Darius and Paperboy are outside the
Club, after strong-arming the club owner to get paid just getting their money was a surreal endeavor in itself
But things get even weirder once they hit the parking lot in case you don't know what you just saw. That was an invisible
Car speeding through the parking lot leaving bodies in its wake is this meant to be a commentary on the absurd ways that celebrities use?
their money to flex on everyone else
maybe
Could it be highlighting the way in which we have become?
So desensitized to violence that the only way to make it stand out is to use an invisible car
Possibly or is this Atlanta at its most Twin Peaks? And we shouldn't look for meaning at all either way
It's a good reminder that surrealism doesn't always have to mean something as often
It's used to undermine and confuse our rational impulse to project meaning onto everything
--nice kado the flipside of this meaningless surrealism can be seen in one of the most uncomfortable
Moments of season one the Juneteenth party in case you're not up on your history
Juneteenth is the holiday that celebrates the abolition of slavery in Texas and in general the
Emancipation of slaves throughout the Confederacy at the party the husband of the host gives earned an impromptu
Lecture on the importance of visiting Africa. That was a pilgrimage
Needed to pay my respects
Ask for forgiveness one, you know, right? I
Don't I really don't?
But you you've never been to Africa
No, you gotta go
It's your motherland. What are you thinking and predicts his ancestors via his facial features?
Congo Ivory Coast
Southeastern bantu region
I don't know this spooky thing called slavery happened and my entire ethnic identity was racist and to ensure that he is the
Platonic form of that white guy he letter performs a poem about the horrors of slavery Jim Crow
Has the name of a man but is a ghost I?
am a man but
Jim Crow is
haunting me
like in that movie poltergeist
That's right
The only white guy at the party celebrating the end of slavery performs a poem about slavery from the perspective of a black man
these shoes
And to add salt to the rim of this super-awkward margarita
The parties bar offers fun cocktails named after the horrors of slavery. I had the plantation master poison
and we couldn't talk about surrealism in Atlanta without covering the most talked about episode of season 1 ba n
The entire episode takes place during a fictional talk show where paperboy is being grilled by a feminist sociologist
For his lyrics rap is chickens coming home to roost. Look. My life is messed up y'all did okay, that's black movies
You can look better
well
Your news is problematic my fault
The crown jewel of this episode is a black teenager from Atlanta that self identifies as a 30 year old white man from Denver
Hey, excuse me. What maybe you have one time?
Hey, did you see Game of Thrones last night? This came on the heels of the cultural show
that was Rachel Dolezal and the ensuing debates about trans racial identity while the notion of a white person's self identifying as black led to
genuine debate and consideration
Atlanta asks us to consider how we feel about the issue when it's a black teen self identifying as a white man and paper voice
response is one that much of the audience likely resonates with
This is dumb like this is dumb
And this might be the ultimate genius of Atlanta as unlike other shows that have used surreal elements to take us further away from reality
Atlanta uses surrealism to bring our focus back to reality by using the surreal to disrupt the habitual way
We look at and think about certain topics. We can reconsider them altogether
We see this in Clark County in his hybrid music videos slash commercial for yoohoo
This seemingly surreal example of a famous rapper making a song about an artificial chocolate beverage
Exposes something that's actually going on. I Eve much of art produced in our day and age is really just thinly veiled
advertising for we don't really need
This example resonates with the influence of Marxism on Burton as a surreal moment leads to a socio-political critique this use of
Surrealism for social critique is what keeps Atlanta in the spirit of Burton's work in both seasons
Surrealism is used to reflect on everything from inequality to cultural appropriation
Gusta grab go
Why your Lotus and it refuses to let the viewer turn off their TV without confronting?
Something real and urgent about society. This might be the most unique
Contribution Atlanta has made to contemporary television in the same way that it employs
Surrealism without veering into absurdity. It also provides cultural commentary without coming off as preachy hi
I'm Brandon Tartikoff chairman of NBC entertainment
And I've got a hit idea for the new fall season
Don't do drugs. There's no
And it's this commitment to pushing the boundaries of Surrealism that gives us one of the most insane moments of television in recent memory
Before we go it's worth mentioning the aims of Burton surrealism in relation to Atlanta creator. Donald Glover's musical alter ego childish gambino
Burton makes clear. The aim of surrealism is not simply to create a new formal culture
It's to use art to change culture through revealing its true structure for Bhutan
The world is only very relatively into a thought meaning that much of what we perceive
Isn't a true indicator of the way the world really is
We can see this in this is America where surreal elements are used to make a scathing
political critique of the state of affairs in contemporary America and if this video is any indication
It seems like Glover and his creative circle will be continuing to push the limits of a new black
Surrealism for the foreseeable future and as always thanks for watching guys
peace now guys
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What showed you want us to dive into next hit us up in the comments and as always peace