The Daily Show is an example of contemporary satire. The Daily Show is a show based on satire: creating its material from recent news stories, politics, and other media organizations. One specific example of satire from The Daily Show is when Jon Stewart forms a super PAC in support of Stephen Colbert (http://www.cc.com/video-clips/3pwzi5/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-colbert-super-pac---not-coordinating-with-stephen-colbert). Exploiting the loopholes of the laws meant to run super PACs, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert "implicitly" talk to each other to determine the path and future of Stewart’s super PAC.
In this segment, Stewart and Colbert use dramatic irony and verbal irony to carry their message across. Colbert is legally not allowed to talk directly to Stewart in regards to what the super PAC can do, so Colbert speaks as a “concerned citizen who wants to direct the activity of the super PAC.” This is slight dramatic irony because everyone knows that they are talking directly to each other, but technically Colbert and Stewart are not talking to each other as a candidate and super PAC owner, thus, their actions are completely legal. Later, Stewart asks Colbert if his actions are okay with him and Colbert responds by saying,“I cannot coordinate with you in anyway.” When Stephen says this however, he is excited and smiling, indicating that he is in support of Stewart’s actions. This verbal irony allows Stephen and Jon, as well as thousands of politicians and their super PAC owners, to indirectly coordinate with each other. Jon and Stephen’s extreme exaggeration of forming a super PAC in support of a candidate also provides a parody of candidates “not being in contact with” their super PAC owners.
Generally, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are making fun of the seemingly corrupt politics that our nation has. They reference Newt Gingrich as a politician who abused the loose nature of the rules controlling super PACs. By pointing out a real life example, Stewart shows his audience that politicians, indeed, exploit their loopholes. Additionally, Jon calls his super PAC lawyer who happens to be the same as the lawyer for Stephen’s exploratory committee. They keep him on the phone, able to interject if anything seems illegal, while they “discuss” business. As they cover a few seemingly illegal things, the lawyer still sits silently on the phone. This part of the segment is meant to show how many things people can get away with while in politics. Overall, Stewart is trying to bring awareness of the rule slippage of politics and a need for change in the political game.
I was going to do my blog post on Colbert, too! I liked the segment you chose and totally agree with you on how relevant the satire is for today's politics.
ReplyDeleteWow! I posted on the Daily Show too, but I did a more general post. I do agree with you that the satire is relevant for today's politics but you don't really talk about the goal of the Daily Show. I believe it's goal is to inform through satire.
ReplyDeleteThis is way more well written than my post. :)
I agree with you. I think that their goal in using satire is possibly to get their message across to a larger audience. They can communicate important messages about what is wrong in society, but without the dark mood that people often discuss them in.
DeleteI agree with you. This was a really funny and ironic way to convey possibly controversial opinions, and you explained it really well!
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