Saturday Night Live has long been considered one of the most popular TV satires. Recently SNL has been focusing more on the political events. The most popular of these sketches are Alec Baldwin's portrayal of Donal Trump, Kate McKinnon's Kellyanne Conway, and Melissa McCarthy's Sean Spicer.
These are most prominently parody, portraying exaggerated versions of each of these Trump administration figures. These also include elements of verbal irony. I have hear people say that these are purely parody and has no greater meaning than to make fun of a few prominent Trump team members.
However, I would disagree. I think these portrayals serve to draw attention to the actions these Trump administration members, that people may otherwise be unaware of if not for the comedy attached to these portrayals. And most significantly being as image-obsessed people as these figures are, Trump especially, parodying their constant lack of consideration of the truth and attempts to save their own images, would have an effect. The significance of these sketches can be seen in Trump's response to the SNL sketches. His responses show the effect that comedy, and parody, has to make a significant impact. These sketches do, through parody ans irony, offer a meaningful criticism of the actions and priorities of the Trump administration.
SNL has many skits that reveal deeper meanings, but the skits making fun of Trump and the election were fantastic. They revealed flaws that the candidate has. This is a great connection to satire in today's society!
ReplyDeleteAgreed! The depiction of Trump is hilarious yet powerful. I think Saturday Night Live is a great example of modern satire.
ReplyDeleteI really liked reading your post. I also think that they exaggerate the ridiculousness of each person to get people to see that how they act in reality is also as ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the skits draw more attention to issues that some might be unaware of. The verbal irony and exaggerations work well with the parody sketches of SNL.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of image that you bring out in this piece. I feel like it's a key concept to keep in mind especially with the people in power today. The surfacing superficial ideologies, social image desires and reputation uptake is skyrocketing. And at points it seems that those terms have higher priority than today's global issues.
ReplyDelete