The Hangover, at its core, is the story of a bachelor party in Las Vegas. The movie starts near the end, with a seeming disaster. The group has lost the groom and the lavish outdoor California wedding, scheduled to take place in five hours looks like it won’t be happening.
At this point the movie goes backward in time to the beginning of the story. At first, it seems pretty standard. A group of privileged white guys in their late twenties plan a bachelor party in Vegas. They take the groom’s future father in laws luxury convertible Mercedes and hit the road. The audience expects to see excessive alcohol consumption, some gambling, strippers and bad behavior. However, the movie is a clever comedy.
After arriving in Vegas, the four men toast on the roof of the hotel to ¨a night they will never forget¨. The toast is a clever use of irony, because the men have a night that they will never forget because it is a night they do not remember. When they wake up the next morning, their hotel room is completely trashed, the groom is missing and no one can remember anything. The writer uses hyperbole to communicate the completely outrageous nature of what has taken place. In addition alcohol and broken furniture everywhere, there is a rooster in the room, a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet and possibly the best use of irony, Stu, the dentist, has lost one of his incisors.
The short lived (in my opinion) eight year airing of the wildly popular adult animated sitcom, The Boondocks was one of the most blunt and straightforward television shows to air on American television channels. Aaron McGruder, an accomplished African American writer, producer, and screenwriter, amongst many other professions, used this platform to expose and critique American culture and a wide array of social and political issues. The sitcom, based off of his previously written comic strip of the same name, follows a family of three that consists of Huey Freeman, the shows protagonist and future revolutionary, Riley Freeman, an 8-year-old fanatic of rap culture, and their grandfather as they experience a sudden transformation of lifestyle after they moved from the South Side of Chicago to the Suburbs of Woodcrest.
Besides every episode having a great deal of comedic content, the satirical elements that gives this show a deeper meaning allows for a much needed glimpse into our own society and the wretched way it works. Most episodes of this sitcom integrates hyperbole in its exaggerated characters and parody of real life situations to its advantage to show how ridiculous some situations and some people in our society actually are. This clip of Uncle Ruckus, an African American male who himself hates African Americans, but shows the utmost respect and admiration of white people is one example of hyperbole and parody. The show uses Uncle Ruckus’ exaggerated nature to mirror the essence in which Pastor Manning, the American pastor of the ATLAH World Missionary Church, conducts his sermons and lives his actual life. Uncle Ruckus is supposed to be the most extreme example of what happens to people and their vision of self worth as a result of generations of African Americans being told that they are nothing compared to their white counterparts. He is showcased as the most extreme version of someone who has conformed and attempted to assimilate with their culture, but in the process builds up hatred for himself and people who look just like him. His beliefs in the scene above reflect the actions of Pastor Manning, as he often delivers sermons about how African Americans are no good. The show is obviously adding comedic effect to ridicule people like Manning and Ruckus who are ignoring their self worth as it address this pressing issues that are present in the black community.
Another example of parody is very apparent as the show mirrors an actual news segment about a young boy traveling down the wrong path, seen in the embedded video below. The clip shows the obvious parallels of the real life of Latarian Milton and their version of him, “Lamilton Taeshawn”. The show is imitating the real life of this young boy and his grandmother while also using understatement / verbal irony in their version of the news clip when his grandmother tries to defend him as she says “ See, you have to understand, all children his age love stealing cars and going on high speed chases" and “You have to understand, he really likes that fried chicken”, obviously lessening the significance of all the wrong doing this child has done. In fact, no 8-year-olds love to steal cars and go on high speed chases nor do they seriously injure their grandmother because she will not buy them fried chicken.
This show uses comedy to allow African Americans to see real life situation that involve us and our culture. It also allows allows us to see the many problematic situations in our community and how we respond to them. If we can see that these characters on television look ridiculous in the way they are living their lives, we can see how we need to change ourselves in our real lives.
It's not very difficult in today's world to find examples of satire. We live in a society where people constantly critique others as they try to defend why there way is the best. There are lots of great opinions and messages sent out through satires, and I found one of my favorites in the song "Royals" by Lorde.
Lorde makes it very clear that she isn't making music for the money and fame. In fact, she's actually criticizing the common lifestyle of those with loads of money and fame. Using mockery and hyperboles, she is able to speak her opinion that life isn't about materialistic things or status. In the hook, Lorde sings,
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash
We don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affair.
As she mocks tremendously rich people, she uses the hyperbole of "tigers on a gold leash." This is an extreme exaggeration of what rich people are like. It's very unrealistic, making it a quiet diss towards the wealthy and famous. Although I'm sure Lorde loves messing with the one percent and fellow celebrities, there are deeper meanings behind the lyrics of her song. By dismissing the actions and lifestyle of the obnoxious rich people, Lorde is also dismissing the popular conception that money and fame equates to happiness. After listing off a list of hyperboles referring to the rich, she sings,
That kind of lux just ain't for us
We crave a different kind of buzz.
This statement alone strengthens the message that happiness can be found elsewhere. The "buzz," referring to happiness, can be found in other areas than money and fame. Although Lorde's "Royals" can be claimed as ironic, due to her recent success and fame, it still spreads a great message to our society. She uses her experiences as a famous, rich celebrity, as well as her platform, to dismiss the idea that people need money and a high reputation to be happy. Hopefully, this message can continue to be spread, and more celebrities can reveal the realities of being famous.
In the television show "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," the main characters often use silly comedic songs to touch on difficult subjects such as mental health, sexism, and societal standards. I chose the satire: "Let's Generalize about Men," which is a man-hating song that reflects on why men are hated and mocks how women talk about them.
The characters in the song are all women who have recently had trouble with their relationships with men. They're all caught up in the terrible things their boyfriends have done, and talk about how every single man is an emotionally stunted child. The song encourages the stereotype of single women who drink and complain about men, but also the stereotype that men argue how not all men are like this.
The women say, "All men are completely repressed/...There are no exceptions/ All 3.6 billion men are like this." This satire uses hyperbole to acknowledge that in reality, not all men are like this. It's impossible that 3.6 billion men are childish and never listen, but the women use this generalization to explain why all of their relationships have gone poorly.
They also say, "And why do men never listen and only think about themselves?/ As opposed to women who always listen and never think about themselves?" This question brings up the fact that not all women have these characteristics, either. It examines the stereotypes in general, and how you can't accurately depict what a group of billions of people are really like. Especially if the stereotype for them includes multiple requirements of their character.
The women then bring up the question, "Hey what about gay men?/ Gay men are all really great/ Every single one.../ They're all completely adorable and fun!" This continues to mock the stereotype about how straight women talk about men, and plays into the stereotypes of gay men. The women truly feel depressed and hurt about the straight men they have dated, and come to the conclusion that every single gay man must be "adorable and fun!" This represents another hyperbole, which brings up the notion that all gay men must have this kind of character, and doesn't bring up the fact that these are just stereotypes, and don't accurately depict the true character every single man on the planet.
I think that this satire is not just mocking women for generalizing about men, but also critiquing sexist stereotypes and how they unknowingly permeate into our society. These women, in particular, use these stereotypes to make themselves feel better about their past relationships. But, they don't acknowledge the fact that these stereotypes are extremely harmful. This satirical song is trying to make their audience see that we should stop generalizing about any group of people, specifically men, gay men, and women. We shouldn't jump to the conclusion that all straight men/gay men/women are like this if we have only had a few encounters with a person that fits this stereotype.
