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Deadline: 20th OctoberThe History of Satire
The Clouds (423 BC)
Satire dates back at least as far as the time or Aristophanes (c. 446 – c. 386 BC), an Ancient Greek dramatist and writer of Old Comedy. His Play The Clouds caricatured Socrates and was mentioned in Plato's Apology. A Modest Proposal (1729) Johnathan Swift's A Modest Proposal satirised the British parliament's cold and uncaring attitude towards Irish people by arguing that Irish mothers sell their children as meat to land owners in order to pull themselves out of poverty. He went as far as to include statistical evidence. Beyond the Fringe (1960) Beyond the Fringe was a revue show written and performed by Alan Bennet, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller. It is credited as a sign of the end of deference towards politicians and the begining of the 1960s' "satire boom". One sketch made fun of the then prime minister, Harold MacMillan. Perhaps realising the limitations of satire, when Peter Cook opened The Establishment, a club in Soho, he said it was inspired by ‘those wonderful Berlin cabarets which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the outbreak of the Second World War’. |
That Was the Week That Was (1962-1963 in the UK & 1964-1965 in the US)
Perhaps inspired by Beyond the Fringe, That Was the Week That Was was a BBC TV revue show that would satirise the events of the week and make fun of politicians through its sketches and its host, David Frost's monologues. It drew a record number of complaints for its near-libellous callings out of what the writers saw as hypocrisy in contemporary politics and was cancelled by the BBC at the end of 1963 as they claimed it would have interfered with 1964's general election. It then moved across the Atlantic, debuting on NBC on January 10 1964 where it ran until May 1965 before being cancelled once again. It would sometimes feature interviews with political figures conducted by Bernard Levin which would quickly turn into arguments. Dr. Strangelove (1964) Kubrick's pitch-black skewering of the Cold War features an array of colourful characters such as an unseen drunken Soviet premier, a gung-ho pilot of a plane carrying two H-bombs, an unhinged U.S. Army general who breaks the chain of command by ordering he attacks on a Russian military base, an RAF captain trying and failing to stop him in his determination for mutually-assured destruction, an American President who is truly out of his depth and a machiavellian German scientist (the latter three are all played by Peter Sellers). The film begins with the following disclaimer: "It is the stated position of the U.S. Air Force that their safeguards would prevent the occurrence of such events as are depicted in this film. Furthermore, it should be noted that none of the characters portrayed in this film are meant to represent any real persons living or dead. "
It is unclear whether this message was added by the distributor, Columbia Pictures (possibly at the USAF's request), in a genuine attempt to calm the fears of the U.S. Air Force that the film would make viewers more paranoid about the risk of nuclear war and America's ability to prevent it or, as some suspect, it was a message written by someone involved in production (perhaps Kubrick himself) to mock the bureaucratic language of branches of the U.S. government regarding concerns about nuclear war.
Saturday Night Live (1975-present) SNL began in 1975 as "NBC's Saturday Night" it used essentially the same format as That Was the Week That Was with Chevy Chase having a similar role to David Frost. Today it has a larger focus on impressions. Famous examples include Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and recently Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump. It reaches a wide audience thanks to clips being uploaded to YouTube. As of writing, Melissa McCarthy's take on Sean Spicer's first press conference as the White House's press secretary has over 29 million views. Spitting Image (1984-1996) Spitting Image was a puppet-based satirical TV show on ITV. It was created by Peter Fluck and Roger Law who were both cartoonists for the press. A typical episode of the show would include topical sketches about celebrities and politicians of the day. It also was controversial for its depiction of the Royal family. The Day Today (1994) and Brass Eye (1997) The Day Today was a sketch show created by Chris Morris that parodied the format of a news broadcast. It was the successor to the Radio 4 program On The Hour which featured many of same cast and writers (Armando Iannucci, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Front). It was also the first televised appearace of Coogan's Alan Partridge. Brass Eye was Morris' next show. The format was slightly different in that it parodied current affairs programs like Newsnight instead of the rolling news format of The Day Today. Its writing staff included Graham Linehan and Charlie Brooker. Its final episode "Paedogeddon!", which focused on the media's coverage of paedophiles, drew over 3,000 complaints. Arrested Development (2003-present) Political satire is sometimes subtly incorporated into shows that may not be obviously political. For example the Bluth family Arrested Development was made to parallel the Bushes and there are many references to the George W. Bush administration and the invasion of Iraq. The Thick of It (2005-2012) The Thick of It was a sitcom, created by Armando Iannucci, about the inner workings of the New Labour government and the Lib Dem and Conservative coalition government in its last series. Black Mirror (2011-present) Black Mirror was created and written by Charlie Brooker. Rather than being purely comedy focused, Black Mirror has quite a self-serious tone akin to classic anthology TV series like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. Brooker is also known for his "-wipe" series of documentaries (Screenwipe, Newswipe, Gameswipe, etc.) which often include satirical sketches to deconstruct the form of media that is the focus of the show. |
Development in satire
As technology has evolved and new forms of media have emerged satire has followed.
Print media One of the most popular satirical publication in Britain is Private Eye which combines satirical stories with current affairs investigations. For example, the most recent issue (on the 25th of September) contains a letter from "Mrs T May", the headmistress of "St Theresa's" a fictional school made to parallel the Conservative party along with an investigation into the PR firm Bell Pottinger. New media Although it began as a print publication, The Onion is one prime example of New Media satire. Its online presence imitates that of a serious news organisation with its website and social media accounts. In the last few years it spread to two other publications ClickHole, which parodies the clickbait-heavy reportage of sites like BuzzFeed or Gawker, and PatriotHole, which does the same with far-right nationalist sites like Breitbart and Infowars. Another platform on which political satire and humour has emerged is in private groups and pages on Facebook. "Sassy Socialist Memes" is a page and community dedicated to creating and sharing leftist memes and has introduced a lot of young people to Marxist theory. |
Criticisms of political satire
In 2013 the London Review of Books published Jonathan Coe's review of The Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson. Titled "Sinking Giggling Into the Sea" the essay made an argument against the effectiveness of satire. Coe, himself a satirist, believes the jokes made at the expense of political figures and policy can distract from the reality of the problem being made fun of. He uses the example of Boris Johnson's appearances on Mock the Week, specifically when he featured as a panellist for the first time and was called out by Ian Hislop for the recorded phone call in which Johnson and his friend Darius Guppy discussed beating up a journalist. Naturally the atmosphere was very tense and Paul Merton diffused the situation with a joke.
"It’s a lovely joke," writes Coe "which gets a terrific laugh and a round of applause. But its effect on the exchange is noticeable. An uncomfortable situation is suddenly defused."
The tenth episode of Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History focuses on Harry Enfield's character "Loadsamoney" which he created along with Paul Whitehouse in the mid 1980s to characterise how he saw Thatcher's England.
From his interview its clear Enfield doesn't believe Loadsamoney made any real difference saying "it doesn't ever change anyone's mind".
"It’s a lovely joke," writes Coe "which gets a terrific laugh and a round of applause. But its effect on the exchange is noticeable. An uncomfortable situation is suddenly defused."
The tenth episode of Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History focuses on Harry Enfield's character "Loadsamoney" which he created along with Paul Whitehouse in the mid 1980s to characterise how he saw Thatcher's England.
From his interview its clear Enfield doesn't believe Loadsamoney made any real difference saying "it doesn't ever change anyone's mind".
Some newspaper articles I found on the British Newspaper Archive and Google Images.
Primary research
Focus group
I asked two of my peers some questions about political satire to learn what I should cover in my documentary. I found that:
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Interviews
I asked the interviewees some questions which helped with my research.
For example, I asked them about their favourite works of satire and why they thought they were effective.
I asked the interviewees some questions which helped with my research.
For example, I asked them about their favourite works of satire and why they thought they were effective.
Ed Vaizey was insightful as a politician talking about political satire, in particular what he said about David Steele and David Owen was very interesting and I can use it in my section about Spitting Image in my documentary.
Emma Anderson made some good points about how satire mocking politicians like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg has actually boosted their careers rather than hindering them.
Sean Hannigan talked a lot about works he enjoyed (SNL, South Park) and why he thinks they are true and effective.
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