Satire Presentations

After beginning a new unit about satire, out first project was to find a video that we felt best exemplified satire and annotate it for the class. We had to find the video, present it, write a little about it, and put it on our blog. I used a clip from Robin Williams' stand up performance Weapons of Self Destruction. I thought this video had a lot of satire, but it might have been a little hidden and not as obvious as others. It seemed to make fun of a lot of topics and politicians, and had some evidence of sarcasm as a tool of satire. After presenting my video to the class though, It was discussed that it may have not been satire at all. I looked back at the points I had made that I thought were satire, and after discussing it with Mrs. Cawlfield, found it to be just a stand up performance with really no satire used. It was just a comedy stand up performance with the comedian ripping on some topics. It was not satire at all. I feel like I really struggled with the ideas and aspects of satire for this presentation, but after seeing some other peoples examples I have a little better idea of what satire really is.
One presentation I really enjoyed and felt was the best example of satire was Healthcare Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It was a great performance, and showed all the aspects of satire and how they are used. It was very obvious too. I thought this could have been the most influential type of satire, because it wasn't just trying to prove an alternate side to the story. It had all the facts of the matter, and had a great deal of examples for proving them wrong. Overall, I struggled with this project, but enjoyed it. I can now see sarcasm as a good thing, and know some of the best ways of convincing people. I hope to see more satire not only for the comical aspect, but for the deeper message of it too.