Monday, March 2 Colbert Report. applying satirical techniques

Volunteers Needed!
Saturday, May 16th, 2015
Tenth Annual Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival

Are you a teen in grades 6 through 12 who thinks authors are rock stars? Or perhaps, you are a college student or adult who loves to make magic happen? If so, come help us make the Tenth Annual Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival an experience to remember!

We need nearly 200 volunteers to ensure the event runs smoothly.

This year’s Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival (TBF) will take place on Saturday, May 16, 2015, at Nazareth College. Every year, this free one-day community event connects thousands of teens with award-wining authors from across the country.

Each volunteer will be assigned to work a minimum of a two-hour shift. Volunteers are needed to serve as author assistants, festival greeters, festival guides, and sales assistants in the TBF merchandise area. Those volunteers available all day may apply to serve as author assistants, but these positions are very limited.

Apply soon! We’d love to have you join the TBF team!

From Ms. Aspenleiter

All volunteers must attend a mandatory training session at Nazareth College on Tuesday evening, May 12th from 6:30 to 8pm. We will email you details about this training along with your volunteer assignment. You are responsible for your own transportation to and from this mandatory training and the festival itself. You will need to provide an e-mail address where confirmations and details can be sent about volunteer assignments. If requested, those students who volunteer may receive a document certifying the number of community service hours they provide.

Ready to sign up? Simply go online to complete the TBF Volunteer Submission Form:https://nazareth.wufoo.com/forms/tbf-volunteer-form/

Volunteer Registration is open February 23 – March 27, 2015

If you have additional questions, you can also send your message to tbfvolunteers@gmail.com

Forms must be completed no later than Friday, March 27.

Thank you and we hope you will be able to join us at Teen Book Fest 2015!

Classwork Learning Targets: 

1) I can cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

2) I can analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story.

3) I can analyze a case in which grasping point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement)

4) I can establish and use criteria to classify, select, and evaluate texts to make informed judgments about the quality of the pieces.

5) I can analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

6) I can determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

The following should be familiar from last week, but let's revisit the definition of satire, so as to anchor the concept.
EAR BUDS NEEDED!

What is satire?

1. 
   

   Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
2. Satire is synonymous with mockery,derision, scorn and caricature; however, there are nuances among these; so be aware.
3. Satire may be written (literature), graphic (political / social cartoons) and performances. What unifies all these forms is their purpose: constructive criticism, so as to effect change.
4. What are some of the techniques used used within the above media?  
5. 1. parody-a piece of writing, music, etc., that imitates the style of someone or something else in an amusing way

literary example:  Well, at least there’s one decidedly delicious thing to have come out of the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon. Quite literally delicious: this week sees the release of 50 Shades of Chicken: A Parody in a Cookbook, which details the sordid adventures of a young, inexperienced chicken as she gets her breasts and thighs handled by a chef — while serving up some excellent recipes for roasting chicken as well. 

musical example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnoZeGkhFGo

1. 
   
2. 2. burlesque-a play, story, novel, etc., that makes a serious subject seem funny or ridiculous; a metaphor in which the figurative comparison is exceptionally comic, grotesque, or exaggerated.    In poetry there a wonderful examples with Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, which is a tells of a great battle to procure a lock of hair or in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, but there is also burlesque comedy, which began in the 19th century and made fun of high brows.

   It was typically broad and low; with a strong emphasis on Slap Stick and sexual innuendo. The lead comedian was known as the "top banana"; and many well-known comedians started in Burlesque — such as Bob Hope, Red Skelton, and Milton Berle — before crossing over into movies, radio, or the fledgling television industry. One of the most famous classic Burlesque comedy routines is Abbott and Costello's Who's on First?.   This one for cultural knowledge; take a peek:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=airT-m9LcoY 3. exaggeration- to think of or describe something as larger or greater than it really is

1. 
   

1.   4 juxtaposition-the act of placing two things next to each other
2. 
   

       5. analogy- that if two or more things agree with one another in some respects they will probably agree in others
3. 
   
4. 
5. 6. comparison-the act of looking at things to see how they are similar or different
6. 
   
7. 
8. 7. double entendre- ambiguity of meaning arising from language that lends itself to more than one interpretation
9. "Marriage is a fine institution, but I'm not ready for an institution"
10. "A man is incomplete until he is married. Then he is finished."
11. assignebt"Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again."
12. Ted Walsh - Horse Racing Commentator - "This is really a lovely
13. horse. I once rode her mother."

here's the problem with double entendres: they are too risque for the classroom. Check them out on your own.

OK, now that you have reviewed the material, here is what you are going to do: 

Last week we looked at The Daily Show; now you are going to check out the Colbert Report.

 The topics should sound familiar. 

The Colbert Report  is an American satirical late night television program that airs Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. It stars political humorist Stephen Colbert, a former correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Colbert Report is a spin-off from and counterpart to The Daily Show that comments on politics and the media in a similar way. It satirizes conservative personality-driven political pundit programs, particularly Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor. The show focuses on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake. The character, described by Colbert as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is a caricature of televised political pundits.

Assignment:

 I'd like you to open a word document and list the seven techniques used in satire. As you watch the clips, find examples to support them. Include general information on the theme or topic, then support with some textual evidence. There is no need to quote the whole story. Make sure to include material from all of the clips. Obviously, not every technique will be in each clip. 
Send along by the end of class on Tuesday, March 3.
.
Techniques list:
1. parody
2. burlesque
3. exaggeration
4. juxtaposition
5. analogy
6. comparison
7. double entendre

links: 

1.  Cancelled Colbert  about 7 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBPgXjkfBXM&list=PLCD54AAAA6AF29ED5

2. Libertarians  abou 7 1/2 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71JazFJAS_k

3. Citizenship: 4 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYKoZJ_YDKE

4. phone aps  3 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b23LSEX6qzY

5. race relations  6 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LktQqlOp0pc

Thursday, February 26 The Daily Show

From Aspenleiter

Juniors and Seniors

 

Do you need Community Service hours???

 

What:  SOTA Ambassadors for Parent Teacher Conferences

When:  Thursday, 6:15 – 8:00 PM

Where:  SOTA

 

10 students are needed to assist with ambassador duties such as elevator assistance, giving directions and manning tables in the foyer.

 

Sign up is located on Aspenleiter’s door.

 

Learning Targets: 

1) I can cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

2) I can analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story.

3) I can analyze a case in which grasping point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement)

4) I can establish and use criteria to classify, select, and evaluate texts to make informed judgments about the quality of the pieces.

5) I can analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

6) I can determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

1. The Daily Show (titled The Daily Show with Jon Stewart since 1999) is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central and  in Canada, The Comedy Network. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998. Jon Stewart took over as host in January 1999, making the show more strongly focused on politics and the national media, in contrast with the pop culture focus during Kilborn's tenure. It is currently the longest-running program on Comedy Central, and has won 18 Prime-time Emmy Awards.
   Describing itself as a fake news program, The Daily Show draws its comedy and satire from recent news stories, political figures, media organizations, and often, aspects of the show itself. The show typically opens with a long monologue from Jon Stewart relating to recent headlines and frequently features exchanges with one or more of several correspondents, who adopt absurd or humorously exaggerated takes on current events against Stewart's straight man persona. The final segment is devoted to a celebrity interview, with guests ranging from actors and musicians to nonfiction authors and political figures.
2. 
   

Assignment: please go to the following link and 

watch the episode of The Daily Show.

Open up a word document, copy and paste in

the following questions, responding as they are 

presented within the show. Send along by the 

end of class on Friday.

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/full-episodes/v9pdbk/february-11--2015---colin-firth

1. The first story concerns a job offer to Jon Stewart, who incidentally is leaving the show.

          How does he handle the offer from Arby's? (words? images? double entendre?  What is his tone?

2. What is the second story about?  What literary allusion does Stewart make? With whom is Governor Stan Brownback juxtaposed? What conclusions can be made from this? (do a bit of research, if you do not know.)

3. There's little physical comedy, when Steward switches over to Alabama? Explain the props and the point.

4. Why do you think the Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Anton Scalia have been mockingly paired? Note the Melatonin Chlamydia!  What is the topical allusion?

5. While the couple waits to be married, they stand before a closed window decorated with Mardi Grad stickers. What does Stewart say to underscore the seriousness of denying same sex marriages and the supposed solemnity of the Lenten season, the most holy of times in Christianity?

6. What is Alabama's "Sharia Law Amendment?" What point is Stewart making in alluding to this law?  ( consider Biblical Law / Constitutional  Law)

Part 2: after the ads, 9:38

7. So what did you make of the Las Vegas students wanting better sex education? Write a thesis statement (main idea) that sums up this segment. (That;s one sentence!)

Part 3: after the next ad.
   quick promo for Colin Firth's film "The Kingsman"   no questions.., celebrity attraction, followed by another ad and then a couple of "50 Shades Valentine's gifts"  no questions, but maybe you have a closing thought. (yes, you do!)

Monday, February 23 Satire Unit day 1: article on the relationship between satire and journalism

The Rochester Oratorio Society is accepting applications  for the  2015 Classical Idol 9 Vocal Competition When and Where Semi-final AuditionsApril 17, 2015 Asbury United Methodist Church, 1050 East Ave., Rochester, NY Final Competition Gala April 18, 2015  Temple B'rith Kodesh,   2131 Elmwood Ave., Rochester, NY  Download the  Application Application deadline - March 13, 2015 Quick Links About Classical Idol Former Winners  Contest and Application Details Contact Info What is Classical Idol? Widely recognized as an essential career step for vocalists pursuing professional performance at the top levels, Classical Idol vocal competition provides the opportunity for young artists to compete before a live audience and receive real-time commentary from established authorities in the field. Selected from national and international applications, twenty vocalists come to Rochester for the semi-final round of the competition, to be held at Asbury First United Methodist Church on April 17, 2015. Panelists choose ten contestants to advance to the final round, presented before a live audience on April 18, 2015, 7:00 P.M. at Temple B'rith Kodesh, 2131 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY.     In the final round, judges offer helpful commentary on the  performances. Cash awards and concert appearances go to the top performers. Listeners vote for the Audience Favorite cash award.  Learn more...  Esteemed Panel of Judges Maestro Gildo Di Nunzio, Assistant Conductor, Italian Coach, Metropolitan Opera Jonathan Beyer, baritone, 2010 Classical Idol Winner, international performing artist Constance Fee, Artist Teacher of Voice, Roberts Wesleyan College Julia Figueras, Music Director, WXXI Public Broadcasting Eric Townell, Artistic Director, Rochester Oratorio Society, Rochester Lyric Opera Read their bios...    Cash prizes, Solo Performances, Essential Career Step  APPLICATION Application deadline - March 13, 2015 The Rochester Oratorio Society  *  1050 East Avenue  *  Rochester, NY  14607  *  Phone: (585) 473-2234  *  www.ROSsings.org

We are beginning a unit on satire. 

Learning Targets: 

1) I can cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

2) I can analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story.

3) I can analyze a case in which grasping point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement)

4) I can establish and use criteria to classify, select, and evaluate texts to make informed judgments about the quality of the pieces.

5) I can analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

6) I can determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

To begin, as a class we'll review the definition of satire. This is the core of the materials we will be working with. Make sure you are very comfortable with the various forms of satire.

Following the definition, there is an article by Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a journalism think-tank in St. Petersburg, Florida, as well as founder of the National Writers Workshop.  This is followed by the class assignment, which is due by Wednesday at midnight. Send along, as usual.

 I suggest you read the assignment, prior to reading the article. 

Definition of satire

Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Synonyms include: mockery, ridicule, derision, scorn and caricature.

Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which follies, vices, abuses and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations and society itself into improvement. (whose?)  Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon and as a tool to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.

A common feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm- but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy and double entendre* are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing.

Satire is nowadays found in many artistic forms of expression, including literature, plays, commentary, television shows and media, such as lyrics.

*example of double entendre:
1. “Marriage is a fine institution, but I’m not ready for an institution” 

ˈ

1. .

   
   

   Satire’s conflicting kinship with journalism
2.  by Roy Peter Clark
3. 
   

So 12 are dead in Paris, with more injured. Their crime is an association with the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which ridicules popes, politicians, prophets and Islamic extremists. It comes down to this. The magazine was eager to publish words and images that fanatics hated. Symbols were met with bullets.

The pen is mightier than the sword, we say, but is it mightier than the automatic rifle, the rocket launcher, the Molotov cocktail, the dirty bomb in a terrorist’s briefcase? Should journalists and satirists work in bunkers?

Journalism is a dangerous business, requiring physical and moral courage. Just look at what has happened to our war correspondents this past year. *(In 2014, 66 journalists were killed, 119 kidnapped, 853 arrested)

  The events in Paris have demonstrated that satire is as powerful as journalism – and just as dangerous.

There are forms of satire contained in journalism, such as political cartoons and humor columns. Some forms of satire clothe themselves in the trappings of journalism, such as the Colbert Report, the Daily Show, and The Onion.

But journalism and satire are, in many ways, opposites. Good journalism has many boundaries; satire few. Good journalism practices proportionality and decorum; satire spits on them. Good journalism appeals to reason; satire tweaks the funny bone or socks the solar plexus.

Yet journalists have a huge stake in satire. Satirists stake out the territory within which all creative humans can exercise their arts. The First Amendment, it has been often said, would not be necessary to protect common speech. We have it to protect extreme, unpopular, even dangerous forms of expression. That right to free expression is not absolute, of course. It comes with responsibilities, one of which is to consider the consequences of publication.

You can’t yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater, unless that theater is on fire. The creators of Charlie Hebdo yelled against fanaticism at the top of their lungs.

Nelson Poynter, creator of the Poynter Institute and former owner of the St. Petersburg Times, would not hire an editorial cartoonist. His argument was this: the editorial writer would work hard to craft an argument to make a subtle point. Behind that writer was the cartoonist, wielding a hammer. Mr. Poynter was right, I believe, in drawing a sharp distinction between journalism and satire, but he was wrong in one important sense.

Responsible journalism and responsible satire (if that is not an oxymoron) can share the same, or at least a harmonic, mission and purpose. Both forms stay alert to what is happening in the world. Both should attend to the abuse of power and the threats to the public good, whether they come from criminal elements, corporations, bureaucracies, celebrities, or governments. Journalists fulfill their mission with the accumulation and verification of evidence. Satirists use some of that same evidence but apply the strategies of irony, hyperbole, parody, inversion, juxtaposition, and caricature, making the corrupt a target of ridicule.

Nazi filmmaker Leni Reifenstahl used some of the most sophisticated cinematic strategies of her time to create “Triumph of the Will,” the ultimate deification of Hitler and the Third Reich. Charlie Chaplin saw that film and imagined his own parody in “The Great Dictator,” a devastating deflation of Nazi mythology, and one of the most popular movies of its time leading up to World War II. In hindsight, Chaplin wrote in his autobiography that he would never have made the movie, in which he plays a Jewish barber, if he had known about the concentration camps, what we now call the Holocaust. He would not have wanted to inadvertently enflame murderers to further violence.

Even a superficial study of the history of satire – begin with Wikipedia – reveals it to be an ancient form, well-established in Greek and Roman literature, and seen as potentially dangerous from the beginning. Plato himself blamed the death of Socrates, at least in part, on the ridicule heaped upon old Soc by Aristophanes in the play Clouds.

What could be more outrageous than Jonathan Swift in 1729 offering anonymously “A Modest Proposal” that poverty in Ireland could be solved by selling the oversupply of Irish babies as food for the upper class Brits: “A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.”

Of course there were those who read Swift and thought his proposal was serious – and barbarous – an encouragement of cannibalism. This reveals one of the problems of satire. The capacity to understand irony, one of the essential strategies of satire, includes the ability to embrace a message and realize that it means something different – even the opposite – of what it delivers on the literal level.

Swift and most other satirists exist in a tradition that allows them to color outside the lines. A stock character in Shakespeare was the “licensed Fool,” the court jester, one of the only figures who could speak truth to power. That license came with danger. If the King didn’t laugh his head off at your impertinence, he might decide to have yours cut off. In cultures where satirists do their best work – like America, Great Britain, and France – there exists a social contract where writers and artists can walk along a ledge with a safety rope around their ankles.

Fanatics have changed that equation. Religious leaders put a death sentence on Salman Rushdie. Countries that publish the work of Danish cartoonists see their embassies threatened. Churches of the infidels are attacked, lives lost. And now an editorial meeting is interrupted by hooded assassins.

Are we prepared wage violent war to protect the work of cartoonists and satirists? At some point, the answer has to be yes. That said, I cannot help but remember Chaplin’s statement that he would not have created his Hitler satire if he knew about the concentration camps. I want to see the movie “The Interview” as soon as I can to wave the flag of free speech against the digital terrorists who hacked SONY. But do I think it was a good idea to create a film in which American characters are sent to assassinate the living president of an actual country? My answer is no.

One of the advantages of satire is the power of the veil, the ability of artists such as Swift or Huxley or Orwell to create worlds that seem brave and new, but are really our native lands in disguise. There is no battling the killers in Paris, or those who celebrate their crimes, with words and images. They and their kind must be brought to justice. We grieve with the dead as brothers and sisters of the image and the word.

Their lives are a testament to the power and dangers of free expression – which can come with such a terrible cost.

ASSIGNMENT:

The deadly attack at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was a sobering reminder that to some religious extremists -- the same ones often lambasted on the covers of satirical magazines -- blasphemous speech is not only a sin, it’s a punishable offense. The demonstrations following the attack were a reminder that defending freedom of speech requires going beyond defending conventional, fact-based journalism.

The relationship between satire and conventional journalism is complicated– a relationship that becomes even more complicated in some cultures outside the U.S. and Western Europe. 

From your prior knowledge of satire, the above definition and the information from the above article, please respond to  four of the five  questions below in approximately (no fewer than 75) 100 words each. Support your responses with text from the above readings or any others you so wish to use. (Make sure to cite other sources.)

This is due by midnight on Wednesday. That gives you time in class on Monday for reading and two days to respond to four questions. 

Make sure you have your ear buds with you on Thursday.

1: What are the basic differences between satire and conventional journalism?

2: What  is the importance of defending freedom of speech, even if you don’t like the message? (check out what Voltaire said about speech.

3: Even though satire and journalism rely on free speech to do what they do, should journalists and satirists be treated differently?

4: What are your thoughts on prior restraint and self restraint?

This harks back to the First Amendment material we covered at the beginning of the year. You've also had this in your government class. As a reminder: prior restraint is the judicial suppression of material that would be published or broadcast on the the grounds that it is libelous or harmful. In the United States, the First Amendment severely limits the ability of the government to do this.

5.  Can satirists go too far?