John Stewart and The Daily Show as Satire Mr. Moccia

Introduction  The end result of this project is two-fold:  To become better “recognizers” of the satire around us  To become expert analyzers of satire  This project is not simply about saying, “Look, here’s satire;” it’s about saying, “Look, here’s satire, and let me explain to you how the satirist is attempting to convey his ideas.”  Hence, analysis of the techniques is key

Differences between MY project and YOUR project  I have more info/details than you need. I make a lot of notes for you to consider when making your project, notes you won’t need to put on your project.  Therefore, I don’t use any many images as I think you should, simply because I don’t have the space.

The John Stewart Show  A few things about John Stewart  A few things about The Daily Show, especially its normal political purposes

The Subject  The media’s tendency to take “hearsay” and turn it into “facts” when it fits their political purpose  In particular, Stewart is addressing FOX News and its anti-Obama stance

Type of Satire?  Horacian  It’s lighthearted, comical – it pokes fun  It is making a serious point, considering how much media affects the public’s opinion of our world and country  But it isn’t bitter or angry

Devices 1: Humor  Example: The basic flow of the media clips, with all of their exaggerations, alongside Stewart’s response and delivery, is intended to be funny  Purpose: The humor is what invites the audience in – but more importantly, the humor is intended to show the audience that what the media does is essentially comical  (Humor often takes what is presented as serious and puts it in the realm of the comical, in order to reveal its actual comical nature)

2: Comic Juxtaposition  One Example: TV Glen Beck vs. Radio Glen Beck  Purpose:  To show the inner contradictoriness of the opinions stated  To reveal how the media takes something that might be true and presents is as true  (Juxtaposition puts things side by side, in order to show differences; juxtaposition in satire is often comical: when you put two things side by side and they’re funny, this can often point to some underlying actual problem.)

3: Parody  Example: Indian media man  Purpose: As a parody, the situation on The Daily Show is an exaggerated version of what FOX News did, hence it reveals the flaws of FOX News  The “haggling of the news” in the clip is compared to the not-as-obvious “haggling” done by FOX  (Parody often uses exaggeration; exaggerating something often exaggerates its flaws, and makes them more obvious.)

4: Absurdity  Example: When Stewart reveals the source of the information, it reveals the absurdity of the original FOX newscasts he showed at the beginning of the episode  Purpose: This reveals, quite simply, the absurdity of the FOX News process  (Conveying absurdity goes a long way in trying to convince someone that something is wrong.)

What’s wrong in society? 1. FOX News 2. Media’s tendency (not just FOX) to run with stories on account of their political purpose and not because of their veracity 3. Indirectly, the public is mocked for simply taking news from the media as fact

What is hoped to be achieved?  Stewart probably assumes he isn’t going to change FOX News, or the media in general, although he might hope for this  But there still is practical purpose here: Stewart wants the general public to THINK when listening to or watching the media

Stewart says to public…  Don’t believe things simply because they’re on the news  Recognize the political affiliation of news organizations when parsing through the news  Be a discerning, reasonable, skeptical, logical American