Monday, November 17, 2008
Satire
One of my childhood friends, “Johnny,” was extremely clever. He didn’t come by his cleverness by environment, although his environment gave him opportunities to demonstrate it. He was born clever, with a jaundiced eye of the world. When he was three years old his mother took him home to meet the relatives. Even at his young age, he was all too aware that he was “on show,” so he behaved like a dog. I don’t mean “dog” in the scum/bad manners sense. He LITERALLY behaved like a dog. When spoken to he’d only bark in response. When food was served he’d lap it up, face in the plate. He did this despite being black and blue from being pinched and spanked by his mother… and he did it for three entire days and only stopped barking when they got on the plane home.
It still makes me laugh… and I still admire Johnny’s tenacity. He didn’t care what others thought of him and that is a rare trait.
When he was in high school he had to do a paper on Japan. He stayed up the night before and adorned himself as a Japanese actor. He had the full catastrophe of wardrobe, the black wig, the full make-up. He went to school like that, turned in his paper on Japan with a flourish, and said absolutely nothing. He spent the entire school day dressed like that, with no comment.
He’s spent his entire life mocking the world and when folks try to figure out his motives, or find some inner meaning in what he is literally doing, he just gives his wry, “gotcha” kind of laugh.
That kind of satire and living life in a kind of purposeless artistic statement, is something that most folks don’t understand. Most folks have a fairly high investment in what others think of them, or an inherent shyness or timidity that keeps them from doing that sort of thing. They can’t relate at all.
So, too, with most satire or dark humor. H.L. Mencken took it to high art in his essays, using the language and ideas like a boxer uses his fists. He did it to get a rise and reaction out of people, to see if he could push their buttons. He “won” when they got upset or took it personally or seriously.
For satire to be effective, there has to be an element of truth to it. It has to take someone’s sacred cow and then gore it, mercilessly. If there is no blood, it isn’t satire. In our politically correct world, this is all too rare, and folks who do it are far and few. Ann Coulter does it, in her own way, making folks on the Left incensed about her callousness, and folks on the Right not wanting her on the team. She doesn’t care. She’s clever.
The folks who get upset about that sort of thing are the same people who thought that Tom and Jerry cartoons were too violent, and set about to get them taken off the air under the guise of being bad for children. They’re only “bad” for stupid children and their stupid parents.
Clever children, children who were born seeing the irony in all things, don’t have a lot of opportunities these days. Cartoons were once the bastion of the ironic, teaching children how humor could be used as a weapon. The folks who didn’t get Tom & Jerry make me giggle, in the same way Johnny did… and that’s the point, really.
Creators 1. Nanny-banners 0.
Trying to explain humor is nearly impossible. Satire is even more difficult. Most folks understand comedy (in the modern definition) because they go to see hacks like Gallagher and actually laugh. They watch things like Benny Hill and think that’s funny, too. I’m actually grateful for people like Gallagher and Benny Hill, but maybe not the way people think.
Years ago there was a golf tournament (the details don’t matter) that was incredibly difficult. The hole placements were making it impossible for the professional golfers to make par, and most ended up looking like amateur players, and they lost their ability to remain calm and cool under pressure. When the course manager was confronted by one of the players he was asked what he was doing, “Are you trying to embarrass the best golfers in the world?” he asked. To which the course manager responded, “No, sir. Just identify them.”
Gallagher and Benny Hill are like that. They allow us to separate the fools from rest of the herd (the chaff from the wheat), so in that sense, they do us a service.
Humor and satire, not comedy, have that as their only purpose.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and satire to keep me laughing as we fall over the cliff to our deaths.
- Preaching to the Choir (11/30/2008)
- Happy Thanksgiving (11/27/2008)
- Cooking (11/26/2008)
- Ammo Day (11/19/2008)
- Intellectual Curiosity (11/13/2008)
Posted 11/17/2008 10:52 AM CDT • Print Vers.
Comments
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Weetabix | 11/17/2008 11:59 AM CDT -
good stuff. The story of your friend is hilarious.
I like the Zen quote: “If you understand, things are just as they are. If you do not understand, things are just as they are.” I think it applies nicely to satire.
Inkfarmer | 11/17/2008 12:54 PM CDT -
heh
Or one of my favorites:
“There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don’t.”
Mrs. du Toit | 11/17/2008 01:14 PM CDT -
“There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can count and those who can’t.”
h/t Fran Porretto
Weetabix | 11/17/2008 01:34 PM CDT
