A Thanksgiving Miracle
Thanksgiving is a day where friends and family meet up for a turkey dinner to celebrate their gratitude for the pilgrims coming to America. Thanksgiving can be dreadful for some families because too many different political and social views end up coming together at one table. A Thanksgiving dinner tradition in my house is for all family members to say what we are thankful for. In this paper I am analyzing a skit from Saturday Night Live that centers on tolerance of difficult family members over the holidays, specifically, Thanksgiving. This skit satirizes Thanksgiving dinner using irony, parody, and incongruity in order to get their point across.
SNL starts the skit with the whole family sitting around a table for dinner.
…show more content…
Aunt Cathy seems to be the source of credibility with her boldly stated opinions. In this skit, though, there is not just one main speaker. All the adults in the family seem to have their own input in the situation. Emotion is brought into this skit through the young girl who wants to put the fighting to an end and uses Adele’s music to do so. This pulls at the heart strings of the audience because she is desperate to end the fighting. It also adds humor because she knows that the song will make them stop and the funny way they will react to. Logos is not portrayed in this skit because it was complete chaos sans logic to close any …show more content…
Each rhetorical situation, appeal, and device has a purpose for the skit that without it would not succeed the way it did. They tied together the story of the family not getting along and the little girl coming to the rescue. If the little girl was not casted for this role, and it was an older man, the pathos appeal would not have been there. If the family members would not have argued over Aunt Cathy’s opinions, there would have been no backbone to the story. Each strategy had a purpose. They maneuvered each strategy in order to display humor over the topic and make it stand out. The rhetorical strategies reach the audience’s standards and fulfills the purpose in order to put some humor in a tension-filled
Imagine living in a world where the public believed everything the government said, or a world where people did not question the authority. It would suck, right? Well believe it or not today’s society is faced with problems similar to those, and often people cannot see these problems while others do not realize that they are serious issues. Thankfully thanks to technology, we are able to bring awareness of these issues by placing emphasis on them.
They are already in a compromising situation in celebrating her eighteenth birthday at a gas station having coffee which was already established as being not the norm earlier with Marie recounting her own large party where her “mother made a large party” (154). There reality is broken when the teenagers arrive and “One of the girls went to the juke box and put money in” and they are forced to leave because of Carol condition which causes her to have a breakdown from the noise (157). The arrival of the kids forced them to come into contact with their own reality which can never coincide with the one they have fabricated. This small reminder of what the norm is supposed to be is often brought to their attention through others such as when they “could see, in the light shaft of light, a boy, two girls and a dog” (155). In this instance, they are walking on the way to their weekly picnic, which is in itself repetitive, when they are shown the norm of other having fun “the boy splashing in the water with the dog” while they are forced to go through the motions without much emotion. This depiction of the norm unsettles their reality and, even though they don’t stop trying to alter reality to shelter Carol, shows how dysfunctional their own situation is as it can be seen as a potential version of themselves without Carol’s
For example, the comedy shows The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon expresses satirical humor concerning politics. His show also demonstrates political satire by telling jokes and even impersonating political figures for the audience. He creates humor through sarcasm that focuses on real issues. His sarcastic humor causes others to feel more confident in their criticism toward politicians. For example, “Jimmy Fallon expresses his humor about Donald Trump, impersonating his appearance and imitating his voice while talking about politics. He uses his humor by impersonating Donald Trump and his sweeping generalizations with Madea (Rogo).” Jimmy Fallon shows people his views through humor and it creates a sense of community to express their agreeable and disagreeable views. As we discussed some ideas about satirical humor that affects political changes, it was important to reveal their feelings about changes in life and drove them to look upon their society or government more
In cotemporary America, cultural text such as films form many conceptions of race, gender and social for the people who watch them. This paper argues four Key and Peele skits “Substitute Teacher”, “I Said B*tch”, “Phone Call” and “Proud Thug” to challenge and complicate gender norms by highlighting the ways in which gender, race and class are performed in public and private settings. When you critically examine these texts there are stereotypes that underlay the film that are obvious, but are portrayed as comical. The intersectionality between gender, race and class are often addressed in many of these short skits. Often the films or skits engage in patriarchy and the main characters are men. In order to further examine the topic first we must address intersecionality, patriarchy, poverty, and class to grasp a better understanding.
As one of America’s leading contemporary poet’s, Sharon Olds is known for the intense personal and emotional poetry that she writes. Her ability to intimately and graphically divulge details of her personal life allows readers to delve into the deepest parts of not only her mind, but of their own as well. Sharon Olds uses her writing to allow readers to experience the good and bad of life through her eyes, yet allows readers the interpretive freedom to define her works as they fit into their own lives. Olds’ ability to depict both wonderful and tragic events in stories such as “First Thanksgiving” and “Still Life in Landscape”with beautifully gruesome clarity allow readers a gritty real-life experience unlike any other.
Over the years, several cartoon series have been chosen as the object of study for different researches. The world most famous animated family, The Simpsons, has been studied by Meskill (2007) focusing on their discourses about education. The author concluded that the satirical portrayal of schools in The Simpsons- teaching, learning, administrating- is brilliant in the cleverly suggested conflicts it portrays and provokes. These contradictions, according to Meskill, can illuminate the humanistic side of the society in which we live and help to improve its institutions. Another cartoon series that has received many critiques is South Park. Schulzke (2012) analysed the episode “The F Word” to illustrate how the show uses sophisticated strategies
Brian Motzenbecker supports my idea that the parents are divorced but finds symbolism in what the children discuss and the father’s "quips" (174). I can suggest to the contrary that these stories within the story are meaningful but not symbolic at all. The rapid succession of jumping from one topic to the next suggests to me that the need for conversation without a break is necessary. It keeps everyone from simultaneously t...
Many people tend to use humor as a positive communication skill to make us laugh. It has long been used as a tool to navigate how we better understand media and politics. In today's crucial times of political chaos, social unrest and in-fighting between political parties, the use of Satire humor is more relevant than ever before. According to Oxford dictionary, satire is defined as 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. In the last decade there has been a staunch increase in technology and a rise in social media, this comes with its own benefits and downfalls. The use of satire humor has been represented
Thanksgiving is undoubtedly a holiday to celebrate family. It also celebrates many other things, as the name suggests. Thanksgiving is a holiday to give thanks for the things that a person has rather than to wish for more things. Accomplishments and shiny cars are not part of the essence of Thanksgiving, as these do not have the inherent humbleness expected of the holiday. This air of humility and frugality, harkening back to the days of the pilgrims and Native Americans, is probably what lead Ellen Goodman to describe the holiday as a suppressing of individualism. However, the rift between individuality and family that Goodman describes in Thanksgiving is not as deep as she makes it seem, and Thanksgiving Day is hardly the only day of the
“Come on in,” Uncle George yelled to my cousins, Terry and Savannah. On a cool November day, Thanksgiving to be exact, all of the women in my family were gathered in the kitchen preparing dinner. Aunt Debby was making yams and washing the collard greens before placing them in the pot to be cooked. Aunt May and Aunt Janet were working on the dressing and macaroni while all of the other women of the family are doing everything possible to make this festive holiday a success. “Turn the TV up and be quiet!” Uncle George was now grumpy! The McDonald’s Thanksgiving parade was broadcasting on the television and it is his favorite thing to watch the morning of Thanksgiving, but for the rest of the day the television would
Satire invites critical self-introspection from us in a way that no other media can. It also acts as an unbiased mirror that reflects the mirror image of the flaws of our society. This beautiful process, when unhindered and uncensored, is the epitome of western freedom of speech, which is the single most significant right that deserves to be cherished and defended. According to McClennen, however, all mirror images of satire might not be beneficial. She believes that shows such as South Park and The Simpsons, which are not afraid to attack anything, do not lead to any kind of positive political discourse.
This skit violates the Maxim of Manner, which states that a speaker avoid ambiguity. This skit is full of lexical and structural ambiguities. During the exchanges between Abbott and Costello each man is misinterpreting what the other is meaning by their answers or questions. For example, in this exchange
Since television came into existence, it has evolved into a useful tool to spread ideas, both social and political, and has had a great effect on the generations growing up with these heavily influential shows. To these younger generations, television has taken the role of a teacher, with the task of creating a social construction by which many of us base our personal beliefs and judgments on. This power allows television shows take the opportunity to address problems in a manner that many audiences can take to heart. Many television shows present controversial topics in a comical matter, in some ways to soften the blow of hard-hitting reality at the same time bringing attention to the issue being addressed. In the television show, Everybody Hates Chris, season one, episode four entitled “Everybody Hates Sausage”, the stereotypes that continue to fuel racism are examined in a satirical motif, and class is presented in a comical way, but carries serious undertones which present a somewhat realistic view of the different social strata within the United States.
“Bah Humbug!” was what the grumpy character Ebenezer Scrooge said about Christmas. Guess what that got him: a visit with four ghosts Past, Present, Future, and his dead partner and friend Marley. A Christmas Carol is the tale of a rude, irritable man called Ebenezer Scrooge whom loathes Christmas and anything to do with it. His encounter with the ghosts changed his perspective on how to treat people and the way he lives his life. This is shown in both the drama and the movie, but there were some parts of each that were different. However, the message of the story stayed the same.
Detweiller, Eric. ““I was Just Doing a Little Joke There”: Irony and the Paradoxes of the Sitcom The Office” Journal of Popular Culture 45.4 (2012): 727-748. Web. 15 January. 2014.