Humor is more than just amusing entertainment to pass the time. Though jokes and witty banter can be shallow, humor can go deeper than surface level to convey messages to audiences who would otherwise be close-minded about certain ideas. Humor is a great tool to get audiences to change the way they think, feel, and act. In “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” Alexander Weinstein uses humor to criticize some of society’s faults such as the way it has become heavily reliant on technology, racially insensitive, and judgmental. As technology advances, people are adapting and becoming more reliant upon it. In the story, the narrator and his wife adopted a Chinese child and bought a robot named Yang. Weinstein uses the family’s relationship with Yang to criticize
In today’s society, racial profiling is a widespread problem that negatively impacts most non-white people. Weinstein criticizes this in the story using an invasion of North Korea. When “the nation changed the color of its ribbons from yellow to blue” people changed their view on Asians and “Chinese, Japanese, South Korean didn’t matter anymore; they’d all become threats in the eyes of Americans” (Weinstein 11). Russ had racist propaganda that stated “THERE AIN’T NO YELLOW IN THE RED, WHITE, AND BLUE” and the narrator described being treated differently when in public with Mika and Yang (Weinstein 11). They were even individually searched at airports solely because Mika and Yang where Asian, similar to how Muslims are treated differently and are constantly being profiled as
The most obvious critique is on how people heavily rely on technology. In the story, the family depends on a robot to be a teacher and caretaker for their child. When he malfunctions, they realize how dependent they were on him. Weinstein also brings attention to the white American middle and upper class. He includes issues ranging from white supremacy to racial profiling and xenophobia. Lastly, the author critiques society’s tendency to be judgmental without considering all of the circumstances. Because the themes are subtly infused into the story, “Saying Goodbye To Yang” is able to include sensitive topics and without coming off as offensive or as an attack. Weinstein’s use of humor and expert story telling makes the story enjoyable for anyone, while simultaneously raising questions about the faults of
Ilya Varshavsky’s “Perpetual Motion” is the story of humanity’s relationship with technology. During a human council meeting, where humans superficially decide how their world will function, Class A robots demand equality with humanity. The human council is initially appalled, but after these robots explain they will supplement their labor with the labor of a new race of robots humanity grants their wish. Twenty years later, during a Class A robot council meeting, the topic of equality for Class B robots is introduced in a similar manner to the way Class A freedom was discussed. In order to grant equality to Class B robots, the Class A robots discuss the need to teach humans how to survive without them. They resolve to teach humans how
“The practical disengagement of humor…helps explain the opposition between amusement and negative emotions.” (530) There are three effects of humor; irresponsibility, blocking compassion, and promoting prejudice. Humor can take away what we are/should be doing in life and sometimes there isn’t anything wrong with that. Sometimes when we hear a hateful thing we just laugh it off as if it was no big deal when it really was. “An
To understand the roots and impacts of racial profiling and the iron triangle, it is beneficial to know exactly what racial profiling and the iron triangle entails. Racial profiling is the act when any kind of law enforcement officer forms suspicious thoughts about a person due to nothing besides their race or ethnicity. Law enforcement officers often act on these suspicious thoughts due to their training. An example of racial profiling could be made of a woman named Shoshana Hebshi, who is of Jewish and Arab descent who was jerked off of a plane and heavily searched during the ten year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Hebshi, an American citizen, was completely innocent and was only brought under suspicion due to her race. Therefore,
Described by journalist Amy Uyematsu as “victims--with less visible scars--of the white institutionalized racism”, Asian Americans faced similar, if not more brutal xenophobia and racism than African Americans especially given the circumstances and historical context. The post-WWII era unified blacks and whites against a common enemy and created an assimilated group that triggered the path towards racial equality--or in other words: the makings of a more equal and integrated society for blacks and whites. However, with post WWII Japanese resentment, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War, impressions of Asian Americans in the United States declined as those for African Americans rose. Moreover, the voice of Asian Americans often went unheard as they assimilated into a “White democracy”. As a result, the emergence of the “Yellow Power” movement began as a direct influence from...
Here, Turkle interprets the rise of sociable robots in society as showing troublesome aspects within humanity. With this narrow minded view and generalization, however, Turkle isolates herself. Although this may be true for some people, by leaving no room for discussion and instead treating a subjective opinion as fact, she discredits herself. In addition, Turkle opens her book with a story from her own life, wherein her daughter, Rebecca, questions the reason for the American Museum of Natural History using a real turtle instead of a robotic one. Turkle continues by stating her idea that children these days, including her daughter, do not understand the importance of or prioritize authenticity (3). There are many potential reasons for Rebecca’s desire to
Racial profiling is generally defined as discrimination put into action based on a stereotype. No one is excluded from the potential to experience some form of racial profiling, regardless of one’s race, gender, or religion. Racial profiling has existed in various forms since slavery. During the reconstruction of the South, the first sense of racial profiling began with “Black Codes”. “Black Codes” were created to maintain a new form of slavery. These “codes” made it punishable by imprisonment and indentured servitude for any African American who loitered, remained unemployed, drunk, or in debt. The “Black Codes” were a transparent form of what we call racial profiling today. From a ruling class perspective, the minority groups are constantly undermined, intimidated, attacked, imprisoned, discredited, and sometimes shot and killed. These acts take place in order for the ruling class to maintain control and in most cases unjustly abuse their power.
People love to read stories and watch movies of a science-fictional society that include robots with artificial intelligence. People are intrigued with the ability of the robots that seem to demonstrate what we humans consider morality. Eando Binder’s and Isaac Asimov’s short stories, as well as the 2004 Hollywood movie, all carry the title “I, Robot” and introduce possible futuristic worlds where robots are created and integrated within society. These stories challenge our perceptions about robots themselves, and could perhaps become an everyday commodity, or even valued assistants to human society. The different generations of “I, Robot” seem to set out the principles of robot behavior and showcase robots to people in both different and similar ways. How does the Robot view itself? More importantly, how does society judge these creations? The concepts discussed in these three stories covers almost 75 years of storytelling. Why has this theme stayed so relevant for so long?
According to Aristotle, “Comedy can be any colloquy or performance generally intended to amuse or stimulate laughter”. In modern times, comedy can be found in different forms, such as television, movies, theatres and stand-up comedy.
According to Everything’s an Argument by Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz, “Humor has always played an important role in argument…” (38). Humor itself is something that activates amusement or laughter. Moreover, in popular culture satire is a tool that is used to point out things in our society. Satire opens the minds of people to philosophies they might completely deny, using humor. There are many elements of satire that identify flaws within our society. A couple of satire elements that will be discussed are irony and exaggeration. In addition, a parody is used in popular culture as a way to mock or mimic situation or person.
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
Race is, in fact, reestablished as an intrusive presence in American collective life in the second part of the play when Hwang 's father and other members of the community become victims of the 1996 Congressional investigation into the loyalty of Chinese Americans suspected of espionage and of obscure financial dealings with China, thereby imposing the reality of racism on a post-racial sensibility. (Botelho 92)
For those Asian Americans who make known their discontent with the injustice and discrimination that they feel, in the white culture, this translates to attacking American superiority and initiating insecurities. For Mura, a writer who dared to question why an Asian American was not allowed to audition for an Asian American role, his punishment was “the ostracism and demonization that ensued. In essence, he was shunned” (Hongo 4) by the white people who could not believe that he would attack their superior American ways. According to writers such as Frank Chin and the rest of the “Aiiieeeee!” group, the Americans have dictated Asian culture and created a perception as “nice and quiet” (Chin 1972, 18), “mama’s boys and crybabies” without “a man in all [the] males.” (Chin 1972, 24). This has become the belief of the proceeding generations of Asian Americans and therefore manifested these stereotypes.
With the expansion of technology the narrator addresses the relationship of human beings with “super-toys” and the reality challenged when such artificial intelligence is introduced in a human world.
Humor has been the source of entertainment throughout history. Today humor is practiced in movies, plays, songs, television shows and radio. Humor has brought fame and fortune to those who have mastered its power.
...e over every aspect of human life, meanwhile, people are forcibly stopped doing stuffs by themselves. Finally robots dominated human race, not in the way of military forces but in lifestyle behaviors. The story was interesting yet it also hilarious. Human’s intelligence created technology, and they are created to serve human. No matter how smart the technology will be, they are still the intelligence of humans. I wonder why sometimes people are afraid of their intelligence. Don’t imagine your life without technology because the progression of technology will never stop, and it will continue to benefit us.