December 1, 2012

The Saving Grace of Satire



It began in high school: my friends and I made a habit out of making fun of pretty much everything we could. We would gather at Jenn's house for the annual 'sing along with The Sound of Music' event on New Year's day. We would watch the film, recite the dialogue along with the characters, sing, and then when Maria whips out her guitar on the mountaintop for 'Doe a Deer', we would always say to each other as the orchestral strings of the soundtrack commenced, "And suddenly out of nowhere there appears an orchestra on the mountaintop" and we would laugh and laugh at the idea. We would put Duran Duran records on the 45 rpm setting on the record player, and Jenn and Mike would go on their knees like Duran Duran dwarves and sing and dance along to the sped up tunes. That was hilarious. When we discovered Saturday Night Live and Monty Python, my friends and I would memorize long passages and songs from their films and spend hours reciting them to each other around camp-fires and at parties, or in the back of the car on our college commute. We ate up satire and sketch comedy with the eagerness and voracious energy of youth, and we told funny and embarrassing stories on ourselves and about each other. Laughter took up the greater part of most of our conversations. Almost nothing was sacred. Almost nothing escaped the microscopic lens of our sharp wit and our desire for fun. We made a sport of critical thinking through satirical humour, and I do believe, in many ways, it saved us.

My children have the same approach to life that my friends and I had at their age. I see evidence of the fact every day, and I love it. The ability to laugh at one's self is of great importance to my way of thinking, and the ability to laugh at the world, and what it continually serves up, is vital for the survival of one's individuality and true purpose in the world. My family recently acquired Netflix and we are making our way through ten years of missed Saturday Night Live seasons - my husband and I watched the show all through the '90's but missed the 'naughts (2001-2009)' or, as they are called by some here in North America, 'the Bush years' of the show almost completely. SNL's 'good natured skewering' of everyone from politicians to the head elf in Santa's workshop makes for good TV. Some of my favourite episodes are when an actual politician, be he George Bush Senior or Senator John McCain, appear on the show and are given a chance to retaliate. The result is always a healthy experience for everyone: for the audience who get to see a more human, not to mention humourous, side of the politician, and for the actors and writers on the show, who get a bit of their own back, exhibiting a tremendous sense of fair play on their part. The first Monty Python film I showed my children was Monty Python and the Holy Grail, complete with insulting Frenchmen, anachronisms galore, a wimpy knight named Brave Sir Robin, and King Arthur riding a non-existent horse while his squire knocks two coconuts together to provide the sound of the horse, should one actually have been in existence. My kids, all of them, found the film refreshing, intelligent in its silliness, and downright funny.

We in Canada have always revered satirical comedy in general. With shows like SCTV and The Air Farce, which began on CBC Radio and made its way to television, Codco out of Newfoundland, This Hour has Twenty-two Minutes from Halifax, and The Rick Mercer Report, Canadian politicians, celebrities and Canadian contemporary society are never safe from a good natured ribbing, and I think we are better for it.The U.S. has, of course, Saturday Night Live, but they also enjoy the brilliant political satire of John Stewart in The Daily Show with John Stewart, as well as The Colbert Report with the irrepressible Stephen Colbert. Stewart and Colbert are so well loved and respected in their nation that an overwhelmingly large percentage of the people stay abreast of the political situation chiefly through their shows. I know there exist many shows out of the U.K. which provide that nation, as well as many fans around the world, with countless opportunities to laugh at themselves and the world at large. Comedians such as Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Tracey Ullman, and of course the aforementioned favourite Monty Python, all use their great talents to help make their society truly democratic. As writer and satirist Jonathan Swift said, "As Wit is the noblest and most useful Gift of humane Nature, so Humor is the most agreeable, and where these two enter far into the Composition of any Work, they will render it always acceptable to the World."

I remember reading a satirical essay in my English Literature course in college entitled A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, in which he suggested a way to deal with poverty and hunger, which were rampant in eighteenth century Ireland, was to raise babies for consumption by the upper classes: "I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children." The essay was shocking to me for something written in 1729, but it also appealed to me greatly. I am not sure of the effect it had on the social policy of the time, but obviously, the essay swept the nation much like the latest YouTube video does now, and woke many people up to the absurdity of a nation starving its own. A Modest Proposal is not far off the sort of satire produced in the present age. In fact, Swift's essay, and others like it, as well as the political cartoons of the time, most likely inspired it. Every age has employed its satirists, and they are as important to the workings of a healthy society and its institutions - churches, schools, government, etc.- as the institutions themselves. Satirists provide the checks and balances every person and every institution with power over others needs, and they accomplish this feat with the most welcome leaven of humour and the intelligence of wit; I shudder to think what would happen to us if this was not so. Apparently, a school district in Texas tried to shut down classes which taught critical thinking to students for fear that teaching children to think for themselves employing logic and reason would cause problems in the more God-fearing homes of their student body. To that I, whom some would call 'religious', cry foul and laziness - should we not teach our children to think, to question, to form opinions based on the good values we have brought them up in? To my own children I say, "Question everything by all means. Just be prepared to do the work to find the answers." And laugh. A lot.

Here is one of my favourite Rowan Atkinson sketches, satirizing the stereotypical English public school headmaster.


Emma and I have a new post over at Stella's Virtual Cafe. Check it out...please. 

17 comments:

  1. Just a little comment of my own on this post. We were never mean - it really was all in the name of fun and figuring out our place in the world.

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  2. It's difficult for the hills to be alive with the sound of music if there's no spontaneous orchestra! Your stories of you and your friends as teens reminds me of similar growing up. Good times!

    And yes... the Twinkies!

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    1. They were good times, weren't they? Glad you could relate, Abby.

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  3. haha...the guys i grew up with sound much the same...we used to laugh at most anything...and i do love a good satire....not mean...smiles...i understand you there...remember reading swift...it is shocking...good satire often is...it pokes its fingers in truths sometimes we would rather not ackowledge...i mean is it really important how your son died, he's risking being expelled...ha..

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    1. Yes, good satire does poke its fingers in truths. Ouch! :)

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  4. Satire comes from two places. The first, from the true romantic who believes things should be better. Second, from the true pessimist, who believes we are all animals and everything higher than the reaction of weasels& hyenas is an aberration.

    I wonder did you pick up on the underbelly of TSOM It is a cinemagraphic high point. And while not Gigi, nonetheless it's close to Les Misérables in its comment on society's reactions to un-familied girls.
    Think about it. A girl that likes running wild in the hills. Code for what ?. Singing her little heart out, hmm. Where the nun at the girls home finds uncontrollable for she won't stay within the walls. I'll add here it wouldn't occur in Ireland, have you seen The Magdalene Sisters. They would have broken her possible ever lobotomized her. Either way she'd have been a vegetable.
    She is then sent to a sea captain with a raft of kids who marries her. Which is a far less traumatic method of control, but no less effective. Of course there are undertones of Wuthering Heights.
    Everything is either tragic or comic, mostly both. Am I a romantic or a pessimist :-D.

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    1. Vince...interesting analysis! I agree with satire coming from two places.
      As far as TSOM having an underbelly, I can only say that my mother read me Maria's autobiography when I was little, and then I read it again a few years ago. What I detected there was that our Maria was an incredibly driven woman and that she drove her children in much the same manner, but all in all I think she was happy and very faithful once she had an outlet for her enormous energy. One of her daughters had a nervous breakdown and actually ran away at one point.
      I enjoyed Gigi, from what I remember - Leslie Caron was lovely, but I admit, somewhat embarrassed, that I do not know the story of Les Mis. It's on my list, however. Haven't seen The Magdalene Sisters either, although I know them by reputation. I'm happy that girls finding themselves alone in the world have more options nowadays...let us not romanticize the past! Lots of food for thought - and I'm pretty sure you are on the romantic side of pessimism, my friend, without actually knowing you in person. Cheers, and sorry it took a bit to reply. Had a very busy arts weekend. Now the Christmas preparations take over.

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    2. Oh my dear the Magdalene Sisters aren't for the faint hearted. And frankly you are better off watching it in a place not your home. It is awful in ways you wouldn't think possible.

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    3. I'm probably better off not watching it at all, in that case.

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    4. Oh get on with yourself, you aren't that delicate. There is nothing in it you've not heard before. Why I'd say view in a cinema or village film show is it would better to go for a walk than go to bed. That would be your instinct. But you really need to digest and reconcile some of it before sleep. It's one of those factual records that all Catholic women need to see. And men for that matter.

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    5. I call that kind of film - an afternoon show only - very much like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I am watching in bits and digesting slowly :)

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  5. I continue to admire your gift of all good things and nostalgic and how you bring it into the current.

    Reading this post brought back memories of dancing and singing with my friends as a youth, and watching a lot of TV during my twenties, trying to relate.

    Right now, I'm lacking in the TV/movies, but see myself coming back to it soon. Hearing other people talk about having family movie time or TV time makes me want to do it too... not that I never sit down for a gathering of the natives with popcorn in hand. :)

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    1. Thanks, Anita. I do try and give my nostalgic tendencies a current purpose.

      TV is how our family tends to relax in the evenings after a busy day, and since we have the most limited of cable packages, we decided to give ourselves some more options with Netflix. $8 a month is quite reasonable for that :)

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  6. The only thing I remember about Monty Python is that pretend horse. I was sent to another room because that show "wasn't for me". Funny, when I saw this music video, it reminded me of that forbidden movie.http://youtu.be/4NMxwbn_QoU

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    1. Tested the kink and it didn't work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NMxwbn_QoU works.

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