At first I wanted to do an analysis paper of a song’s lyrics but I am not so sure I can use any lenses to write the paper so that is now my third option. I actually swapped my first and third option. Currently my first option is to analyze the playable character in South Park: The Fractured But Whole game. There is actually a lot I can write about this game using some of the lenses from the JTC book. I’d have to give a lot of context though, since they take a lot from the actual show and from the previous game they made. My second option is also a game called Detroit: Become Human. There are 3 playable characters, each with a unique story and I will analyze the character called Kara.

The aesthetics of violence in A Clockwork Orange, film by Stanley Kubrick

+Love the topic

+Great source material

+Interest of portrayal of controversial concepts aesthetically

-Would have to narrow it down a couple magnitudes of scale

The absurdity of portraying absurdity in The Stranger by Albert Camus

+A fan of this particular line of philosophy, albeit not a complete subscriber

+Makes for some interesting writing

-Choosing a particular position in which to articulate thoughts about absurdism from could prove quite hard

The post-modern sexiness of Soft Porn by Puma Blue

+Enjoyable source material and topic for me to analyze

+Something I want to analyze and look more in depth, but would not do so otherwise unless compelled by a greater motive

+Good music (back to square one)

-Perhaps too little source material due to its rather short lyrics. Additionally, the artist’s low profile and short history as such. 

-Risk of over-intellectualizing something as transient as music and stopping to enjoy it as much

 

Qs: Which one of these is the intersection of something that will serve the assignment’s purpose, and amuse me in the process?

My top pick for this paper is a music video by Childish Gambino called, “This Is America.” I want to do this topic because it is very controversial and brings up many issues in today’s society. There are easily many lenses I could use on this music video, for example audience or kairos.

The next option I came up with for this paper is the music video for “Wrecking Ball,” by Miley Cyrus. A lens I could use for this video would be exigence. It would be harder to analyze this video because there arent many lenses that apply, maybe only one or two that are relevant, so I might not be able to write a whole paper about this option.

The final option I came up with was the music video for “Do What You Want,” by Lady Gaga. This would be a good music video to use because it circles heavily around gender, which is a lens. Once again, it might not have enough valid lenses to use which would make it hard to write a whole paper on the video.

Blame It on Liza (The Simpsons)
Although Simpsons are infamous for being extremely stereotypical, this specific episode is widely considered to be one of the most stereotypical in the entire series thus far. In this particular episode, the Simpsons family goes out to Brazil where they encounter a number of interesting events rumored to only occur in Brazil. The depiction of the country and its locals and how they are stereotyped is the biggest advantage of choosing this show. The only con is that I fear the limit of this paper will restrict me to fully cover every aspect of the show.

Antonio Federici Ice Cream (commercial)
This advertisement is on par with The Simpsons as my top pick. This advert was highly (no exaggeration) controversial when it released in 2010 by the British ice cream manufacturer. It shows a pregnant woman dressed up as a nun holding a tub of ice cream in a church and two homosexual priests who are intimately staring at each other; one holding a spoon while the other holding the tub of ice cream. This ad was criticized on both religious and societal grounds which is helpful for my analysis. It’s not really a con but a lot of research is required for the purpose of analysis since the manufacturing company is established in a different country.

#womenshould (UN Women Ad Series)
This is my last choice for the paper. This is a series of advertisement that was started by United Nation Women under the initiative #womenshould. The ad represents women of four completely different background, race, and ethnicity. And each woman’s face is covered with a drop box that has an incomplete sentence “women should” and following the text, there are many different suggestions to complete the sentence. This artifact can be analyzed in terms of the discrimination women all over the world face based on their gender and race. Also, it reminds me a lot like the ad we went over in class with Nike and Colin Kaepernick.

Questions
How do you transition from talking about one lens to another?
How dense should be our paper in terms of lenses?

Identify 3 possible topics for your paper (identify your top pick)

Episode of Norm Macdonald Has a Show

Episode of Fawlty Towers

[Episode of The Eric Andre Show]

Describe why you’ve chosen these (pros and cons of each)

PRO: Norm Macdonald Has a Show is a talk show has completely replaced the politics, virtue signalling, and Trump bashing of late night nowadays with absurd jokes, unheard and funny stories, and an on-set vending machine.  CON: While being hilarious, the show goes out of its way to dodge political topics and events.  Such a decision can easily be mistaken for “running away”, which other talk show hosts apparently run towards.

Fawlty Towers is an old British sitcom that used to air in the 1970’s,  can now be viewed in full on Netflix, and is full of things that people today might find offensive and outdated.  PRO: aired in a time and place before political correctness.  John Cleese is known as an ex-member of the prolific comedy group Monty Python, who have made skits, movies, and jokes based on religion, politics, etc.  CON: Can be hard to truly relate to due to it coming from a time and place far from the here and now.

The Eric Andre Show is another late night-esque show, but is completely surreal.  PRO: The show is all about subverting typical television tropes and being an anti-talk show, and has much to offer.  CON(?): is devoid of politics but full of offensive, dark, and absurd humor.

Write what your questions are about this assignment at this point

Does everything we watch nowadays have a political bias?  Can a popular TV show give an opinion without it eventually getting skewed and taken out of context by certain media platforms?

Top Choice:

“Shelter” by Porter Robinson and Madeon (Music Video)

When I first saw this music video, I had no idea what was happening in the video or what the song meant. The song is written and sung in English while the video is presented to us as an anime. The song is about having hope and support during a dark time. The video reflects the song’s meaning by showing a short story about a young girl after an apocalyptic event occurs. A pro is that a ton of visual metaphors are squished into the six minute video. Another is that a few of the potential lenses that I could use are obvious, such as pathos. A possible con is that there might be a struggle to write a six or seven page paper about this.

Other Choices:

“Your Name” (Movie)

This movie is a Japanese animated romance film. It centers around a boy and a girl from different places who mysteriously swap bodies from time to time. I think that most long-distance couples can relate to this movie, but there are other interesting insights about life that other people can learn from this. I absolutely loved this film and saw that there is a plethora of visual metaphors and symbolism that can be used for this project. A con would be that there is so much to analyze that even after watching the movie more than once, I still have no idea what certain parts of it mean.

“Soul Eater” (Anime)

This is an action-packed comedy anime that follows three groups as they go through difficult challenges while fighting witches and evil entities. One of the pros it has is that there is a lot of great representation. For example, the characters are ethnically diverse and a good chunk of them are females. It also touches on mental health issues, which can give us a different perspective while interpreting this. One con is that it has fifty-one episodes, so I’m not sure if I should analyze the anime as a whole or pick a single episode. Another con is that explaining the show may be difficult and sound very unusual, as you may have seen after reading the first sentence of this paragraph. 

My top choice for this paper would be analyzing the TV show “Game of Thrones” on HBO. It is a fantasy genre and it set during the Middle Ages time period. A pro about analyzing this show would be the length of the show, containing 7 ongoing seasons, with 10 one hour episodes in each means that there will be tons of information to analyze. However, that can also be a con because determine which specific content in the show can also be challenge.

My second choice would have to be the Pepsi Commercial aired in 2004 titled “We Will Rock You”. This commercial is very unique and original, which introduced the famous song “We Will Rock You”. One pro about using this commercial would be the fact that it accurately depicts the sexist stereotype perceiving that men are greater beings than women, which can ultimately be a good lens to analyze this commercial.

My third choice for this paper would be the Nike Commercial “Just Do It” featuring many celebrity athletes and mainly Colin Kaepernick. Everyone knows the incident with Colin and the bending of the knee during the national anthem, and he has inspired millions across the globe to stand up for what they believe in. This has many pros, including the fact that it is such a powerful and inspiring commercial, therefore having many different lens for me to discuss within my paper.

 

Topic 1- Black Mirror (TV Show)

My top pick to analyze would be an episode of Black Mirror. The pros of this are that each episode is a different story, so I shouldn’t need to give too much background on the show before I get into an analysis. Also, most episodes are packed with messages on modern society regarding technology and how it affects us, so there should be a lot to write about.

Topic 2- Action Movies

Action movies have been around for a long time. They’re entertaining and it seems people will never get tired of them. I figured I could analyze an action film to see exactly how they manage to be so exciting to the audience. What makes a good, gripping action film? I like this idea because it would give me a new way at looking at film. The major con would be that I’m not sure if I would be able to write six pages on this. Also, there are so many action movies I’m having a difficult time picking a specific one.

Topic 3- The Last of Us (Video Game)

The Last of Us is a critically acclaimed video game set in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s known for having a well-written and emotional story, aside from its fun gameplay. The characters become fleshed-out through the story. Both protagonists of the game change and develop as time goes on. However, again, I’m not sure if I could reach six pages with this.

Questions

Is there an ideal amount of lenses to use in this paper? Do they all need to connect and tie together?

Top Pick: Pokemon (main series games)

I’ve been a fan of the franchise for most of my life, yet I’ve never thought about the games as anything but a source of entertainment. This assignment gives me the opportunity to look at the Pokemon games with new eyes and examine the reason behind their widespread appeal. The pros: plenty of things to talk about, from the fantasy the games allow the player to live out to their underlying values. The cons: finding a focus for my analysis is going to be a challenge.

 

Option 2: Team Fortress 2

It’s an online first-person shooter game that’s managed to maintain a large player base for over 10 years, something that’s very rare in the genre. TF2 offers incredible character customization, a rich and humorous story, and surprisingly developed characters. It’s also heavily modded and has a complex trading economy, allowing players to enjoy the game however they want. A con of writing about TF2 is that there’s not much open for interpretation.

 

Option 3: Akala – Find No Enemy

This song is my third pick because the composition and lyrics work hand-in-hand to tackle the issues of racism, classism, as well as internal conflicts. There’s a clear presence of the Aristotelian ethos, pathos, and logos. Akala’s pleading tone, powerful lyrics, and commentary on several of society’s biggest problems lend themselves to be analyzed. The con, however, is that the sheer amount to analyze makes narrowing down a challenge.

 

Topic 1: Kendrick Lamar DNA lyrics

This is my top pick. Kendrick Lamar’s DNA lyrics are dense and full of hidden messages and metaphors. It’s pro’s is that it can be related to many major issues in the present day and can many different lenses can be used. For instance, a fox news clip is played during this song. A con that comes with choosing this would probably be how I would structure my paper to get to at least six pages.

 

Topic 2: Get Out (movie)

This movie is famous for being the highest rated movie of its year. It’s full of commentary regarding race and religion that’s put in a horror genre film. It’s pro’s would be that it’s got plenty of metaphors and deeper messages that ties into our history as a nation and present-day events. For instance, there is a scene involving picking cotton which parallels slavery. 

 

Topic 3: A Quiet Place (Movie):

This movie is a horror/thriller film that’s mainly focused on the noises made in the film. This causes the visuals in the movie to hold more importance and messages than a regular movie would necessarily. The main message of this movie is about family. This makes it easy to relate to many people and gives an extra lens to view this movie. A con is that there probably aren’t many lenses that can be used for this movie that I can think of.