Dear students, Here are your Candide “maps” from today. Feel free to reply and comment on some of them. PG

A Parody is a tool of Satire, it’s an imitation or an exaggerated act, usually of a writer, music videos, movies or an artist by displaying a comedic effect. This effect is a very noticeable feature in a parody where certain characters of a person or a scene in a movie is highlighted to produce a humorous act and response.  We deal with parody in our daily life through social media, stage comedy, movies and so on.

For example; The novel “Twilight” written by Stephanie Meyer, later turned into a movie was turned into a parody in 2009 by Ryan Higa. Ryan Higa is a you-tuber / comedian who picked up scenes from the movie and recreates the scene by poking some aspects of the scene to ridicule it, thus turning it into a parody.

Another example of parody would be television shows like “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” This is one of the most famous shows where they imitates political leaders and their personalities and  make fun of it. By doing this, it  also lets them express their opinion on the current social and political issues.

Satire which is similar to parody, however “uses wit for social criticism.” It usually ridicules the society, government, businesses, and individuals problem in order to bring moral attention which can usually lead to improvements. Satire is portrayed with irony and sarcasm, and even parody.

Some of the examples of Satire would be “The Onion.” The Onion is basically a fake news that uses current events and talk about it’s ridiculous situation. Their most popular headlines; “CIA Realizes it’s been using Black Highlighters All The These Years”,  “Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace and Prosperity Is Finally Over,’”

Another example of Satire would be the “Ig Nobel Prize.” This basically makes fun of the Nobel Prize awarded to some scientific studies that sounds “ridiculous to common observer.”

      The words satire and parody are both similar but they are different in to a certain extent. Parody mimics a subject directly to produce a comical effect. Satire, on the other hand, makes fun of a subject without a direct imitation. Satire looks at correcting flaws in society by criticizing them.

      According to the dictionary, Satire is the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. It has become a literary genre that it has been used in film, theater, and fine arts. A contemporary example would be the shown in the show “The Simpsons, Deep Space Homer” when Homer becomes an astronaut and is in space looking out from the space shuttle capturing the beauty of the Earth right after that he jokes about how he smuggled potato chips and tries to open it even though other people warn him not to, which ends up making a mess. He then unbuckled himself and starts to get it ending up, this shows satire because in a way it was critique the American culture. Satire is a good literary device to use, hence its another unique way to show something in a different aspect.

      Parody is defined a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing from the dictionary. A contemporary example is from the series of “Twilight”, a producer decided to film a parody of it called “Vampire Sucks”. In the parody the scenes are similar to the original movie but the difference was that it wasn’t as serious and more comedy like. In Parody’s is comedy that copies and mocks someone’s  piece of work. Parody is a good literary device in literature although it basically  mockery of an original piece, it is a creative way to show literature a different way.

Satire and Parody are two literary devices that for many seem one and the same yet have key differences. Satire is defined as a device that utilizes irony, sarcasm, ridicule, to critique people, groups and/or society as a whole. Parody is more concentrated on author’s styles’, individual works and/or genre cliché. These differences are most notable when comparing 2006’s Poultrygheist: Night of the Chicken Dead, a social satire directed by Lloyd Kauffman, and 2007’s Hot Fuzz, a cop movie parody directed by Edgar Wright. Poultrygheist follows Arbie, a down on his luck nerdy teenager, starting the rest of his life working at a KFC knockoff built on a Native American burial ground. All is moderately fine until the dead possess the consumers turning them into half human half chicken zombies.  Surprisingly, doesn’t focus too much in ridiculing its two namesakes. Ridicule of modern consumerist society takes center stage in its stead, in particular, being: chain fast food work culture, the then newly acquired celebrity status of Subway’s Jared Fogle and hypocrisies in how many activists and protesters operate. The film is extremely raunchy and never takes itself seriously, even managing to break out into musical segments from time to time. Hot Fuzz, on the other hand, aims to make fun of nearly every cop movie cliche instead of societal flaws. We are first introduced to by the books London supercop Nicholas Angel getting transferred to the town with the lowest crime in all of England. He soon partners up with an overweight rookie cop named Danny who spends most of his time watching Hollywood cop movie. They soon uncover a dark secret of the town and face absurd adversities. All throughout the movie the relationship of the duo contrast the hollywood perception of being a cop to the reality of the job. At one point they even spend an evening drinking and watching classic buddy cop movies. To put it simply,

Poultrygheist follows Arbie, a down on his luck nerdy teenager, starting the rest of his life working at a KFC knockoff built on a Native American burial ground. All is moderately fine until the dead possess the consumers turning them into half human half chicken zombies.  Surprisingly, doesn’t focus too much in ridiculing its two namesakes. Ridicule of modern consumerist society takes center stage in its stead, in particular, being: chain fast food work culture, the then newly acquired celebrity status of Subway’s Jared Fogle and hypocrisies in how many activists and protesters operate. The film is extremely raunchy and never takes itself seriously, even managing to break out into musical segments from time to time. Hot Fuzz, on the other hand, aims to make fun of nearly every cop movie cliche instead of societal flaws. We are first introduced to by the books London supercop Nicholas Angel getting transferred to the town with the lowest crime in all of England. He soon partners up with an overweight rookie cop named Danny who spends most of his time watching Hollywood cop movie. They soon uncover a dark secret of the town and face absurd adversities. All throughout the movie the relationship of the duo contrast the hollywood perception of being a cop to the reality of the job. At one point they even spend an evening drinking and watching classic buddy cop movies.

Hot Fuzz, on the other hand, aims to make fun of nearly every cop movie cliche instead of societal flaws. We are first introduced to by the books London supercop Nicholas Angel getting transferred to the town with the lowest crime in all of England. He soon partners up with an overweight rookie cop named Danny who spends most of his time watching Hollywood cop movie. They soon uncover a dark secret of the town and face absurd adversities. All throughout the movie the relationship of the duo contrast the hollywood perception of being a cop to the reality of the job. At one point they even spend an evening drinking and watching classic buddy cop movies.

To put it simply, Though both aim to make fun of existing entities, satire ridicules reality, while parody riducules literary and artistic products. These differrences are accentuated by comparing the focuses of these two comedies. Poultrygheist makes fun of american consumerist culture and anticulture while Hot Fuzz points out the exagerations of Hollywood cop movies.

Satire and parody both use exaggeration to reveal flaws in characters, societies, or ideas.Satire often uses irony and exaggeration to convey the shortcomings and deeper issues of a character, event, or society. A contemporary example of satire would be The Colbert Report, a show where the host uses humor to address–often controversial– social or political issues that affect people’s lives. Parody is a form of satire, which is most commonly known as a “spoof”, where an original work is imitated to mock and make fun of characters, situations, and events. An example of a parody would be the movie “Spaceballs”, a spoof of the original Star Wars trilogy, where character’s poor decisions and personal flaws are flaunted in a comical way.

– Sabrina Rodriguez

When we view something on tv or on social media platforms poking fun at political leaders or celebrities, we tend to automatically assume that this is parody. However, most people fail to differentiate between the use of satire and parody as the word “satire” is more foreign to most people. Satire on one hand is commonly used to effect political or social change or to alter people’s views on certain issues through reaching a serious or comedic message. A prime example of satire would be political cartoons in newspapers as they often contain comedy by poking fun at recent world events or political leaders. The main goal for those who use satire is to shed light on an issue or to advocate a thought, this is usually more political in today’s world. Parody on the other hand is usually an imitation of particular person, whether this is a political figure or a celebrity, the goal in parody is simply for comedic reasons. An example of parody, which may seem ancient to some people now, would be the show “Mad TV” that used to air on Comedy Central, it was a platform where various actors would make fun of celebrities and well known figures based on tabloids, their physical appearance, or their personal lives. The uses of satire and parody can also be seen in literature as a prime example could be Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain which uses various forms of satire to speak about slavery. Overall, the distinction between satire and parody are quite different from each other but can be interpreted as either or.

To discuss the difference between these two literary devices, we must, first, know their uses in the texts. Though satire and parody have a similar intention, which is to criticize an abuse, a false belief, and a vice, etc. Parody is a composition that mimics and imitates the style of another composition. It is usually used to make a ironic or sarcastic approach to a sensitive or outlandish subject. The first example that came to my mind is a 2014 movie called <<The Inteview>>. This movie is a good example of parody. It took comic approach to criticize the severe social and governmental diseases in North Korea. The film stars Rogen and James Franco as journalists who set up an interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him. The film is also heavily inspired by a Vice documentary which was shot in 2012. Satire, on the other hand, uses irony and exaggeration to expose vices and shortcomings of an entity, be it an individual or a complex and interdependent system such as our society. Humor might be part of it, but the end result is almost never funny. It is used to elicit thinking and realization in the audience. A good example I know would be the Saturday Night Live series. This series of TV shows often use its unique and farcical screenplays to criticize weekly news.

The main difference between a parody and a satire is that a parody is imitative work that uses exaggeration to make fun of a particular subject, whereas a satire is often used to expose social issues by criticizing people’s actions or ideas with the use of humor, irony, and exaggeration. An example of a satire is “Candide: Or, Optimism” by Voltaire. Voltaire criticizes Pangloss’ excessive optimism and his belief that “all things are arranged for the best” (12). For instance, Pangloss and Candide are both saved by Jacques the Anabaptist, but when Jacques desperately needs their help, Pangloss prevents Candide from saving him because he believes that “all things are arranged for the best” and that “Lisbon harbour was built expressly so that this Anabaptist should one day drown in it” (13). Candide is criticizing and ridiculing Pangloss’ optimism and belief that “all is for the best” by showing how this belief prevented Candide from saving someone else’s life. The irony in this scene is that Jacques had previously saved the lives of Candide and Pangloss without even thinking about it. On the other hand, an example of a parody is the “Scary Movie”  film series because this film series makes fun of different horror movies like The Exorcist, Scream, Saw, and many more by imitating them. Another example of a parody is the Austin Powers movies that imitates and makes fun of the James Bond movies. Police Academy is another example of  a parody because it imitates and makes fun of police movies of the 1980’s.

Although similar, satire and parody have many differences in meaning. Parody is often referred to as an exaggerated mockery, often in the form of imitation, that exploits a work of another person. This can be in the form of a play or perhaps a song where the tune is the same but the words are changed in order to clearly make fun of the original song. Satire is used to expose an individual or an entity but often with an underlying cause or meaning. This can be used to teach and although may be funny at times, the purpose is often to educate or enlighten a cause or individual. An example of satire can be seen through TV shows such as the Colbert Report or the Daily Show where the setting is a news conference and humor is heavily used to display real world problems and bring to light different issues going on that normally may never be noticed by an everyday Joe. An example of parody may be something like Taylor Swift’s rendition of Love Story named “Thug Story” featuring T-Pain. It clearly made light of the original song and even changed the theme and lyrics to a different genre and style. Another classic example of parody is the Simpsons and all the skits they do that are about already existing shows and events. In conclusion, satire is used to show a real issue or problem while parody is more about making fun or replicating another idea.

There are various differences between satire and parody. According to Oxford Dictionaries, satire can be defined as the use of humor, irony or ridicule to criticize people’s stupidity. Parody, on the other hand, can be defined as an exaggerated imitation of an artist’s style. The main distinction between these two is that a parody is more of an imitative work while satire uses humor to shine a light on the flaws of mankind. While a parody focuses on bringing humor to the audience, satire does more than that in an effort to improve humanity.

A contemporary example of satire would be in an episode of Simpsons when Homer becomes an astronaut and travels to another planet. As the spaceship is traveling away from the Earth, Homer stares at his home planet in awe saying that “It’s beautiful” and that it’s the “Giver of life”. Right after he says this, he pulls out a bag of chips that he “smuggled abroad”. Once he opens the bag of chips, all the crumbs scatter around and put the equipment in danger. As a way to resolve this problem, he eats up all the chips with pride. This is an appropriate example of satire because the director uses humor to address a serious issue: obesity. Homer is a symbol of a typical American figure that disregards obesity to consume unhealthy food. Obesity continues to dominate American culture while Americans continue to ignore it. A contemporary example of parody would be Shrek. In this movie, there are several scenes that prove Shrek is a parody. For instance, in one scene Fionna sings to the birds which imitates Disney’s film “Snow White” because Snow White herself would sing to animals. Lastly, many fairy tale characters show up to Shrek’s house and all converse with one another in a humorous way. Thus, there are significant distinctions between satire and parody even though they both use humor to communicate to the audience.