Satire in political cartoons or obvious plots on TV shows are entertaining to the observer while making a point. The use of satire is attacking something the author thinks is immoral, using wit. Unrealized satire can serve an even greater purpose when not known it is occurring by the viewers. For those who misread Twain’s use of satire in The Adventures of Huckle Berry Finn could be lost and offended by the plot while Twain laughs as his point gets pushed further.
Twain tackled human nature in his satirical writings of The King and Duke. They were frauds who ripped people off and Twain satirizes the civilization of people through the town’s brutal reaction. The town’s people seem like civilized good people, but they stoop to the level of the King and Duke and tar and feather them. Twain shows that crooks are not the only ones who can be evil and the hypocrisy that lurks within us. There are countless other examples that Twain writes that shows the idiocy of and malice of people. For example when the man with Packard watches another man drown and thinks it is vastly different from killing him to justify just watching. Satire is not only present in books written long ago, but sometimes can be caught today.
While staying up and catching the David Letterman show I saw one of the strangest interviews. Every night Letterman interviews guests that are promoting their newest movie or TV shows. The interview is usually light and humorous. Days before Joaquin phoenix went on the David Letterman show he publicized ditching his acting career to become a rap star. He revealed that Diddy would produce his music and the director Casey Affleck began filming a documentary on his journey. Many people that watched this interview were baffled when a disheveled Joaquin was muttering and incoherent. Most comments on the Youtube video are speaking of how strange and sad it is that Joaquin has gotten himself lost and on drugs. When I first saw this I was also mystified if this was real or an elaborate joke, so I furthered researched it. It seems that it is more than a joke, Joaquin is commenting on actors who take themselves too seriously. He is doing this through the expense of the media and people who don’t catch on. Joaquin follows Twain’s steps and becomes a satirist, and his point on actors and the media taking themselves too seriously are revealed through their reaction to his new found career.
2 comments:
What an interesting post!
I saw this clip too, and I was also baffled at how strange Pheonix was acting. It made a real impression on me, and made me say too myself, "Oh no, not another drugged out actor!" But if it's true that Pheonix was using the interview to criticize actors who ditch their lives to become unsuccesful musicians, he sure fooled me. Pheonix is truly a modern day Twain, putting himself on the line for the public to believe his antics, while he laughs behind their back.
Interesting clip! J. Phoenix -- similar to Twain -- seems to have created a different persona, and it shows in this interview.
An interesting question to explore is how reliable this "alter persona" is. Just like in Twain's "Notice," how should we interpret what this J. Phoenix says?
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