Satire
When addressing the topic of satire one needn't look any further than NBC's Saturday Night Live. SNL is a late night T.V. show that has specialized in comedy and satire since the 1970s. Much of SNL uses satire to ridicule and point out the flaws in pop culture, advertising, politics, religion, famous people, groups of individuals, or just daily life. In the past couple of months, SNL has used the very current topic of the 2012 election. Many skits surrounding the election have been created not only for comedy, but also to inform the public about the underlying imperfections of politicians and the ideas they support.
One such example of this is the skit done by Seth Meyers on his weekend update. Meyers’ weekend updates consist of news reports, which are not always factual and at times are largely exaggerated). His newscast often uses satire to critisize current events in politics and pop culture. In his news casting, Meyers does an interview with presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, and asks him about his past comments about cutting the budget of FEMA (a government agency that deals with natural disaster relief) after hurricane Sandy recently destroyed much of New Jersey and New York. In response, Romney made a satirical comment about nobody should ever take what he says seriously or believe any promises that he has made or will make in the future. The skit also makes fun of supposed comments about how Romney's views and policies did little in favoring women. The premise of this skit was to point out flaws in presidential candidates and how they make empty promises to win the Peoples’ votes.
In satirizing the election of 2012, weekend updates on SNL is able to inform the public about different sides of politicians that might night come to light on the normal news. They don't just depict political figures as what they claim to be at face value, they delve into other sides of politicians and government that people might not realize and at the same time, create humor in our American system.
The same type of political satire is addressed in the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Twain writes of a thirteen year old boy, Huck, who makes observations on southern society through his experiences as he travels down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave, Jim. One such government policy that Huck notes is slavery. Twain shows the hypocrisy and inhumanity of slavery through the very humorous and superstitious character of Jim. Although Jim might be uneducated, as seen in the scene when Huck is trying to explain the French language to him, the reader still sees him as human through scenes where Jim is reminiscing about his wife and children. This funny character still is able to display the serious issue of slavery despite the overlying humor.
This similarity in political humor makes Huckleberry Finn much like SNL's weekend updates. They make fun of the American government and its policies yet both still succeed at conveying the serious issues that plague the country.
