(no subject)

[lollardfish]

Can anyone more knowledgeable than I point out any examples of the Vilification Tennis show doing productive social satire - that is, making fun of something in order to demonstrate its impropriety or nonsensical nature?

I'm seeing excuses that I shouldn't be offended at their upcoming show because it's productive social satire.

I think it's just an excuse and the show isn't about satire, it's about getting laughs by being as mean as possible. They are really good at it. They get a lot of laughs. I think they're kidding themselves about the satire, but I'm not that familiar with their shows.

Comments

[mamajenzie.livejournal.com]

Ah, lady. I haven't seen it either. Which is why it was surprising to me that I understood the reference. I don't watch TV. I see incredibly few movies. I don't listen to the radio, preferring my classical music to the loud noise those kids are into nowadays. I often get teased for my lack of understanding of very basic pop culture references.

I do live in a different subculture, it's true. Many more people saw the movie than didn't, and I am not a part of that group. But you are right that I got the reference while you didn't. It raises an interesting question: how many people have to get it and how many don't before one can set a reasonable expectation that a reference has saturated enough of the mainstream to use in a satirical way?

I don't have an answer to that. But I did want to explain my surprise at getting the reference and how difficult a task that is.

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair apparently my husband got it too. Maybe I'm just clueless.:)

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Not at all. I didn't get it, and still don't. Nor do I watch TV, or see many movies, and certainly not first-run movies. I listen to non-commercial radio all the time. I am never teased for my lack of understanding of very basic pop culture references.

It doesn't make sense to say that "many more people saw the movie than didn't." There's no way that more than 50% of people saw this movie.

K.

[mamajenzie.livejournal.com]

Clueless is not always a bad thing. Since that's normally my place in the pop culture food chain, I'd like to think I have good company.

[guppiecat]

For what it's worth, I also didn't catch the reference at all.

Which, really, is the problem with reference-based humor. When it hits, it's hilarious... but when it doesn't it's either incomprehensible or completely misinterpret-able.