Assignment 2 pitch

Blog post 4

Blog post 5

Blog post 6

This week readings was Amber Davisson & Mackenzie Donovan’s “Breaking the news … on a weekly basis”: trolling as rhetorical style on Last Week Tonight. It focused on the use trolling, a term often associated with keyboard warriors on the internet, in satirical news shows using John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight as an example. It focused on Oliver’s history of using trolling as a tool to enact change, like with his website gofccyourself.com, which redirected users to the FCC’s comment section to vent their frustrations with net neutrality, which proved so popular it had to be temporarily shut down. As well as his fake storybook A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo a children’s book about a gay rabbit, parodying the very homophobic Vice President Mike Pence’s daughter’s storybook about their rabbit named Marlon Bundo. We discused in Tuesday’s class the reading as highlighted that although it is considered trolling, which can often be interpreted as cyber bullying, it often times is for a good cause. Although this type of trolling often times doesn’t have lasting effects and it more a temporary media hype and attention before quickly fading out.

We then presented our pitches in small groups. It proved a useful exercise as it helps convey your ideas and present them in greater detail than in writing. It was also useful to hear what the other pitches were from the other members. We were then tasked with casting votes for pitches with the four most popular being selected as ideas for the later group assignment.

On Friday’s class we began by looking at some Mad as Hell scripts and how they differ from the finished recorded segment. Then we did an exercise where we wrote a brief paragraph about The Masked Singer‘s halted production due to an outbreak of covid-19 on set. This also proved a useful exercise as it helped us get into writing comedic content. Here is our group’s paragraph we came up with:

“Last week production of “The Masked Singer” halted as 16 cast and crew members tested positive for Coronavirus. I guess the conspiracy theorists are right, masks don’t work. I personally love the Masked Singer. You watch the show and you don’t know who the contestants are, then they reveal themselves and you still don’t know who they are! I also love how the judges are so optimistic about who the contestants could be under the mask. “I think under this mask it could be maybe Leonardo DiCaprio, or Julia Roberts, or maybe that old lady from the ‘I just milk that tastes like real milk’ commercial. Apparently the show was deemed an essential service under stage 4 restrictions. Who would have known that a televised furry convention was considered an essential service. The host of The masked singer, Osher Gunsberg stated that “nothing we make is worth risking that many lives”. Truth be told, nothing Osher makes is even worth making. The last time Osher made something that was worthy was when he was Andrew G, and was robbing Shannon Noll of the Australian Idol crown.”

This week, being week 5, we were focusing on Fake News, Infotainment and Discursive Integration. The reading for this week, pages 259 – 276 of Geoffrey Baym’s The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism chooses to focus on The Daily Show of an an example of ‘discursive integration’, a term I had not heard before until this reading. After reading this week’s reading I would define discursive integration as the blurring of boundaries between different genres, formats or categories. In the reading, Baym states that The Daily Show is discursive integration as its format is situated somewhere between news, entertainment, public affairs and pop culture. Which seems to be a very fitting description of the show.

In class we then were tasked with coming up with jokes for a Clive Palmer article in breakout rooms. This proved a valuable exercise as it was our first experience actually trying to replicate being apart of a satirical news show. Up until this point, we have just been analysing satirical news shows and fake news (apart from our first assignment of writing a satirical news article) so this was a good start in trying to write for a satirical news show.

We were then set with the task of creating a pitch for our comedy news show ideas that will eventually be produced. I started ideating what to pitch by listing out news stories I was interested in. China’s influence on Australian Universities, the aged care facility fiasco and Victoria’s stage 4 lock down were all news stories I was thinking of pitching, but I decided to choose the news story that Ellen DeGeneres is actually quite a toxic person as I felt it has a lot of comedic potential. I also decided the format of the show I’m pitching to be a parody of morning news television’s entertainment news segments, like Sunrise’s for instance. I chose this format as I wanted to parody an Australian show, as even when they are being sincere, they can be unintentionally funny which creates a lot of comedic potential. I also chose this parody format as I want to try and move satirical news shows away from the ‘man-in-suit-behind-desk’ format that seems to be so prevalent in the genre.

This week, being week 4, we were focusing on public pedagogy. The reading for this week, pages 71 – 95 of Sophia McClennen’s America According to Colbert: Satire as Public Pedagogy highlighted the importance of public pedagogy, which is described as Henry Giroux’s theory, which argues that most learning takes place outside the traditional classroom and that public culture is often the primary means through which society acquires knowledge and learns to model social interaction (McClennen, 2011). Moreover though, the article highlighted the importance of satire as a form of public pedagogy using Stephen Colbert as a prime example of the type of satire that became prevalent after 9/11 providing Americans an opportunity to laugh at, reflect on and engage with a series of social crises (McClennen, 2011). The article argues that satire deserves greater attention as one of the most significant forms of critical public pedagogy in operation today, using Colbert’s The Colbert Report as an example of the type of television show that enables its audience to foster public debate and political engagement (McClennen, 2011).

In class we then had to discuss some examples we gathered of critical public pedagogy, that is satire that criticises public pedagogy. I chose Friendlyjordies’ critical satirical analysis of an A Current Affair segment in a video titled A Current Affair: The Idiot’s Choice. Friendlyjordies firstly highlights how ACA seems to only show stories on “dole bludgers” and “When neighbours don’t become good friends” (mimicking the Neighbours theme song). In this video, Friendlyjordies highlights how ACA focuses on “dole bludgers” who use taxpayer’s money to live a ‘lazy’ life riding the coat-tails of welfare benefits, portraying them as leeches on the system. The ACA story then highlights how $40 million was recovered from “welfare frauds”. However Friendlyjordies then points out that Rupert Murdoch got a  $30 million government handout (of taxpayer’s money) to “improve sports coverage” whilst paying nothing in tax, labeling Murdoch as the real “welfare fraud”.

This type of video from Friendlyjordies is quite a typical format for him as he often criticises media outlets for the political bias.

MCCLENNEN, S. 2011. America According to Colbert: Satire as Public Pedagogy, New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

The story of the piece is a parody of entertainment news reports on morning television shows about the news that Ellen DeGeneres isn’t as nice as she comes across on her show. The piece would play into the tropes and stereotypes of morning news shows, like Sunrise’s entertainment news segment. The characters would be a ditzy young blonde co-host who got the job because of nepotism, a dinosaur-aged male co host who has been on the show for decades and an over the top flamboyant American entertainment news correspondent. After the establishing dialogue between all three hosts, complete with the old male co-host being out of touch and making a slightly outdated and sexist reference, it would then cut to a pre-recorded interview with a former Ellen DeGeneres show staff member who details how her life has been in an exaggerated downward spiral since she started at the show and her graphic details of the terrible things Ellen did to her as well as her subsequent escape Shawshank Redemption style. This interview would be very over dramatic for comedic effect. For instance, the former staff member could describe in detail how Ellen made her assistants partake in bare knuckle boxing where the winner gets to gets to be used as a coffee table during the next staff meeting, whilst the loser is sentenced to fifty lashings by Ellen herself.

Although this idea may be more of a sketch than a traditional satirical news show. The basic idea is parodying a format of Australian media, like Sunrise’s entertainment news segments for instance, and bringing news to that parody. However, the main thing I want to get across is to try and bring satirical news shows away from the traditional man-in-suit-behind-desk format that seems to be so prevalent with the genre and try to take it into a new direction format wise, like what Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj (RIP) tried to do.

Satirical News Article

Blog Post 1

Blog Post 2

Blog Post 3

Many potential science students now considering Facebook over an actual science degree.

Peter Kyprianou, s3661871

For many young Australians leaving high school, the thought of what to do after high school can be a hard decision. However, there is now a new option for potential science students that don’t trust the corrupted traditional universities and it’s completely free… Facebook!

Harry Smith, a recent VCE graduate and budding scientist is now considering the new path for science students, free from biased government funding and untrustworthy information like traditional universities. “I just want to help with this pandemic, if it’s even a real thing and not a government cover up” Smith said, “And I think both paths have their pros and cons.”

Just like a university, the information on Facebook is peer reviewed, however your peers aren’t scientists bribed by big pharma and corporations trying to microchip us for tracking by the government. The people on Facebook are just as educated as university scientists too, many are graduates of ‘The School of Hard Knocks’ and work for very esteemed research centres like ‘Nunya’ business’ or ‘Jim’s Mowing’.

Smith recently went to the Facebook open day to see what his course would have to offer.

“I liked it y’know, the course looks really good, and they even have some famous alumni like Chef Pete Evans, who is a very highly regarded scientist free from lame-stream [mainstream] science communities. The people were really nice too and they have a lot of groups dedicated to researching and finding the truth that the government like to withhold from us. Although, many of them do not know how to take a proper selfie for their student ID and for some reason it’s uploaded 7 different times. Or alternatively they just have a photo of an old Holden car or the Southern Cross as their student ID. The Dean’s ID card is a Ned Kelly bumper sticker!”

With this current pandemic bringing along economic uncertainty and many losing their lives and loved ones, scientists are needed now more than ever and hopefully Facebook science degrees can bring more people into the field to help combat this virus.

Comedian Andrew Schulz has managed to pave a successful career in comedy in a modern way free from the outdated industry gatekeepers that determines the success and exposure a comedian has. By uploading clips of his stand up to YouTube as well as additional comedy-focused content and podcasts, Schulz has been able to grow his audience with millions of fans and become very successful with multiple U.S national and international tours and appearances on very popular podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience. Not afraid to ‘tell it like it is’ (a phrase so overused in comedy), however he really isn’t as he satirizes and jokes about all races, religions, genders, political ideologies etc. No topic or demographic is off limits (again, very overused but still very true to Schulz).

Due to the current pandemic, comedians haven’t been able to perform on stage to audiences. However, during quarantine Schulz has adapted and brought his talent and style to the comedy news genre. Every week he release a five – six minute video about current events. He has talked about Coronavirus, Black Lives Matter, celebrities getting canceled and manages to slide in references to other current events that aren’t as ‘news worthy’. His rapid style is extremely quick and often you have to rewind or watch a second time to catch all the jokes. This style is supported by two things.

Firstly, the lack of audience. His lack of audience means he doesn’t have to wait for the laugh break to finish before beginning his next joke, he can just begin the next joke. Without an audience and this rapid fire style, it could feel like he is just racing through the script, but Schulz still manages to keep the rhythm of telling jokes on stage but removes the ‘dead air’ that would’ve been a laugh break. Additionally, without the laugh breaks he can fit a lot more jokes into the five minute video than he could with five minutes on stage. Also Schulz manages to have both quantity and quality with his jokes. He manages to get more laughs out of the audience in five minutes than some comedians get out of an audience in an hour.

Secondly, his rapid fire style is supported by his graphics. Graphics are very useful in the comedy news genre, being able to add additional information like references, headlines or visual cues and can also provide a visual punchline for the jokes. Schulz utilities this by having additional visual jokes supporting his already joke-packed script. Like when he visually likens himself to Waluigi from Super Mario Bros. This also enhances rewatchability.

Staying away from the mainstream comedy industry is also evident in his camera work and staging. Most (if not all) satirical news shows often have the host in a black suit sitting behind a desk in a professional TV studio. However Schulz is wearing a simple jeans and shirt combination with the camera quite low and sitting on a comfortable looking lounge chair (with a direct shot of his crotch for some reason…). This more casual and relaxed manner makes it more accessible for people to watch as it doesn’t come across as pretentious or “holier than art though” as satirical news shows and their audience can fall into (Jonathan et al., 2009).

Overall, Schulz is managing to create a satirical news show that is free from the conventions that we normally associate with the genre whilst still remaining just as entertaining, funny and educational.

JONATHAN, G., JEFFREY, P. J. & ETHAN, T. 2009. The State of Satire, the Satire of State. NYU Press.

An interesting point raise in this week’s readings is that “satire has been one of the mediums most underused forms of political discourse” (Jonathan et al., 2009).

Initially I disagreed with as the genre is very popular. The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Last Week Tonight, all of these shows are mega successful satirical news show institutions that all follow very similar formats. They have been around for a long time and their hosts and their work even longer, plus they have been part of some historical cultural moments like John Stewart’s appearance, and subsequent cancellation of Crossfire or Bill O’Reilly saying to John Stewart “You’ve got stoned slackers watching your dopey show”. So to say that satire is an underutilized form of political discourse doesn’t really seem to be the case for me.

However, upon further reflection O’Reilly is correct… to a certain degree. He doesn’t literally mean there are stoned slackers exclusively watching The Daily Show, although I’m sure some are, he is saying that a certain type of person is Stewart’s demographic. The article states that “[The] news—television’s privileged discourse on public life—most often posits politics as something to learn, satire not only offers
meaningful political critiques but also encourages viewers to play with politics, to examine it, test it, and question it rather than simply consume it as information or “truth” from authoritative sources” (Jonathan et al., 2009). However Stewart’s audience of ‘stoned slackers’ are already likely to do that. The demographic of political satire shows seem to be quite educated however very small when compared to the demographic of the news (granted, it is THE NEWS). But if a show like The Daily Show was to be given the same time prime time slot as the news, the general public would be more informed and critical.

The news is draining and often depressing until it starkly shifts focus onto a litter of puppers that are up for adoption to distract the audience from the feeling of being small and defeated against a large authority. In terms of ‘The Matrix’ it’s is similar to the blue pill, remaining in ignorant bliss.

Where as satire forces its audience to be more engaged. By playing with and lampooning politics (the authority) it makes the audience more critical and challenges the power, like the red pill.

When thinking about the statement like, I guess satire is underused.

JONATHAN, G., JEFFREY, P. J. & ETHAN, T. 2009. The State of Satire, the Satire of State. NYU Press.

My current understanding of comedy news is quite good. Although I don’t read that much comedy news (apart from Betoota Advocate and The Onion headlines and occasionally the entire article), I do watch quite a bit of it. I have always been a fan of satirical news comedy especially on shows like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and with John Stewart before him, The Jim Jefferies Show, Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, The Colbert Report, Andrew Schulz and many others I could name (especially considering nearly all late night shows are now becoming more satirical in these interesting political and cultural times). Additionally, last year I was a writer for the satirical news show ‘The Leak’ on Channel 31 produced by RMITV and have some experience making my own smaller satirical news videos in a previous studio.

I believe the purpose of comedy news is, first and foremost, to be funny. If it isn’t funny it doesn’t make the news any easier to palate and digest. Which also happens to be another purpose of the genre. Watching the news can be quite draining, so if it’s delivered in a humerous and more casual manner it becomes easier to deal with. Additionally, another purpose is to enact change. As pretentious as that may sound, comedy is all about seeing different views on topics that most don’t think of. Showing an audience a new view or angle on a topic/issue can help them form new opinions about those topics/issues. Satire makes people scrutinize. Comedy news’ palatable nature, potential for change and general wide spread appeal makes it very useful and impactful to society especially politics.

By the end of the semester I hope to learn more about this genre that I really enjoy watching and creating. Additionally, an appealing part of the studio was gaining more knowledge about the professional production of shows like these with the use of the campus studios, although due to COVID – 19 I doubt that will be happening. However, I do hope to learn more about the production side even during times like these.