What is parody/satire? What purpose does it serve?
Parody is defined as the imitation of existing artistic productions with “deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.” Similarly, a satire uses exaggeration and humor to criticize certain moral or character flaws such as stupidity. The purposes of parodies and satires are to provide entertainment, criticize public figures, expose political/social injustices, and communicate social ideologies.
Examples:
“Weird Al” Yankovic made a career out of writing funny lyrics for popular songs made by other artists.
The Scary Movie franchise parodies the entire horror movie genre.
The Colbert Report is a satirical TV show that addresses many political issues.
Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a parody of Robin…show more content… He became frustrated with the modern style art of the time when his wife’s realistic still life painting was badly received in the art community, so he orchestrated a hoax. He gave himself a fancy Russian name, Pavel Jerdanowitch, and created a series of paintings in a style he referred to as “disumbrationism,” which means anti-shadows. To his surprise, the ugly paintings he made started an artistic movement and were very well loved by art critics.
Why is Monty Python and the Holy Grail considered a parody?
Monty Python is an adaptation of the legends of King Arthur written by Sir Thomas Malory in Le Morte d’Arthur. It makes fun of everything from our view of what chivalry is all about, to social classes (rich and poor), to “traditional” cinematography.
Chivalry- how does the film mock our view of…show more content… Examples:
Director Terry Gilliam talked about when the Black Knight scene played in front of a liberal audience, and how they didn’t get the humor at first. At that time, there were major anti-violence and anti-war movements going on in response to the Vietnam war. Terry Gilliam said that they couldn’t handle the violence of the scene, but eventually came around when they realized that the scene was more about the crazy attitude of the Black Knight than the violence.
When Arthur and Patsy left the Black Knight, and the Black Knight called them “yellow bastards,” this may be a racial slur against Asians. Yellow can also mean cowardly, but since this took place during the Vietnam war it may have a double meaning.
Monty Python was filmed after McCarthyism, but a lot of the fear of communism still remained. The witch scene in the film reminds me of the “witch hunts” that occurred during McCarthy’s era. The insane logic in Monty Python used to determine whether the woman was a witch can also be related to the interrogations McCarthy conducted. According to one website, McCarthy would ask extremely detailed questions about what the accused was doing 10 years ago, and when they invoked the Fifth Amendment, McCarthy took it as a sure sign that they were communist. The Monty Python creators may have modeled this scene based on these past political