Major Project #2: Joke Writing & Satirical Article

Major Project #2: Joke Writing & Satirical Article Creative Writing Bear Creek High School Bernstein & Schacht

Part I Joke Writing

Joke: noun ~ a short written anecdote to provoke laughter or cause amusement, sometimes ludicrously inadequate in relationship to the facts • You might be from Colorado if … • You know the 'correct' pronunciation of Buena Vista and Coloradoan. • SPF 90 is not out of the question. • April showers bring May blizzards. • You have stood on solid ground and looked down on an airplane in flight. • People from other states breathe 5 times more often than you. • Knowing that Texas and California are downstream gives you a certain feeling of satisfaction when you flush. • You carry your $3,000 mountain bike on top of your $500 car. • You have a business degree and are frying burgers at a McDonald's in Vail. • You are 82 years old and take up snowboarding. • You get depressed after one day of cloudy weather. • You think that formal wear is ironed denim. • You go anywhere else on the planet and the air feels "sticky" and you notice the sky is no longer blue. • Your bridal registry is at REI.

T.H.R.E.E.S. Strategy for Joke Writing • T: Target: What is the joke making fun of? As a writer, make a list of 10 things you’re interested in or things you hate. • H: Hostility: Why are you mad at the target? Make a phrase out of this. • R: Realism: The realism of the joke is unstated. The joke has to be rooted in the real, everyday human experience. The premise is accepted as factual. • E: Exaggeration: This is where you “tag on the funny.” You’ll exaggerate what you observe. • E: Emotion: The emotion is another unstated part of the joke. The emotion of this joke is that most people shop and like to look their best. • S: Surprise: This is punch line. The end of the joke. You want to continue the exaggeration, but offer some finality.

T.H.R.E.E.S. Strategy for Joke Writing • T: Target: The mall • H: Hostility: I hate shopping at the mall because of all the people trying too hard to look good. • R: Realism: We’ve all been to the mall and we observe people. This is an experience we share in our culture. We’re all part of the problem as well. We go the mall and buy things we don’t need. • E: Exaggeration: At the mall, I saw a woman carrying a thousand bags. The bags were labeled Limited, Express, Nordstrom's, GAP, American Eagle, Banana Republic. There were bags hanging from bags. • E: Emotion: The underlying human emotion is the American obsession with beauty and materialism. • S: Surprise: The woman probably looked great although I couldn’t quite see what she was wearing underneath all her bags. She smelled delicious though – just like roasted almonds and a Cinnabun. • The final written joke: I hate going to the mall. People try too hard to look good. I saw this woman there recently who was carrying so many bags. There were Limited bags upon Express bags upon GAP and Nordstrom’s bags. She probably looked great, but I couldn’t see her underneath all those bags. She may have even been naked. She smelled delicious though – just like a Cinnabun.

T.H.R.E.E.S. Strategy for Joke Writing • T: Target: Teenagers • H: Hostility: We’re mad at them because they think they’re the coolest and that everything they do is cool, new, and original, but in reality, everything they do is completely recycled. • R: Realism: We did the same thing when we were teens, so did the generation before us and the generation before them. History repeats itself. • E: Exaggeration: I saw a kid wearing a Pink Floyd shirt, buying a lava lamp, wearing a hemp necklace, smoking a joint, and complaining how his parents “just don’t get it” and how he can’t wait until he moves out. • E: Emotion: We all thought we invented cool. We all thought that we discovered Dark Side of the Moon; that it was some secret until we came along to shine light on it. • S: Surprise: The funny part is that I saw his dad pick him up later in a VW bus blaring some Hendrix with a “Legalize It” sticker on the bumper. As his dad pulled up the kid looked mortified and said, “Dad, I told you to wait on the corner.” • The final written joke: Teenagers are funny. They all think they invented what it means to be cool. I saw this kid wearing a Pink Floyd shirt, buying a lava lamp, wearing a hemp necklace, smoking and joint and complaining how his dad “just didn’t get it.” The funny part is that I saw his dad pick him up driving a VW bus blaring some Hendrix with a “Legalize It” sticker on the bumper. The kid looked mortified.

George Carlin • May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008 • Comedian, Social Critic, Author • 5 Grammy Awards • Hosted the 1st episode of Saturday Night Live • 14 HBO comedy specials • “7 Dirty Words” creator • A key figure in the 1978 Supreme Court case that affirmed governmental regulation in the censorship of material on public airwaves • #2 on Comedy Central’s list of 100 greatest stand up comics of all time • 2008 recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

GEORGE CARLIN'S “NEW RULES 2006” • New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for classmates.com! There's a reason you don't talk to people for 25 years. Because you don't particularly like them! Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days: mowing my lawn. • New Rule: Don't eat anything that's served to you out a window unless you're a seagull. People are acting all shocked that a human finger was found in a bowl of Wendy's chili. Hey, it cost less than a dollar. What did you expect it to contain? Trout? • New Rule: Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged. I have a better description for these kids: lucky bastards. • New Rule: If you need to shave and you still collect baseball cards, you're a dope. If you're a kid, the cards are keepsakes of your idols. If you're a grown man , they're pictures of men. • New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone. Here's how much men care about your eyebrows: do you have two of them? Okay, we're done.

GEORGE CARLIN'S “NEW RULES 2006” • New Rule: There's no such thing as flavored water. There's a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket, water, but without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt. That's your flavored water. • New Rule: Stop f***ing with old people. Target is introducing a redesigned pill bottle that's square, with a bigger label. And the top is now the bottom. And by the time grandpa figures out how to open it, his ass will be in the morgue. Congratulations, Target, you just solved the Social Security crisis. • New Rule: The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the ass hole. If you walk into a Starbucks and order a "decaf grande half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one Sweet-n'-Low and one NutraSweet," ooh, you're a huge ass hole. • New Rule: I'm not the cashier! By the time I look up from sliding my card,entering my PIN number, pressing "Enter," verifying the amount, deciding, no, I don't want cash back, and pressing "Enter" again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy.

Using the T.H.R.E.E.S. Strategy, write five jokes of your very own. • Your five jokes must be focused on the same target. • Start by brainstorming a list of things you dislike and why you dislike them. Then you’ll be starting from an emotional place. • Use the strategy to develop the idea, and then write the final joke. • Your five jokes are due by the end of the period Friday. Your Turn!

Part II Satirical Article

Satire: noun ~ a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule • A complex comedy that is humors, ironic and/or sarcastic • Criticism, either general criticism of humanity or human nature or specific criticism of an individual or group • Some kind of moral voice: simply mocking or criticism is not “satire” • Tries to move humanity forward; can contain some serious social commentary • Either good natured or bitterly cynical denunciation • More than a little bit prone to references to things society finds taboo or disgusting (bodily functions, sexuality, etc.) • There are two main types: Direct & Indirect Satire

Direct Satire: Stating a direct criticism humorously. This is the oldest and, most common form of satiric writing. Although humorous and intended to entertain, direct satire like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report can cause social thought and change because of the critical nature of the programs.

Indirect Satire: Using characters in a situation in order to criticize humorously; uses one or more of the following: • Irony & Sarcasm • Parody • Caricature • Exaggeration • Diminutization • Travesty • Burlesque • Farce • Low Comedy • Invective • Knaves & Fools • Malapropism

Irony & Sarcasm • Irony: when what is said or written is the opposite of what is meant or intended. The ability to recognize irony is one of the surest tests of intelligence and sophistication. • Verbal Irony—simply an inversion of meaning • Dramatic Irony—when the words or acts of a character carry a meaning unperceived by himself but understood by the audience. The irony resides in the contrast between the meaning intended by the speaker and the added significance seen by others. • Socratic Irony—Socrates pretended ignorance of a subject in order to draw knowledge out of his students by a question and answer device. Socratic irony is feigning ignorance to achieve some advantage over an opponent. • Situational Irony—Depends on a discrepancy between purpose and results . Example: a practical joke that backfires is situational irony. • Sarcasm: a harsh, biting, or cutting response or comment; taunting

Parody : noun ~ a work of literature that mimics another work of literature, usually as a way of criticizing it. • Monty Python and the Holy Grail parodies King Arthur’s quest to find the Holy Grail. • Austin Powers parodies the multiple James Bond films. • The Scary Movie series parodies various horror/slasher mystery movies.

Caricature: noun ~ An exaggerated portrayal of the weaknesses, frailties, or humorous aspects of an individual or group.

Caricatures of the presidential candidates by Saturday Night Live cast members have had a strong influence over time, and in the 2004 & 2008 election years they actually changed the way that the candidates performed in public.

Exaggeration: noun ~ the portrayal of something trivial or unimportant as very important, usually to emphasize its triviality Zoolander exaggerates the “fashion world” and male modeling.Anchorman exaggerates the news anchors and male chauvinism.

Diminutization: noun ~ the portrayal of something perceived as important as something trivial/unimportant to show its unimportance. Weird Al’s “Amish Paradise” is a diminutization of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”. He’s really mocking two lifestyles: the Amish and gang life.

Other Tools of the Satirist • Travesty: presents a serious (often religious) subject frivolously it reduces everything to its lowest level. • Burlesque: ridiculous exaggeration achieved through a variety of ways. For example, the sublime may be absurd, honest emotions may be turned to sentimentality. • Farce: exciting laughter through exaggerated, improbable situations. • Low Comedy: quarreling, fighting, coarse with, horseplay, noisy singing, boisterous conduct, trickery, clownishness, drunkenness, slap-stick. • Invective: harsh, abusive language directed against a person or cause. Invective is a vehicle, a tool of anger. Invective is the bitterest of all satire. • Sarcasm: a sharply mocking or contemptuous remark. The term came from the Greek word “sarkazein” which means “to tear flesh.” • Knaves & Fools: in comedy there are no villains and no innocent victims. Instead, there are rogues (knaves) and suckers (fools). The knave exploits someone “asking for it”. When these two interact, comic satire results. When knaves & fools meet, they expose each other. • Malapropism: a deliberate mispronunciation of a name or term with the intent of poking fun.

Satirical Articles

Article #1 College Freshman Makes Triumphant Return To High School • Henry Doyle freely roams the halls of Bayshore High; a privilege he would have needed a pass for just last spring.

Rich Guy Feeling Left Out Of Recession Article #2 Chandler can only imagine what it would be like to feel camaraderie with the thousands who lost everything and had to start from scratch.

Using the T.H.R.E.E.S. Strategy (perhaps building on a joke you’ve already written), write a satirical article similar to those in the onion. • Select something (a law, a rule, unwritten social etiquette, graduation requirements, public personality, etc…) you’d like to make fun of. • Your article should be an example of satire and should work beyond mere parody. • Write a rough draft of your article with evidence of brainstorming/revision • 500 word minimum • Use imagery if possible • Use any tools of the satarist Your Turn!

Major Project #2: Joke Writing & Satirical Article