Satire

Satire is when you pretend to agree with something that you don't actually agree with and then talk about it like it's good and right in order to show that it's bad and wrong. Bad satire ends up helping bad ideas by mistake and subtle satire just makes people think it does on purpose. The difference between the two can be a matter of taste, like I think Wondershowzen is actually pretty racist but other people might think I'm Hitler or something. Other times people are just too stupid to get it, like when a dumb guy or girl in your class shows you an old Family Guy episode to prove that that sexism is rampant on TV. Anyway, a baby makes a pretty good stew.

RATING: 89%

(Image from www.woofkitty.co.uk.)

Hamlet 2

Hamlet 2 is an attempt to spoof the "inspiriational teacher" genre of film. It stars Steve Coogan (who was pretty good in A Cock and Bull Story) as a drama teacher who writes a sequel to Hamlet in which Jesus and Hamlet Jr. use a time machine to prevent the tragic events of the original play. Said play is performed by a predominantly hispanic drama class against the wishes of the school administration and the community at large, who (SPOILER ALERT!) are surprised and delighted with the result. This film is far too stupid to actually satirize anything, and is only saved from being pure garbage (à la Meet the Spartans) by the play-within-a-movie's bizarre premise and the montage of its performance near the movie's end. With 20+ I.Q. points and the tiniest bit of research into what drama and education are actually like, Hamlet 2 probably could have amounted to more than a clichéd Hollywood depiction of more Hollywood clichés, executed with stupidity and bad taste. Oh well.

RATING: Hamlet 2: 40%
Catherine Keener: Hot%

(Image from www.impawards.com.)

The Onion: Humor in Shackles

This week The Onion is experimenting with an 18th century period theme. This is quite tedious to begin with, but the hateful and spectacularly unfunny "Humor in Shackles," which features mock jokes about the torture and killing of black slaves, is in the worst possible taste. Mark Twain's classic anti-slavery novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn uses the word "nigger" over 200 times yet manages to depict its black and white characters as deeply human. "Humor in Shackles," despite its PC language, merely exploits horrific imagery in order to turn the knee-jerk mechanism of dehumanization back onto the white slave owners, committing itself to the same mentality of tribalist hatred and oppression that permits atrocities like slavery in the first place. Shitty satire* merely perpetuates the kind of thinking it purports to criticize, and this week's issue of The Onion is a case in point. Boo-urns.

RATING: Humor in Shackles 1%
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 99%

*Also see Stuff White People Like and Wonder Showzen.

(Image from bbb.videokitchen.tv.)