The best example of satire we had was probably Family Guy - Undecided Voters. i love that clip. Literally, the clip is saying that undecided voters are very stupid, and respond extraordinarily well to pointless answers about 9/11, and jesus, and stuff like that. It is actually revealing a very deep and characteristic part of American politics. Voters don't seem to actually care about the views of politicians, they care about friendliness, charm, a good smile, They respond to the "hang-out-able-ness" of politicians. They like the sound of someone's voice, they vote for them. It's terrible - it means the politicians elected to office are not those that will do the best job for the country, they are those with the charm to manipulate the masses. It is a very eye-opening clip.

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own."

Jonathan Swift was born on November 30, 1667. He received a bachelor's degree from Trinity College (http://www.biography.com/people/jonathan-swift-9500342 biography.com). He received a Master's from Oxford in 1692. He was ordained a priest in the Church of Ireland (a sect of the Anglican church in Ireland) in 1695 and was awarded a D.D. from Dublin University in 1701.  (http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/swift/chron.html A Chronology of Jonathan Swift's Life by David Cody). 

"There is an almost complete absence of sustained scholarship on the subject of Swift's Modest Proposal." (George Wittkowsky, via eNotes.com Jonathan Swift essay)


"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own."(Jonathan Swift, via BrainyQuote.com)

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

Human stupidity is definitely a common theme in satire. This is a 3-part series by John Oliver, as featured on The Daily Show. It focuses on the US gun control debate following the failure of mild legislation in . Oliver does some investigating around the Australian gun control legislation passed in 1996. 

In part 1, he interviews a strong gun advocate and Virginia Defense League lobbyist member Phillip Van Cleave. During the interview, his slightly sarcastic, demeaning, scathing manner is unnoticed by Van Cleave, and he answers the questions in exactly the way Oliver expects, his ultimate reason behind not supporting the legislation being that it doesn't work. And so, Oliver's sarcastic and subtly scathing answer brings us to Australia. There he interviews various politicians in a character mocking Van Cleave, full of absolutely dreadful logic, he asks questions of the Australian politicians about, all the while insisting that the legislation didn't work, but being told otherwise, he then brings the questions back to Van Cleave and scathingly presents to him the statistics. And of course, there's a small amount of mocking Australians. In part 2, Oliver interviews Harry Reid's aid Jim Manley, and Manley, saying that what's most important for politicians is to be re-elected, then sparks Oliver's newest mocking-point. He returns to the Australian politicians under the character of Manley, stating that political suicide is the most tragic thing, and that the most important thing is just being in office and being re-elected to office rather than actually helping people. He even goes so far as to build a memorial to those that committed "political suicide" on the day the legislation is passed. In part 3, Oliver returns to Phillip Van Cleave, and the conversation turns to the similarities with Australia that America has. Van Cleave says none, and Oliver responds with a scathing remark of exactly how America and Australia are frighteningly alike, sarcastically masking it as how they are different, and Van Cleave, unaware of how he's being mocked, nods in agreement. Then Oliver returns to Australia and asks them about the similarities of the US and Australia, comparing the similar arguments against gun control that Australians then and Americans now are presenting. He asks people if not being under the risk of getting shot in the face is worth not having guns, and everyone says yeah, it's worth it. He even goes to an ex-anti gun control advocate, still in the character of we all need guns and gun control won't work, and the ex-advocate says that he's actually become ok with the legislation over the years. Oliver, or at least Oliver's character, is flummoxed, and mocking the Australian way of life, goes on a "classic Australian retreat" where he meets a "kangaroo" and becomes a karate master. So, overall just a lot of mocking pro-gun advocates and a little of mocking Aussies.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3: 

"Just as with the man in the fairy tale who turned whatever he touched into gold, with me everything is turned into newspaper clamor." part 2

The hero's poster were all very cool. Now of course there's always some uncertainty of actually finishing the assignment as part of a group of 4 teenage boys. Needless to say, there could definitely have been more effort and supplies put in, but I do think it turned out quite well. We did our project about Bilbo Baggins of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Even though the movie is the first of a trilogy covering the entire story arc of the book, the story within the first movie actually conforms to the Hero's Journey pretty well. I feel our presentation could have gone better, but I am actually fairly proud of how the poster itself turned out.

As for the other presentations, there were actually a lot of characters that I had never even considered as fitting the Hero's Journey. The example that stands out the most for me is Rapunzel, from the movie Tangled. I absolutely love that movie (I am moderately ashamed to admit), but I had never thought of the Hero's Journey as conforming to that storyline. however, it works extraordinarily well. The whole leaving home, and adventuring, and finding yourself and all that stuff happens exactly in sequence. And not only that, but their poster turned out incredibly! They had a giant yarn braid, and there was glitter all over. It was really cool. I mean, it pays to have actual artistic talent.

"Just as with the man in the fairy tale who turned whatever he touched into gold, with me everything is turned into newspaper clamor."

I believe The Hobbit is a very good example of the hero’s journey, the man in the fairy tale. Granted, the movie only covers a segment of the story, as there is to be three of them, but the entire journey There And Back Again is a very good example. Bilbo starts off a meek hobbit, not wanting adventure, when he meets Gandalf, who encourages him to adventure, and then thrusts him into it as the dwarf feast goes underway. They first go into the unknown, and the first challenge happens, once they start the adventure and meet the giants. They go on through the descent to find and meet goblins in the mountains, where Bilbo hits his abyss in a literal abyss; Gollum is about to kill and eat him, he is deep underground and lost, when he starts running as fast as he can, and figures out the ring he found, Gollum’s precious, renders the wearer invisible. From that point on, after the escape from the goblins and Gollum, Bilbo starts growing, from helping save them from the Wargs, leading through the dark forest, rescuing them from the giant spiders, and breaking them out of the Elven prison, and leads them to The Lonely Mountain. There he goes in and talks to the dragon Smaug, and searching the piles of treasure and finding the Heart of the Mountain. Then, as war is breaking out on the slopes of The Lonely Mountain, he uses the Heart of the Mountain, a trinket of immeasurable wealth, as a bargaining tool to prevent war, and succeeds (in preventing war between dwarves and elves & men), and then stands his ground and fights in the Battle of Five Armies (dwarves, elves, and men against goblins and wargs). He returns to the world of the normal with massive wealth of gold and silver to Bag End after the long journey home.

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

I really like space, and the universe. I really starting feeling this again earlier in the week, the whole infinite thing, when I started really thinking about it. I hadn’t really thought about it since I realized I couldn’t be an astronaut as a result of my asthma. But space is just so fascinating to me. There is this factoid that just blows me away. If the sun were scaled down to the size of a white blood cell, the galaxy would be as large as the continental united states. What?  WHAT?!? I mean, holy crap. And then you look at how big the entire universe is in relation to the galaxy, something just completely ridiculous. But lets try to understand this. First we need to understand how big the sun is. Now if you go outside, and look outwards in all directions, you can see for miles. The horizon, the area of the earth you can see is basically the biggest thing you can actually picture in your mind in relation to yourself. This circle isn’t even the size of Colorado, let alone the US and let alone the whole world. Now, the whole world is in relation to the sun just about a human to the moon (I think). So the sun is unfathomably large: I mean, so is the earth. So then we scale down that fucking massive thing to a white blood cell, something so small we can’t even see it, and then the galaxy is the size of the country. It’s ridiculous! The time it takes for light – light, ok, the stuff that travels so fast you would literally go back in time if you went faster than it – to travel across the length of the galaxy is ages! It’s centuries! The galaxy is so fucking huge! And then the whole of space -> galaxy is something like Jupiter -> dust mite. And there is so much possibility out there! So many possible things that lie undiscovered, things that can be beautiful, awe-inspiring, things that could literally send everything we think we know about the universe spinning off its ass. And that is incredible to me. There is so much beauty, so many undiscovered things, and so much possibility.

The world needs heroes and it's better they be harmless men like me than villains like Hitler.

The word "hero" is a very interesting one, that can be taken in many ways. I am definitely a huge fan of comic books. When I think of heroes, I think of superheroes. That really means super heroes: when someone says hero, I picture the Avengers, springing into action: Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, and of course Captain America. But Captain America extends beyond super powers. He was chosen for the super soldier experiment because of his heart, his courage, his loyalty, his bravery, his kindness, and his willingness to help others. I believe that is what makes a hero. So when someone says “hero”, that’s what I think: Steve Rogers; and every other courageous, loyal, brave, kind, person out there.