Week 9: Political Satire and Postmodern Irony

This article is called “Political Satire and Postmodern Irony in the Age of Stephen Colbert and Jon Steward” and was written by Lisa Colletta. In her article, Colletta explains that traditional irony was used to expose the difference between “what is real and what is appearance” as a form of art that reveals inconsistencies in the subject at hand. In contrast, the irony of postmodernity is “characterized by pastiche” and is satirical. This postmodernity denies the difference between real and appearance and “even embraces incoherence and lack of meaning”. In this way, reality is fabricated rather than understood.

I didn’t enjoy this article as much as I have past articles. I felt that it was rather dry and did not catch my interest (I know others are far more interested in these topics than I am however). The one thing that really stuck with me about this article was the amount of television a person watches (it averages out to be somewhere around two months out of the year)! I feel that the people watching this much television could be doing something a lot more productive with their time. On the topic of satire: I really enjoy satire. It is entertaining and informative at the same time. There is a problem however; I feel that those who agree with the opinion of the person creating the satire will understand and those who disagree with the author will not understand or appreciate it and may even find it offensive. In this way, people like Stephen Colbert and Jon Steward have to be very careful in how they approach their shows.

3 thoughts on “Week 9: Political Satire and Postmodern Irony

  1. I agree that satire can be very entertaining and informative at the same time. People need to be careful with what they say though because sometime satire can be offensive to the side the people are attacking. While reading this article, I just kept thinking about the political campaigns and how much was said about both of the people funning for president. There was so much political satire during the election time.

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