"Midterm Question"
The episode, "Last Exit to Springfield" satirizes workers/unions v. management/owners by perpetuating stereotypes and reinforcing beliefs using over-dramatizations.
First, we see flagrant OSHA safety standards typified in the worker on a scaffold literally, "hanging-by-a-thread." Mr. Burns--discussing the organized workers--goes on to reminisce about how “…things were not always this way,” cutting to a scene of crowded slums during the Industrial Revolution depicting child labor or lack of 20th Century labor laws.
Second, we see the example of the Japanese as out-producing US workers; curiously used is the word shiftless--often a code-word [adjective] from our racist past to classify lazy Negroes [sic]. Burns, satirizing management/owners means of production, responds by calling the Japanese, "sandal-wearing gold-fish-tenders.
Third, there are HBO ads showing gratuitous violence using firearms by the holier-than-thou purveyors of hypocritical CIA psych-ops or Hollywood stooges; their sway over the smartphone addicted, kitty-cat-epic-fail video addled, left coast Millennials may be working. However, those in flyover country will never relinquish or be stripped of their second amendment rights.
…even if their dishwasher and Alexa spy on them!
Fourth, we see Homer fantasizing about organized crime depicting himself as a mafia Don.
Fifth, Lisa does her best Woody Guthrie impression; moreover, Mr. Burns asks for some “strike-breakers like the 1930s.” Enter Grandpa Simpson who launches into a story no one can follow. The scene is typical of the now familiar Drake Davis ADHD rants and ramblings heard !0 AM-Noon on KSFS or during office hours in the Humanities Building!
The episode affirms and normalizes the prevailing ideology of capitalism by using rather shallow generalizations regarding the economic structure. I am thinking that there are many examples of this aforementioned.
The episode challenge or interrogates the prevailing ideology of capitalism by showing Mr. Burns as being forgetful when reminded by Smithers how many times Burns and Homer have interacted. Homer does the "...oh my God is Mr. Burns coming-on to me?" bit for the umpteenth dozenth time: This foretells the #metoo movement that will strip everyone of the ability to consent and result in the raising the age of becoming an adult to the age of twenty-five, further lowering birthrates, and emboldening the eugenicists to further sell us poisonous processed foods and Thimerosal-ladden vaccines.
These globalists or predatory capitalists who reside in the capstone of the illuminate pyramid portray management at it's worse!
...as a longtime Simpsons fan, this was one of the least funny episodes I have ever seen; fits the course objectives, but this is a crummy episode, nonetheless.
How do I like the class?
I think it is great. I appreciate the challenge of banging-out a short-form essay at the beginning of class.
The media analysis that we are studying reaffirms my ongoing or currently growing reputation as a conspiracy theorist. It never ceases to amaze me that as we watch the MSM completely implode and grasp for straws on a daily basis, those who make-up the Antifa irregulars have little to show for their Trump Derangement Syndrome [TDS].
When Sandy Hook and Gay Frogs are all anyone has on campus when trying to engage me in debate, I know that they get their news from regurgitated posts of the previous evenings nightly attacks on Alex Jones from their FB and hashtag friends.
Watching only the 2.5 minutes of news sought-out per week [a statistic from the Pew Institute revealed in our BECA 460 class] does not make for developing critical thinking skills or being able to engage in debate grounded with the needed factual backing.
This class and your delight in sharing how brainwashed most people are has been reaffirming and enjoyable!
Sincerely,
Drake M. Davis
Future Syndicated Bay Area Talk Show Host
In Living Color: Season 04 Episode 19 & 20
ReplyDeleteThe shows opener is with an effeminate captain of a US navy submarine who is dropping all kinds of innuendo. First, a sailor returns from the boiler room shirtless, and the captain denies the sailor asking, “permission to put on my shirt, sir” Following this, he is “Going down the hull” when he learns the torpedoes wont load” The skit ends with the captain riding a torpedo yelling, “ Here I come you Nazi bastards” The skit is largely stereotypical: Gay Men are effeminate is an example of this and the hegemonic norm of him going down “to the hull (pronounced ‘hole’) presents a kind of [reverse?] hegemonic norm that all gay men are interested in back door types of sex. My own research has found that this is not the case; there are as many ways that LBGT men relate intimately as there are ways in heterosexual interactions.
Let us move on…Please, Drake!
Although the next skit can be said to foster racial stereotypes as well implement the process of assimilation. Men on Film is a reoccurring feature of the series and once again exhibits stereotypical. The skit is that follows has Jim Carey as Richard Simons offering tips on eating to the survivors of a plane wreak in the Andes [Alive]. The foreground is littered in bodies. The black character is seen to be eating brains which reinforces or exudes exoticism, relying on what earlier generations may have viewed Blacks as: primitive and animalistic. The woman likes dark meat, and this is an example of othering.
Moving to a skit that is an take-off of one of Bob Hopes USO tours. “What if Bob Hope was Black?” was pretty humorous, but he is the only person who is Black on the stage, so this is an example of tokenism.
Next, we see Carey as Sargeant Stacey Coons of LAPD Rodney King LA Riots fame [or infamy] His job is to “right the wrong” when he tails a black youth on skateboard. I those days—supposedly—are not skateboarders; this is an example of assimilation.
Lastly, an example of ideological differences has exotic men dressed in a leopard suit contrasting the exoticism that the Waynes Brothers do not have.
In closing, Chris and I had watched a black mirror episode of Black Mirror involving a woman chipping her daughter and the nightmarish app that allows the mother to see through her daughter’s eyes. The show is raved about by my classmates for a reason! For our purposes, it provided one black man for about two seconds.
I think I must be suffering from Senior-id-ous as my usual strict adherence to getting everything done to the best of my ability, hit the wall from burn-out due largely from being overworked on my internship by unreasonable demands on my time from the boss; luckily, the situation has been resolved and I will be glad to walk at graduation, make some money and see friends in Oregon over part of the summer, and hopefully return to finish my last six units and find a job with a local media company or get an agent, join the union and start my voiceover career.