The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition, defines Satire as;
"A work of literature that mocks social conventions, another work of art, or anything its author thinks ridiculous." Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, is a satire of eighteenth-century British society.
As Gulliver's travels was to 18th century Brittania, "The Daily Show with Jon Stwart" and Stephen Colberts, "The Colbert Report" are to 21st century America.
Both shows have been well rewarded. In addition to two Peabody wards, Jon Stewarts "The Daily Show" has won multiple Emmys as well as a Grammy.
Having been on the air for two years, the Colbert Report has been nominated for Emmy awards in 2006 and 2007.
Fox executives were not un-aware of the cultural phenomenon that is Stwart and Colbert. I can't imagine it was a tough decision to include them in their list of presenters at this years Emmy awards.
What was unprecedented about their appearance however, was their 4+ minute, scripted sketch - a complete deviation from the standard presenters-reading-nominee-names-from-a-teleprompter format.
Nothing was spared. Everything from the 2000 election and global warming to the Emmy awards themselves was lampooned. They brilliantly pointed out that Nobel Prize winners and McCarther Genius Grant recipients are informed of their wins via phone or e-mail vs an elaborate prime-time television spectacle.
I am a huge fan of both the "Daily Show" and the "Colbert Report". Knowing these two would be presenting, I abandoned my standard practice of waiting until the Tivo recording was complete because I wanted to watch their interaction live.
Camera Shots
1. The clip opens with an Establishing/extreme long shot of the audience.
2. Close-Up of Jon Stewart, followed by a Close-up of Stephen Colbert with a leaf blower.
3. Medium shot - Shows Stephen and Jon walking towards each other to the middle of the Emmy stage.
4. Close-Up - Charlie Sheen, laughing.
5. Long Shot - Stephen and Jon - Stephen using leaf blower on Jon.
6. Medium Shot - Jon and Stephen discussing global warming & carboon offsets.
7. Close-up of Jon and Stephen
Lighting
The Emmy's are lit in High-Key.
Music
Jon and Stephen enter to the opening theme music for the Daily Show and the Colbert Report - we know who's comming and the show's about to get really funny!
4 comments:
Suzanne, you've done a lot of good work on setting up your blog with a lot of links to other sites, as well as use of the YouTube clips. I'm wondering about your actual analysis of the use of techniques in these clips in terms of the assignments. Maybe you're still going to be doing that in the future. Let me know if you're not clear about the assignments.
Love these two, Colbert and Stewart could get me to watch almost anything. <3
Suzanne, I enjoyed your close look at the camera angles of the Emmy's clip, but I want to hear more about what you thought about them, not just a description. What effect did they have on the audience at home, were they effective, could they have been improved?
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