For the last two artefacts, I decided to go slightly beyond the field of comedy into oratory in general, and political speeches in particular. It occurred to me that there is something peculiar about the way parodies of one of the most reviled characters in history (Adolf Hitler) are made.
There seems to be little need for artistic license in parodying Hitler. And there is almost a feeling that those portraying the dictator want us to see this, as if to say: `we don`t have to try hard, the man does most of the job already by just being himself ` .
I think this is rather misleading. In terms of stage persona, the Nazi leader obviously had an outrageous, larger than life appearance; but the interpretation of this stage persona could not be as obvious to its contemporaries as today`s parodies would have it. The film The Wave is a good example of what I`m trying to get to:
The last two items then can be said to look at the possible traps that comedy can land us into. For the sake of making us laugh, matters can be trivialised and taken out of context. So let`s look into what builds our context as an audience. What are you prepared to hear when you sit down in front of your TV, in a theatre seat, listen to the radio? How does the environment, the people around you, their reactions, the reason why you are there in the first place affect your perception of what the person on stage is trying to say?
No comments:
Post a Comment