After watching "Diversity Day" from the NBC television show The Office do you think humor and satire can teach people about racism and ethnic differences? Also, the character Michael Scott is clearly intolerant towards all people. Can we learn a lesson from people like him?
20 comments:
I believe humor and satire can effectively teach people about racism and ethnic differences. However, it is up to the audience whether or not they view the performance as satire or humor. If they are only humored by it, they will not change and the jokes will only reinforce common, crude stereotypes. However, if the person sees the presentation as satire, they will change their behaviors and views regarding racism.
i dont think that satire and humor can teach people about racism and ethnicity bacasue to me i already know that labeling someone is wrong or stereotyping someone is wrong, so i think for me to watch it i wouldnt think anything different, but to someone who is racial or to a younger generation who hasent quite learned that racial profiling and racism is bad it think it could have a negative effect. some people might take it seriousely or like we talked about it class get offended. i think that michael scotts charecters ignorace is something to be laughed at in the show but i dont think that we can change or learn anything from him, just dont be that ignorant i guess. the show the office is funny but i dont think it can be a learning tool.
I think that Humor and Satire cannot teach people anything new about racism. If its funny, they wont really care as to what their learning and if its satire, they will have a different perspective on it. You cant really teach racism in a humorous way. We definitely cannot learn anything from someone like Michael Scott, because obviously he cant even teach himself anything so how are others supposed to learn from him? He doesnt even take racism seriously, he acts like racism is just an ok everyday problem, which it isnt.
Satire can effectively teach people things, but only if used in the right way. It needs to be over the top so that it's understood that it's a joke, otherwise it may go over the viewers heads. And people like Michael Scott can absolutely change the way we think about things, as well as teach us things. He shows us the extreme bumps in the road that you come across when you are as ignorant as he is. Not only is he ignorant, but he tries to please everyone. We see things in Michael Scott that are funny because they are things so out there, so unorthodox and over the top, that we see them as funny. Then we program it into our brains that said actions are ridiculous and obnoxious, and in some cases, ignorant. It makes us realize things in others that we would never want to become ourselves. It has the capability to change your personality.
I do believe that humor and satire can teach people about racism and ethnic difference. But some people may not actual learn from it depending on how they view it.If someone only laughed at it like i did it wouldnt really help a person learn about racism and ethnic differences because they arent taking the matter serious. I think we can learn how not to act and what not to do from Michael Scott because the whole reason why Mr. Brown came was because of him and his racial slurs towards other people. So yes, we can learn a lesson from people like him.
I agree with mithun and agree that it is which people view a perfomance like that to make a judgement on how to take it. But i dont think using humor to effectivly teach someone would be useful because now, people are realy sensitive to any type of race or ethnic humor that is somewhat sterotypical just to get a point across. It is apperent that humor and satire can soften the extent of the whole premace of the joke, however it this type of action that just intensfies the meaning of stereotyping and or makeing a racail joke about a group of people that they might take offense to.
Humor is an excellent medium for education. Showing diversity in a comically negative light shows people how much of a joke prejudice actually is. Satire works well because it exaggerates reality.
After watching the show, it would probably be difficult to make racist remarks and not laugh at yourself. When something is labeled as funny in your mind, it's difficult for you to take it seriously.
I do believe that humor can affect people and the way they learn about racism. This is because people can be interested in whats going and they wont be bored so they will pay much more attention. They will also learn that it is wrong to criticize people when they see this. I don't believe michale scotts ignorance can teach people, i think that he does that to keep the audience entertained.
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Humor and satire in a sarcastic way can help us to learn about race and ethnicity. Humor keeps people's attention and makes the audience want to continually watch it and pay attention. It is through shows with humor that people don't even realize they are learning a lesson.
Secondly, watching people such as Michael Scott's character shows people how ignorant people like him look and act which can help them not to become like them.
I do not think that satire and humor can teach people about racism because sometimes when people find things humorous then dont realize the harm it. By Michael Scott poking fun at the "Diversity Day" idea makes it seem like he doesnt care about other races and ethnicities. In elaboration of people not noticing racism in the humorous apect, for example, when someone tells a racism joke, people usually laugh not considering how it could hurt someone's feelings.
I believe humor and satire can be a very effective teaching tool but like Dave it says it has to be done in a very exaggerated way so people know that it is not serious. Micheal Scott's character shows everyone how messed up and wrong being prejudice can be because when you see this you realize how ignorant he being and how big of a jerk he is being to others and you yourself realize you do not want to be like that.
I feel that satire can defiantly teach people about racism and ethnic differences, if done in the right manner. It needs to be easily noticed that what is going on, and that it is a joke and shouldn’t be taken seriously. I feel that it can also depend on the person. Someone might see this episode from the office and take away from it how ignorant people can be. On the other hand someone might see it and think that things like that are ok. All in all though I do feel it can be effective in teaching people about race and ethnicity, people can watch and actually see how ridiculous people are and can be.
I don't think that humor and satire can really teach people anything about racism. I don't think that most people who are watching these shows are going to be intelligent enough to pick up on the fact that the show isn't serious. Odds are that if someone is finding the show funny they either already understand it's satire and not meant to be taken seriously or they don't really get it and just think it is funny because the guy is a racist. I think that there is some sort of lesson that can be learned from a character like Michael Scott. While he is intolerant towards all people, he doesn't even realize that what he is saying is wrong. I think that we can learn from him that for some racism doesn't come from a person hatred towards another race but it could just be coming from that person's own ignorance.
I think that we can learn from satire and humor. Humor allows us to look at a serious issue in a not so serious light. Some may still take offense, but it is not meant to hurt feelings it is meant to send the message that things need to change. Michael Scott is obviously a very ignorant and intolerant character. We can learn from people like him because where we see their faults and problems, we can improve on our own similar issues.
I do think that humor and satire has the qualities to teach a person about racism and ethnicity. However, I personally feel that it is not the best way. Using humor and satire does not really put people in the serious mindset that they sometimes need to understand certain things. It can show you how silly a person can be in certain situations. However, satire does ridicule something in order to bring change, so it can work, although it is not my favorite way to change something. As for the character, Michael Scott, I think that we can learn a lesson from him being to not act the way he does because everything he did was very ridiculous.
Humor is one of the easiest way to show race and ethnicity. not to sound racist but most people learn about each others backgrounds through humor or jokes, or by hearing stories about it. what Michael Scott did i think was a good idea by making people act a different way towards each other by using note cards on there heads. so i think it was a good experiment.
i think that humor can definitely help people learn that racism and ignorance is wrong. if it is used the right way like dave said. on the office micheal does a good job with showing how stupid and blind some people are to treating others, by doing it himself. the show is made to be funny but it has a lesson to be learned in that episode, and its making fun of how dumb and ignorant people are towards other people, and stereotypes
I agree with what Dave said that satire can be used to teach people about how to treat others but it must be used in the right way. I agree that is must be clearly ridiculous and outlandish so that the viewers understand that it is not the correct thing to do. When exaggerated enough satire can show one how ridiculous it is to mistreat people for foolish reasons. For that reason i think that one can learn about racism from this.
I believe satire and humor can actually educate others on racism and ethnic differences because it sort of leviates the condescending undertone of the issue. Just taking it upon oneself to learn about others culture does more for the individual than having to face un ugly look at a touchy, sensitive topic. In light of that, I completely agree with Mithun's statement.
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