Seriously Funny              

Step 1 (same as always): Read & annotate the text. Make sure to bring your annotated copy to class.

Step 2: Write your 750 on the following prompts.

Process-Writing (this section is mandatory):

This classic text is widely recognized as satire—but why? What makes it satirical? Note the characteristics & techniques of satire at play here, and use textual evidence to back up your claims.

Select your favorite definition, one that you think is sharp, important, and clearly fits your definition of satire. Answer the following questions for your selected definition:

-What does it say?  Paraphrase/explain in own words.
-What does it mean?—or—describe the phenomenon he’s ridiculing.  What about it is he ridiculing?
-Is comedy culturally meaningful and valuable? In what ways?  Use your selected definition as evidence to support your answer.

Devils’ Dictionary 2011: Take a shot at crafting your own devilish definition. Here’s mine: Liberal Arts University: A place where the nicest cars are in the student lot.

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Bigger Questions (this section is optional)

How has your understanding of satire evolved since you first put together your working definition? What have you learned since then?

How’s it going with your project? Are you on track?

What challenges are you running into with your project? How will you attempt to overcome these challenges?

Two videos to watch for Friday:

Number one is kind of a modern legend:

And here’s video number two:

Here’s the first video. And here are the process-writing prompts for it:

Is this satire?  If so, what makes it satire?  If not, why not?

Who’s the target (or targets)?

In the course description, I write that we’ll “explore the question of whether comedy is a valid way to create meaning, raise serious questions, and make social commentary.” Does this clip do any of those things?  How so?  Or, if you don’t think it does, tell how it fails to do so.

Is this satire?  If so, what makes it satire?  If not, why not?

Is this funny? Why or why not?

Is this satire?  If so, what makes it satire?  If not, why not?

Does it make a difference that his “flaw” can’t be helped or changed?  Or is someone else the “object of change” here?

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Invention work: Listing

-Richard Nixon had an “enemies list.” On it were his top political enemies. Make your own enemies list of public figures.

Pick your top 3-5. Expand the list by writing out their worst traits, their biggest flaws, what you really can’t stand about them.

For each one of your top enemies, pick one action that embodies their biggest flaw. This action can be real or imaginary.

(10 point assignment)

First, look at your data. Read your log entries, looking for patterns, connections, holes or missed opportunities.

Write about a two page summary, using the guiding questions below as a springboard. Remember: every claim must be supported by evidence, specific details are always stronger than generalities, and honest self-reflection is valued. Vagueness and grade-grubbing will make me feel like we’re all wasting our time here.

You know what else might really help? If you tied your learning to the mindmap I gave you at the beginning of the unit.

Formatting and narrative design is largely up to you; my only request is that this summary has at least two separate sections: one for contribution and one for learning.

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Some guiding questions:

What have you learned in this last unit? Did you make any breakthroughs? What was your best moment?

Did you run up against any brick walls? What did you do about it?

What kind of progress have you made toward the goals you outlined in your writing autobiography? What kind of progress have you made toward the goals you outlined in your last C&L summary?

A seminar is an ongoing project, built and powered by students. Describe your contributions to our ongoing project.

What will you do differently in the future? In terms of contribution and learning, what are your goals for the next unit?

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Post your C&L summary to the end of your running record on GoogleDocs (all in the same document as your writing autobiography and guided reflection letter; don’t create a new doc) by the end of the day on Friday.

Your grades are updated. You can check out your scores on Blackboard’s Gradecenter. Refer to the syllabus to see my grading scale.

Schedule a 15 minute conference with me for next week—the week of the 24th—or early the week after to talk about your Pop Cultural Analysis essay. To do this, click on the “schedule Furuness face time” thing to the right over there ——->

While I have you on the line here, let me talk about one pattern I saw in the contribution & learning logs. So many people said they “tried to contribute at least once per class.” Let’s do some math. If everyone merely “tried,” that means that about half would actually succeed on any given day. And if ten people spoke, and the average comment was thirty seconds, that would add up to about five minutes of conversation. Or, to put it another way: not nearly enough.

But the bigger issue here is the underlying mindset. Trying to speak once a class tells me that you’re going for the bare minimum. It tells me that you haven’t committed to real engagement through oral communication, which is the engine of a successful seminar.

It’s the mid-point of the semester. A quarter of the year is over. Stop holding yourself back. Stop “trying.” Take risks. Go all in.