Bo Burnham’s ‘Inside’ Mixes Comedy with Anxiety and Sets It to Music
Bo Burnham creates a warm and inviting mood and ironic comfort when he sings “That Funny Feeling” in his comedy special, ‘Inside’.
satire
Sarah Gailey’s ‘Eat the Rich’ Cuts to the Horror at the Heart of Capitalism
Marx’s death pact is made literal in Sarah Gailey’s Eat the Rich, a remarkably fun comics series given its subject is the horror of capitalism.
SXSW 2022: On Trauma and Masculinity in Comedy/Drama ‘Emergency’
Director Carey Williams and writer Kristen Dávila talk about channeling their racial experiences and observations into comedic social commentary, Emergency.
SUNDANCE 2022: ‘Emergency’ Is a Frenetic Satire About Deadly Consequences
Emergency is an unconventional love story about two friends with divergent views on what it means to be a young Black man in America.
Sundance 2022: Sci-fi ‘Dual’ Is Uncompromising Black Satire
Riley Stearns’ ‘Dual’ is an uncomfortable black comedy that asks the painful question: Are being loved and being true to yourself mutually exclusive?
Ousmane Sembène’s Vibrant Political Satire ‘Mandabi’ Pokes at Imperial Conquest
Ousmane Sembène’s Mandabi (1968) unravels Senegal’s post-colonial entanglements and centers African people, places, and experiences at every frustrating step.
The Return of George A. Romero’s ‘The Amusement Park’ Provokes Sympathy for the Nearly Dead
George A. Romero’s The Amusement Park (1973), showing at Salem Horror Fest, terrifies with what the future brings to all who dare to live.
What’s So Funny About Tragic Things?
Scepanski’s Tragedy Plus Time takes a serious look at how comedy and satire in American media make light of dark matters.
The Guilty Pleasure of Chelsea Summers’ Monstrous ‘A Certain Hunger’
Easy to summarize but difficult to, um, flesh out, Chelsea G. Summers’ A Certain Hunger is, without a doubt, the Great American Female Serial Killer Novel.
Silent Classic ‘The City Without Jews’ Wavers Between Satire and Grim Prophecy
It's the privilege of satire to apply one's opponents' "logic" towards a reductio ad absurdum, as we see in The City without Jews.
Randy Newman’s ‘Born Again’ Is His Best Critique of Toxic Masculinity
Randy Newman's satirical narrators lack self-reflection. This makes Newman the ideal songwriter to dismantle what would come to be called toxic masculinity.