The Influence Of Satire

Mirror, Mirror… Imagine living in a world where criticism was punishable. You had to keep your head down and refrain from expressing your opinions of the world around you. Luckily the world we live in allows us to freely express our opinions of anything choose, especially political and authoritative figures. For many years, writers and directors have exercised their freedom of speech through satire—a literary device that uses humor or exaggeration to criticize society’s behavior. When we think of satire many of us don’t realize how dominant it is today’s in media. Satire is the foundation to many shows like South Park and Saturday Night Live and many movies like Cabin in the Woods and Planet of the Apes. In these shows and films society’s flaws are reflected back to us in a …show more content…
A frightening number of citizens killed by police within the last year have brought attention to what seems to be an epidemic of police brutality in America. Instead of making people feel safe, some police officers have been abusing their power throughout much of U.S. history by creating fearful environments in many cities where minorities appear to be the main targets of this violence. “Although race was a dividing line, those who died by police gunfire often had much in common. Most were poor and had a history of run-ins with law enforcement over mostly small-time crimes…” (Kindy). Elysium satires our similar epidemic by showing the viewer the struggles citizens of Earth face. The poverty driven planet is populated with police robots who have the right to search and seize anything. The excessive force shown in the film gives members of its audience a sense of familiarity. Though police officers in the real world are not machines, some abuse the rights we have as U.S. citizens because of who we are or what we look like—much like in the sci-fi