Adopting a Role

Through our readings and in class discussion, there was much to be said about the importance of role-playing in humor and satire. It was interesting to see how how this would be analyzed by the class, with varying opinions on Benjamin Franklin's character, Silence DoGood.

In the context of the piece, Franklin was writing under the guise of DoGood because he could not get any of his work published. So, by deception, he would place these letters underneath the door of his brother's office and he would publish them to the amusement of the readers. DoGood's letters mocked many aspects of colonial life, and at the time, they were probably quite hilarious because of their wit and the author was assumed to be female.

While wit may still be a humorous factor for today's reader, the fact that DoGood was assumed to be female...is, well, not. So back in the day, our forefathers were kinda sexist and women led a miserable, uneducated existence. It is politically incorrect for one to assume someone of a "lesser class" cannot possibly maintain an intellectual or witty dialogue, but the assumption is still made. However, when faced with the contrary, most people would not laugh...but would either be impressed, confused or full of "WTF"-like sentiments. I guess back then, it was just funny.

The DoGood letters are a good example of a humor that educates by pointing out absurdities--a form of "Edu-tainment" that is reflected in many modern day comic strips and televisions shows (The Daily Show, Colbert Report). In class we focused on a DoGood piece that provided the outline for a widow's insurance policy. While it was comical, it also had a profound basis in common sense. The humor may draw in the reader, but the point may have been to publish this idea as a suggestion to ease a problem that actually existed in the general population.

I may have gotten off topic, but that's the value I see in the DoGood letters. Humor is powerful in that it can draw massive amounts of people to pay attention to what is being said. And once their attention is earned with a few jokes or jabs, one can slip in bits of propaganda (Good or bad, all persuasion is propaganda) to shine a light on some portion of society for the population to examine.

Also, just for kicks---Eddie Izzard is pretty awesome. I have never seen him before and the "Cake or Death" piece was pretty hilarious. Someone else dissect him for me, I don't have anymore energy right now.