{"id":116,"date":"2017-04-30T23:35:19","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T03:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/?p=116"},"modified":"2017-04-30T23:39:47","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T03:39:47","slug":"ri-dick-ulous-pop-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/uncategorized\/ri-dick-ulous-pop-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Ri-Dick-ulous Pop Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picture this: a group of college kids, tired from the hours of studying, reading and problem sets of the day, gathered on a collection of chairs and bean bags on a Saturday night. \u00a0They are laughing hysterically, falling out of their seats as tears roll down their faces from sheer enjoyment. \u00a0Now imagine another scenario: \u00a0a family gathered on a couch after their wonderful teenagers get home from sports practice\/choir rehearsal eating ice cream sundaes, though struggling to eat them, because every time they put a spoonful in their mouth, they start laughing and nearly spit it out. \u00a0Now I\u2019m sure you are wondering, what is it that these groups of people seem to be enjoying so much? \u00a0There are actually a lot of possibilities here: <\/span>Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off, The Interview, <\/span><\/i>or<\/span> something else entirely. \u00a0But why these examples in particular? What do they have in common? \u00a0And what do they say about pop culture in general? \u00a0By taking you through a movie that is similar to the former examples, these answers will, hopefully, become clear. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are familiar with American history at all, you\u2019ve probably heard of the Watergate Scandal. \u00a0Nevertheless, it is important to explain it for this essay\u2019s purposes. \u00a0Basically, in June, 1972, burglars were arrested inside the Democratic National Committee\u2019s office in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C., trying to steal secret documents and wiretap phones. \u00a0These burglars were connected to Richard Nixon\u2019s reelection campaign, and Nixon tried to cover up the scandal with a multitude of illegal activities, though he was eventually caught. \u00a0But don\u2019t worry, this is not a history paper. \u00a0This knowledge just provides important context for the movie I will be discussing, <\/span>Dick<\/span><\/i>, which is the ultimate parody of the scandal. \u00a0The concept of parody is an essential one in beginning to understand the answers to the posed questions. \u00a0Parody is an important connecting factor of the various movies\/TV shows I\u2019ve listed. \u00a0Parody is something made to pick on something else. \u00a0<\/span>SNL<\/span><\/i> makes fun of current political figures, <\/span>The Interview<\/span><\/i> pokes fun at America’s intelligence agencies and Kim Jong Un, and every other example picks on something else. \u00a0And, as you may have guessed, <\/span>Dick<\/span><\/i> picks on Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal. \u00a0So we\u2019ve established that the media making people laugh are, indeed, parodies, but what does this mean? \u00a0What are the parodies doing that is making them so appealing to consumers and evoking such enjoyable responses?<\/span><\/p>\n

For starters, the title, \u201cDick,\u201d makes it clear that the movie is not to be taken seriously. \u00a0In fact, the movie\u00a0can be seen as a giant dick joke in the sense that \u201cDick\u201d Nixon is portrayed as a joke of a president, and the fact that the movie itself is riddled with jokes about the male genitalia. \u00a0First of all, the two teen girls, who are the main characters and are, spoiler alert, behind the reveal of the Watergate scandal, refer to the president as \u201cDick.\u201d \u00a0He is the president of the United States, but they do not refer to him as Mr. President, or anything respectable in the least. \u00a0And when one of the girls falls in love with the president, she proclaims that she loves Dick. \u00a0This, obviously, has a raunchy double meaning. \u00a0Then, there is the whole Deepthroat joke. \u00a0Deepthroat is the name of the secret informant(s) who gave two journalists information on how Nixon was involved in the scandal. \u00a0And Deepthroat was none other than the two girls. \u00a0And why did they call themselves this? Because the brother of one of the girls had just been caught watching a pornography video with the same name, which is an incredibly crude way to choose a pseudonym. \u00a0The last dick joke that I recall is when the two girls, very upset with Nixon, hold up a sign as he flies over their house in a helicopter saying \u201cYou suck, dick.\u201d \u00a0I don\u2019t think I need to explain this one \u00a0But you get the idea, there are a bunch of distasteful usages of the word \u201cdick\u201d in this movie. \u00a0The purpose of this type of humor is to make it clear that the movie, in its entirety, is a crude joke. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he most nota<\/span>ble humor however, that makes this type of parody special, lies in the relationships between characters. \u00a0The crude dick joke theme establishes the fact that the movie is, in fact, totally non-serious, but the relationships take the parody further. \u00a0These relationships, especially between the president and the girls, are totally flip flopped compared to the norm. \u00a0The girls have so much power over the president, which is very much atypical. \u00a0First of all, they are the reason that the Watergate break in was discovered in the first place. \u00a0When sneaking out one night from the house of one of the girls, which happens to be in the Watergate complex, they leave tape on the door and draw attention to security. \u00a0During the aftermath of this discovery, they see some of the CREEP members, which becomes a huge issue. \u00a0They visit the White House with their school the next day and spot a member, hear sneaky conversations, and see suspicious paper shredding activity, though they realize nothing of what they are seeing. \u00a0The film dumbs them down to make the power they have over the president appear even more atypical. \u00a0The president makes them the official dog walkers of the White House because he thinks they know too much and wants to keep an eye on them, when in reality, they don\u2019t know that they know anything. \u00a0Here, we can see how these girls have power over the president of the U.S. as ditzy and clueless children. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The power shift doesn\u2019t end here though, it goes much farther. \u00a0The girls make cookies for the president in which they, cluelessly, add marijuana from the brother\u2019s secret stash. \u00a0There are jokes made explaining why Nixon is paranoid that are linked to the discovery of this secret ingredient. \u00a0The weed cookies also lead to an accord with the Soviet Union because Nixon and Leonid I. Brezhnev eat them together and end up happily getting along. \u00a0Just think about this for a second. \u00a0Two girls, portrayed as even dumber than average, bake weed cookies for the president and, essentially, save the world from nuclear war. \u00a0They are literally drugging the president and influencing America\u2019s foreign affairs. \u00a0And it goes even farther. \u00a0They tell Nixon that war is wrong, and he proceeds to begin the Vietnam peace process. \u00a0They are referred to Nixon as his \u201csecret youth advisors\u201d (<\/span>Dick<\/span><\/i>). \u00a0The biggest accomplishment representing the girls\u2019 power over the president is their eventual reveal of the Watergate Scandal, which ends Nixon\u2019s presidential career. \u00a0And it happens only because one them, while leaving Nixon a love message on his tape recorder, accidently plays back a message featuring him being cruel to his dog and a multitude of scandal proof. \u00a0But of course, the girls are upset about the dog alone, and only reveal Nixon\u2019s scandal to avenge the dog. \u00a0So these girls are the reason why the Watergate Scandal is revealed all because they are animal lovers. \u00a0As I\u2019ve emphasized already, these girls have a total power over the president that they have no business having.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The girls have power over the president, but so what? \u00a0What does this power switch have to do with the success of parody as an entertainment form? \u00a0And what is the big picture here? \u00a0Stick with me and we will soon know the answers. \u00a0Let\u2019s start with the basics. \u00a0Little girls should not have political power over a president, yet they do. \u00a0And this means something big. \u00a0The reason that typical rules and hierarchies are thrown away here is to actually rebel against authority. \u00a0In other words, this movie is a form of rebellion among the people. \u00a0Even though it is temporary, the actors and the audience, together, experience liberation from the constraints of everyday life. \u00a0Laughing alongside one another makes authorities seem like humourous spectacles rather than threatening big shots. \u00a0It\u2019s almost as if people experience a temporary second life.<\/span><\/p>\n

This type of feeling can be seen as carnivalesque, though a carnival often brings up images of Mardi Gras and Carnival. \u00a0But political satire is a carnival that can be experienced by so many more people so much more often. \u00a0And the idea of carnival is nothing new, there is a history of using carnival to fight oppression. \u00a0It makes freedom and a hope for better things more tangible (Karolee 67). \u00a0Success seems, even if it is only for a brief moment, like an actual possibility. \u00a0And this optimism is so essential for an engaged public culture. \u00a0Parodies copy something and then turn it into an object of attention which people see as something that can be discussed and ridiculed rather than untouchable.<\/span> \u00a0Parody seems to work by, as excellently summed up by Robert Harimon, \u201cexceeding tacit limits on expression\u2014the appropriate, the rational\u2014but it does so to reveal limitations that others would want to keep hidden\u201d (251). \u00a0So parodies, in a way, are a path to the truth. \u00a0They give the ordinary person a way to realize and talk about what is actually going on, and perhaps inspire them to even do something about it. \u00a0<\/span>Dick, <\/span><\/i>through its crude jokes and crazy role reversals, opens up a discussion for the truth and a door for action surrounding the Watergate scandal, which is a lot of power for a seemingly innocent and hysterical movie to have.<\/span><\/p>\n

Parody is a huge part of popular culture. \u00a0I don\u2019t know the last time I met someone who didn\u2019t engage in it in some way. \u00a0Because of this, it is no stretch to say that popular culture has often been a kind of carnival, this carnival, in it\u2019s most popular form, being parody. \u00a0And in this carnival, ordinary people set aside norms and liberate themselves from those who seem untouchable any other time. \u00a0We laugh, then we speak, then we find the truth, and then, in the ideal instances, we act. \u00a0All because of some distasteful, likely offensive, piece of popular culture. <\/span><\/p>\n

This essay was read by Chloe Henderson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/span><\/p>\n

Bakhtin, Mikhail,<\/span> Rabelais and His World<\/span><\/i>, Helene Iswolsky (trans.), Bloomington: Indiana University <\/span>Press, 1965\/1988, pp. 4-11.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dick<\/span><\/i>. Dir. Andrew Fleming. Perf. Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams. 1999.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hariman, Robert, \u201cPolitical Parody and Public Culture,\u201d<\/span> Quarterly Journal of Speech, <\/span><\/i>vol. 94, no. 3, <\/span>2008, pp. 247-72.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stevens, Karolee, \u201cCarnival: Fighting Oppression with Celebration,\u201d <\/span>Totem: The University of <\/span><\/i>Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology<\/span><\/i>, vol. 3, no. 1, 2011, pp. 65-8.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picture this: a group of college kids, tired from the hours of studying, reading and problem sets of the day, gathered on a collection of chairs and bean bags on a Saturday night. \u00a0They are laughing hysterically, falling out of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}