It’s the Golden Age of satire, with “The Daily Show,” Bill Maher, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert and The Onion shaming the shameless by taking pungent, potent pokes at society’s hypocrisies. But does shaming have any effect? And how do we decide when satire goes too far?
This multimedia talk explores how satire challenges society’s taboos from forbidden farts in Afghanistan to the silencing of a South African puppet, along with Groucho Marx, Richard Pryor, Monty Python, “South Park,” Key & Peele, the Russian Orthodox Church, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, Janet Jackson’s right breast, and Mel Brooks’ “The Producers.”
Most of all, we’ll see how satire gets people to examine their assumptions. Because, ultimately, satire is less about changing your mind than getting you to think.