That’s right, I changed ideas. And I meant to ask Brett if I could do that and I forgot. To Brett, I am sorry. I will email you as soon as this is finished. To my classmates, I hope your projects are going well and I welcome any critique. Alright, now let’s get to the New Idea!
Project Title–Laughter in the Dark: Parodies of Film Noir
Brief Point: This project will be a website that features as many examples of Film Noir parodies. The very nature of parodies requires them to pay close attention to their source material in order to insert humor that fits audience expectation. Through the use of techniques like exaggeration, inversion, and trivialization, parodies affirm and negotiate the boundaries of their chosen genre, and this negotiation can show us how parodies affirm certain aspects of Film Noir.
Outline:
I’m honestly still considering my organization. I see two ways of doing this project: organizing it like a database or organizing it like web essay. Here’s what I would do for each.
Organized like a database–in this version of my project, I would analyze each example of Film Noir parody individually and point out specifically what parody techniques the text is using and how those techniques are both critiquing and affirming Noir themes and techniques. On the main site I would give a brief history of parody and parody techniques, and from there offer lists based on the type of media (film, comedy sketch, radio show), the main Noir topic it critiques (gender roles in Noir, the corrupting city, existential hopelessness, etc). I’d obviously have to come up with more lists depending on how many more Noir parodies I can suss out.
Organized like a web essay–in this version, I would need to do a lot more intentional sequencing. I think this is something like how I could structure it:
- Overview of Film Noir, how it represented post-war attitudes in a gritty, crime filled lens.
- Overview of parody throughout history and how it interacts with critiquing genre and also genre building.
- Examination of texts one by one
- Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid
- Ex: For Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, I’ll examine how the gratuitous amount of slapstick comedy in this movie critiques violence in Film Noir.
- Who Framed Rodger Rabbit and Setting
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Homosocial Relationships/Homosexual Anxieties
- Detective Pikachu Noir and There Will Be Brawl and Trivialization
- A Femme Fatale Fails and the Femme Fatale Archetype
- Guy Noir: Private Eye and Existentialism
- And more!
Annotated Bibliography:
Cohen, J. L. “The Art of Parody: Imitation With a Twist.” The Artifice, the-artifice.com/the-art-of-parody/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2015.
- I was attracted to this text because it talks about 3 parody techniques.
- The main takeaway was that parody uses exaggeration, inversion, and trivialization in order to make a good imitation with a twist.
“Comedy and Genre Boundaries.” Laughing Matters: Understanding Film, Television and Radio Comedy, by John Mundy and Glyn White, 1st ed., Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2012, pp. 130–148. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1vwmft8.11.
- I was attracted to this text because it talks about how comedy, the umbrella parody falls under, shapes genre boundaries.
- The article uses the example of comedy Westerns to navigate this idea. The main argument is that parody causes a mixing of high and low art and suggests through its popularity a move towards a more postmodern culture.
Dentith, Simon. “Chapter 1: APPROACHES TO PARODY.” Parody, Taylor & Francis Ltd / Books, 2000, pp. 1–38. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=17445199&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
- This text talked a lot about Parody as it’s used in language using the novel Middlemarch as an example. It also gave a brief history of parody and talked a bit about parody as a form of criticism. This part was particuarly interesting as it shows (at least by the standards of 20 years ago) that the debate as to whether parody normalizes or disrupts is still unresolved.
- This quote from page 33 demonstrates that thought,
“For some writers, parody serves a
normative critical function, indeed, it acts to do so when the more
modern forms of criticism such as the literary essay are absent,
and its function is to make explicit the absurdities of current poetic
fashions. On the other hand, it has been claimed, especially by the
group of critics known as Russian Formalists, that parody can
contribute to the evolution of literary style” (33).
Keogh, Tom. “”Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:” Noir Parody is Dark Dark Laugh Laugh.” Seattle Times, 28 Oct. 2005, www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/kiss-kiss-bang-bang-noir-parody-is-dark-dark-laugh-laugh/.
- I was attracted to this text because it provides a review of a parody of a Noir film.
- The main takeaway from this text was that Kiss Kiss Bang Bang isn’t really a film trying to critique or undermine Film Noir necessarily, but rather reimagining the formula with a main character who is inadequate in his ability to navigate the savage noir world.
Mazzillo, Amanda. “The Beginner’s Guide: Parody.” Film Inquiry, 5 May 2017, www.filminquiry.com/beginners-guide-parody/.
- I was attracted to this text because of its approachable language and style! It’s a blog post so not the most reputable but had some good information nonetheless.
- This gave a good overview of film parody throughout history and even talked a little bit about Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.
I’ll add to these texts as I continue research. Here are the citations for the examples of parody Noir I’ll be using.
64 Bits. “64 Bits – Detective Pikachu Noir – (Animated Parody).” YouTube, 17 Jan. 2020, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpcx2W0Bk6g&t=3s.
Garrison Keillor, producer. A Prarie Home Companion. NPR, 1974.
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. Directed by Carl Reiner, performances by Steve Martin, Rachel Ward. Universal Pictures, 1982
The Escapist. “There Will Be Brawl: Episode One.” Youtube, 19 July 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWXX60o1Ezs&t=57s.
Ianniciello, Adrienne. “A Femme Fatale Fails.” YouTube, Characters Wanted, 10 May 2019, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk9rPACMKZA.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Directed by Shane Black, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2005.
Who Framed Rodger Rabbit. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Buena Vista Pictures, 1988.
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