C
I have chosen to look at the post modern term
parody and pastiche. The example i have chosen is the series Family Guy, with the example shown from
the feature length presentation of Family Guy's Blue Harvest which is a parody of Star Wars a New Hope. The difference between parody and
pastiche is that pastiche is principally imitation or homage to a particular
genre of film whereas parody often entails an element of criticism of the text
it imitates. As described on the glossary sheet parody usually quotes from one text whereas pastiche quotes from a range of usually unrelated texts.
I believe that the series Family Guy is a combination of parody and pastiche, but more pastiche as episodes often refer to various unrelated films or genres in one episode whereas Blue Harvest is moreparody than pastiche as it focuses on re-enacting A New Hope in a comical fashion. Fredric Jameson links pastiche to ‘deathof originality’ as nothing is new and simply a combination of old styles which Family Guy aptly embodies and as
suggested Family Guy ‘points to itself as a constructed text making no attempts
to naturalise itself as a realist text…knowingly presents itself as a constructed artefact’. I believe that Family Guy clearly demonstrates the complex similarities of
pastiche and parody and does so is in an intelligent way rather than many
contemporary parodies such as Meet the
Spartans which often use toilet humour and do not bring anything new to parody
texts.
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