This week we're looking at satire. There are plenty of great examples out there (we've featured Plot Device recently as a hilarious satire of genre films), but today we want to focus on something not just funny, but also topical: Facebook. What Facebook Is For is an animation by English film maker Mike Booth and is part of his Some Grey Bloke series. The short film (3 minutes), features an ordinary, middle aged guy, talking about the reasons he uses Facebook. In the process it pokes fun at all of us for why we use it.
This film can be a good starting point for talking about satire. Why is it important to make fun of people and institutions in our society? Why is this an important part of living in a democracy? What Facebook is For can also be the starting point for students to do their own satirical writing in response to satirical newspaper headlines about Facebook such as: 'Shock Discovery! Person the same in real life as their Facebook profile'. There are a number of others. Students can choose a heading they like or find funny, and write a mock newspaper article to go with it. As an example of satirical newspaper articles, you might like to show your students The Onion - a mock US newspaper site.
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