Sydney Sweeney hosted SNL for the first time on March 2, 2024. We talk about the paradox of femininity and the rhetoric of “natural” in Woman Aging Gracefully, the rapid fire “seen here” jokes at Mitch McConnell’s expense on Weekend Update, generational differences in media use and the complexity of information online in Detectives, and the mechanization of art in AirBnB Design Commercial. Readings include Murray’s takedown of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign, the impact of standup comedy, and a classic article from Walter Benjamin entitled “Art in the age of mechanical reproduction.”
Listen on Libsyn: https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/30276243
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Readings
Benjamin, W. (1935). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1936. https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/benjamin.pdf
Dean,M. (2016, Jun 23). “’True Crime Addict’ and the serious problem of internet sleuths.” The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/true-crime-addict-and-the-problem-of-internet-sleuths
Gottfried, J. (2024, Jan 31). Americans’ Social Media Use. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/01/31/americans-social-media-use/
Kingson, J.A. (2023, Dec 11). Pew: Many teens use social media “almost constantly” Axios. https://www.axios.com/2023/12/11/social-media-teens-pew-tiktok-youtube-instagram-facebook-bereal-snapchat
Murray, D. P. (2013). Branding “real” social change in Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. Feminist Media Studies, 13(1), 83-101. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2011.647963
Quirk, S. (2015). Why stand-up matters: How comedians manipulate and influence. Bloomsbury Publishing. https://www.amazon.com/Why-Stand-up-Matters-Comedians-Manipulate-ebook/dp/B013XICIVO
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