Grass Valley, CA — Grass Valley’s Sierra Community College is offering what some would say is an essential course next semester called “Satire in the Modern Age: How to Understand It and Not Look Like an Idiot.” The course takes students through satire’s long history, starting with the Greeks and ending at Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Show.
Several important satire-related topics are listed in the course syllabus:
- A brief history of satire and why the jester always loses his head
- Why satire is a weapon and not for entertainment
- How to look stupid by reporting satirical articles on Facebook and Twitter
- How to be smart enough to understand satire, and if not, how to cry into your pillow
- Satire is not about you: a field guide to your hypersensitivity and how heavy drinking might help
- How Jon Stewart fucked-up everything and then quit like a pussy
- If satire stings, you might want to check your confirmation bias
- How commenting “please don’t post satire in a newsgroup” makes you look like a prudish, humorless moron, even if you tell everyone you have “a great sense of humor, just ask my divorce lawyer.”
- Why you need more therapy if you find satire funny
A recent study by the Palo Alto, CA-based Rundex Family Foundation found that 96% of Democrats think Jon Stewart’s Daily Show was satire designed to make Republicans look stupid. Interestingly, the same amount of Republicans thought the Daily Show was personally making fun of them. When asked to define satire, both groups said it was “supposed to be funny” and “made them feel comfortable about their political positions.”
Renowned satirist and Professor Jack Goff, a Comparative English Literature and Home Economics expert, will run the course.
“We plan on taking Nevada County folks on a long journey through topics that will undoubtedly make many uncomfortable for reasons they won’t understand,” said Professor Jack Goff in an exclusive Beacon interview. “Most everyone who attends won’t get it. In a recent survey, 94% of Americans couldn’t identify a noun in a sentence and thought a preposition was something you stick in your ass. So our expectations are set pretty low.”
According to Sierra College, the course is full, but they expect another session the following semester, that is, if the Professor doesn’t get his head cut off. The use of the passive voice will be featured heavily in the readings.
