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A Modest Proposal...in 21st Century Media 74726 Views


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Description:

We were so moved by Angelina Jolie's overseas adoptions that we created a proposal to bring foreign-born children over by the thousands! Think about the possibilities. We're being totally serious... or are we?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

A Modest Proposal… in 21st Century Media, a la Shmoop.

00:08

A Modest Proposal drew up a fool-proof plan for ending the famine in Ireland: eating babies.

00:15

Hey, anything is good with Sriracha, right?

00:18

But Swift didn’t really mean to suggest that we should actually make babies part of

00:22

our everyday diet… maybe only on special occasions…

00:29

He meant it as satire: by presenting a solution so ridiculous… it was humorous.

00:35

A lot of people didn’t get the joke. Including the Queen.

00:39

You’d think an old woman who wears a crown would have more of a sense of humor…

00:44

With today’s popularity of news satire like the Onion and the Daily Show…

00:49

…people are a lot savvier to the art of irony.

00:55

So we have a proposal for you.

01:00

We’re tired of all the brainless summer blockbusters.

01:02

Sure, we love explosions and giant robots as much as the next moviegoer, but whatever

01:08

happened to nuance, character development, and symbolism?

01:18

Movies aren’t being developed just for us anymore: they’re being developed for the

01:22

world.

01:24

We need to take back the movie industry, and here’s how we propose to do it…

01:29

Start importing Chinese babies.

01:32

Hear us out… China accounts for the second largest box

01:35

office earnings in the world, and will soon overtake the U.S. by most estimates.

01:39

There are even scenes shot for some movies specifically for the Chinese audience.

01:44

Iron Man 3 had a small sub-plot added for its Chinese release.

01:52

And the next Transformers movie is currently seeking acting talent in China on a reality

01:57

show called Transformers 4 Chinese Actor Talent Search Reality Show…

02:04

We hope the movie will be more creative than the title of that show.

02:10

We propose to start importing Chinese babies ASAP. By the thousands.

02:15

They have more people over there than they know what to do with.

02:18

And when the babies grow up, they will be seeing movies here instead of in China.

02:22

We can increase our box office and help with China’s overpopulation at the same time.

02:29

Brilliant!

02:29

What do you think?

02:30

Would it work?

02:32

We’re joking, right? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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