Wet Hot American Summer, Parody, and Advertising

As I mentioned in my first blog post, I don't watch much TV. However, there is one show I am determined to finish: Wet Hot American Summer. It is only one season, and the whole thing covers one day of plot, but I tend to spend 1-2 months in between episodes, so I have a lot of time to think about (or forget) each one. After recently finishing the sixth installment, I started to think that the way the show's humor makes the viewer feel is not so different from what advertising tries to make us think, and the following text will attempt to make that make some amount of sense.

Michael Cera, the great lawyer

The show, in addition to being a prequel to a movie with the same title, is an attempt to parody every teen movie trope the writers could think of, often blatantly. We've all laughed at actors who are clearly too old to be playing teenagers, but this show takes it to the next level, having Amy Poehler play a character I completely forgot was supposed to be in high school. Legal scenes often seem contrived and unrealistic, but changing the outcome of a case based on a piece of paper that does not appear to even say anything makes it clear this time it is a joke. Although some of the things the show parodies are so obviously ridiculous that making fun of them seems unnecessary, for the most part I find the jokes funny. However, I think the writers are trying to do more than just make you laugh.

Parody relies on the viewer or reader having some knowledge of what is being made fun of, and Wet Hot American Summer is no exception. This kind of humor not only makes the viewer laugh, but says "we know that you know what we're referring to," and in this case, "we know you can see through those silly plot devices." In doing so, the show makes you feel a little smarter and more aware of the tricks the media is trying to play on you, even if it means that you are just more likely to watch someone else's show. Likewise, many companies try to advertise to people by making them feel good about themselves; messages like "you deserve better" are all over the place. Perhaps to really understand a parody, one must not only know what the parody is referring to but why its writers want to show that they expect you to get the reference.