Things to Satirize in Sonic?

[yetter]

I'm think of making a comic with STH satire, what are some ideas, do's and don'ts, ect?

Edited October 24, 2015 by yetter

[Crim Da]

Satire.. in what regard? There are lots of kinds of satire. 

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

Well I never did a satire before. But heres some tips on that if you want to do a good satire:

You to chose your targets. Like are you trying to make archie fans laugh, game fans, etc etc

You need to use facts. Many people fail here because they think satire is just a mokery when its not. Yes you are mocking something but you need to mock it with facts not whith your feelings or opinions. 

Oh and actually we have a member who makes good satire peices for Sonic games and stuff, I would go talk to him for inspieration and I will post a video here:

 

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Well, usually whenever I do parody/ Satire, I start start with an idea, one vision or theme that's amusing and then work from there. Examples;


Sonic Battle uses everyone beating up Emerl as a symbolism for friendship/ family bonds, so I'll make jokes about that.

Sonic Riders Zero Gravity's story is supposed to justify the gameplay; Sonic racing around on closed circuits to win a race. Yet none of the conflicts and dangers he finds himself in logically require said race, so there's my core joke theme.

Sonic Rush's story is all about Blaze to lighten up and accept help from friends, except it forgets to ever put her in a situation that she can't handle herself, so the story ends up coming across like Sonic and pals are just condescending to her.

And so on. As soon as I uncover a core "problem", I take that as the foundation of the satire.
So that's the first thing you got to figure out about the comic, will you tackle one specific Sonic story?
Sonic in general?
Will each comic page have one joke or will you tell a narrative?
Satires usually need some sort of message to the punchlines, so I'd recommend more fully realized plots.

 

So, are you making a Satire, or a parody?
To me, Satire requires some sort of conclusion to your jokes.
A parody is just making an observation:
-I see that Tails is a fox, and Sonic a hedgehog. Foxes eat hedgehogs. Therefore, Tails can eat Sonic.-
That's a parody joke, it's only an observation, there's no "good" or "bad" about it, no point, no opinion. Just an observation.

To make it a satire, you need to explore further. Foxes eat hedgehogs, Tails doesn't. Why not? Why did the character designers choose these animals, what was their intention? Does it matter? What are the consequences?
If answering those questions leads to emotions, conclusions, amusement, jokes, then congratulations, you're creating the bricks that you can use to build your Satire wall.
If answering those questions lead to nothing, then that topic won't work for you.

So then, choosing Satire targets.
To me, a Satire is the best when it ties into some sort of political statement.
The intended message, or moral of the story.

Instead of immediatly grasping for every little plothole or internet meme, look at the story's big message and intended moral first, and see how that stacks up.
Satires need to feel big, you're tackling a thought, a philosophy.
So "Lol, Big the cat is fat and has a stupid voice" is not a Satire target. It's too petty.
However, "It's amusing/ contradicting/ inspiring that an overweight and simple minded character is used as an main character in an action story" does work as a Satire.
Now it's more then just making fat jokes, now it's connected to a political ish message;
Is using a fat silly character in a serious story ironic/ stupid/ inspiring/ awesome?
Use something like That as the foundation to your satire, make that the core.
THEN you can throw in more petty and small scaled internet nitpicks in as suplemental jokes on top of that.
As long as you make sure the core satirical message has the highest priority.



Then, my personal rule with Satire:
Never be fully angry or fully happy.

Anger makes you come across as ignorant and intolerant. Happyness as dumb and naieve.
I consider "dissapointment" or "confusion" to be the best emotions to base humor from.
Especially dissapointment. That means you know the worth of your topic, why it SHOULD be good and great. But also that you're aware that it fails. And therefore you're curious to go digging.

A good parody should be able to work with BOTH people who love and hate the original source material. Which is hard to do when you're completely in love or consumed in hate.

And while pure Satire can be more bitter and angry, Satire based on something silly or light hearted like a cartoony videogame probably doesn't warrant the bitter and intense pure satire treatment.
Something as goofy as Sonic needs to have it's foundation in a more sugary happy Parody state of mind. You can have a harsh message, but need to sugarcoat it a little.
We're not talking about human rights, dangerous political movements or other more approperiate Satire targets after all.

The video's that I made with genuine anger are always the weakest ones.
 

 

Oh and actually we have a member who makes good satire peices for Sonic games and stuff, I would go talk to him for inspieration and I will post a video here:

 

Heh, that oldy.
I kinda regret all the "Lol Emo" jokes there.
But yeah, central theme in that parody, confusion in who Shadow's friends or enemies are, Doom's plan bouncing all over the place, and the Humans being so gloriously over the top that their more subtle emotional character arcs become amazingly silly.

And yes, there's a lot of random humor or nitpicking plothole humor too, but all in support, or at least not going against the core message.
Core emotion: Cheerful Confusion. It makes no sense and I love it.

 

Edited October 24, 2015 by Roger_van_der_weide

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

Hey the emo jokes were fine as they werent making fun of people with depression or with actaul problems like that. (Except for the one cut yourself joke you did) One thing I forgot to add is that when you want to make fun of a characters traits like Big the Cat and how people think hes a retard (though they dont know what a retard is so if some think that but...). Yes you can make fun about how slow he is but don't take it too far to where now your making fun of people with mental disablities. etc 

[yetter]

Why is there Anger when ur making Satire?

[Salamander]

As a rule of thumb, it's called parody when you like the thing you're making fun of, and satire when you don't.

[shdowhunt60]

It's hard to satirize a series that is already poking fun at its own expense.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

Satire has the connotation of being somewhat biting and addressing some sort of real problem, or at least what the author thinks is a real problem. Parody tends to be more lighthearted and "just for fun".

[yetter]

It's hard to satirize a series that is already poking fun at its own expense.

that just gave me an idea 

[Roger_van_der_weide]

It's hard to satirize a series that is already poking fun at its own expense.

Depends. While Sonic is more self depricating, it only does so in a very broad and simple way.
Most of the time it's just "The premise of the Sonic games is silly, so let's be silly." or "Sonic is fast. So let's make him slow this episode" or something.

I've yet to see Sonic Boom or Modern Sonic go full parody/ Satire on itself, outside of an occasonal aside reference. (Where is sonic keeping his rings?)
And even that is kinda weak since there's no real punchline or realization to it. They just bring up a parody idea and then shrug and move on.

Not to mention Pontaff/ Boom Sonic bring in new problems and philosophical debates in their attempt to be goofy, opening a whole new treasure chest of parody/ Satire oppurtunities.

 

Satire has the connotation of being somewhat biting and addressing some sort of real problem, or at least what the author thinks is a real problem. Parody tends to be more lighthearted and "just for fun".

Yeah, this.

So not so much "Parody is when you like it, satire when you don't."
I've seen plenty of mockeries made by people who clearly hate the target and just make Harry Potter or My little Ponies or whatever target violent/ use drugs/ getting killed horribly with no real punchline or clever realization attached.
No way that counts even remotely as Satire. That's just venting.

Altough FFWF has a bit of a point, Satires usally FEEL more like an angry assault and parodies like a light hearted goof.
But that's just the surface.
 

Why is there Anger when ur making Satire?

Satire is usually about adressing problems. And when there's a problem, there's negative emotions.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Roger_van_der_weide