Satire Videos

In LA class last week, our class presented the satirical videos each student picked. Out of the 16 videos presented, there is a videos that really appealed to me.
The video, John Oliver and Gun Control, was brilliantly satirizing Americans who oppose gun control without certain reason. John Oliver interviews an American anti-gun control supporting Virginian Philip Van Cleave and a government official from Australia and contrast their opinions. When Oliver asks Cleave if background checks for gun control is logical to him, Cleave answers no and suggests that the first amendment doesn't require background checks. This is a use of verbal irony since the first amendment is very different from the second amendment so they cannot be compared with each other. Also, when Oliver asks about one hour waiting period to get a gun Cleave also answers no saying he don't see any reasons. This shows how stubborn people can be and not change their minds.Moreover, Cleave claims gun control does not work so Oliver examples Australia's gun control after the mass shooting. However, Cleave insists Australia is another world and is not the United States but in reality, Australia, not only exists in the same planet as America, obviously there economy and culture is not so different from us. Oliver, then, interviews Australia's formal prime minister, John Howard. Howard says that after the gun control, the mass shooting stopped and never happened until today. When Oliver says this to Cleave, Cleaves says "mass shooting is rare anyhow" and yes, mass shooting is less than car accidents except while car accidents result in killing comparably small number of people, mass shooting can kill hundreds and thousands of people. Also although mass shooting is rare compare to other death causes, it still is visible in number. Howard claims there were thirty mass shootings in Australia only before the gun control. When Cleave hears this, he compares guns to drugs and basically end up saying like "there is no point of having laws unless we can complexly get rid of all the drugs." After that, with his logic confused, Cleave claims since there are more gun in USA, there will be more people killed, which is actually opposing his claim.
This video by using verbal irony and Homeric satire, perfectly satirizes people who doesn't have clear reason of opposing gun controls and still opposes it.