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18th-Century British Literature Videos 3 videos
And you thought a nymph was a naturally lovely woodland creature. To be fair, so did we. But boy did Jonathan Swift prove us wrong.
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 abou...
A Modest Proposal...in 21st Century Media 74728 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?
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…
Full Transcript
- 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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