Countersong : The Uses of Parody and Satire in Contemporary American Animated Television

This thesis examines how parody and satire are used in contemporary Americananimated television series. Through critical textual analysis, five television shows are examined. These are Archer, BoJack Horseman, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rick and Morty, and South Park. The study offers theoretical background and discussion on key concepts like parody, satire, comedy, animation, television, and the sitcom genre, positioning this study against previous research and articulates a definition of parody that is used in this text. This definition states that parody is with perceived intent creating new art by reiterating and transforming a source text through the breaking of logic. The study then focuses on how parody and satire are used in depictions of American national identity in the material. Chapter 3 analyzes depictions of USA’s closest neighbors in the material and highlights how American national identity is created, sustained, and deconstructed by contrasting it with its geographically closest counterparts.Chapter 4 examines the fictional realm of Equestria in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, how it is a reiterated version of real-life USA and how it uses parody to create spaces for alternative readings for a young audience. Chapter 5 analyzes the intersections of national identity and capitalism, what consequences the commodification of national identity and the myth of the American Dream have had and how that is depicted in the shows. Chapter 6 focuses on Archer and how the temporal fluidity and internationalism of the show influences and undermines notions of American national identity through its use of parody and satire. Chapter 7 examines the conflation of gun culture and American national identity, of the Frontier myth, western and action heroes and their parodic representations in the material. Chapter 8 takes a more general approach to how parody is used to celebrate, accept, criticize, and reject nationalism, national identity, and nation in the material. The 9th and final chapter offers a summary and concluding discussion of the results of the study.