There has to be a beginning for things. The first parody was of something known. Parody and Satire exist to spoof, mock or make points by understanding the subject well. If you don't know where something comes from, or don't know what is being parodied, the parody has failed.
American Gothic by Grant Wood is an American icon. We see it for how staid and solid and boring life can be, at the same time wondering why people devote a lifetime to the work... And it is because it is a life, not a job.
Here are a number of uses of American Gothic:
In each case something was being said by posing the characters in such a way. To mock the civility of the original, to parody the setting using popular stars, to pose characters in such a way as to say, here is our version of American Gothic.
(The bottom piece is mine, and I was tempted to make it a political comment, but preferred to just show the juxtapositions of modernity and the past with Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul.)
2 comments:
The thing that strikes me most about American Gothic is the expression on the woman's face. The farmer is looking directly at us, but the woman looks at him with this expression of concern, as if she's saying, "You aren't gonna do anything crazy with that pitchfork, are you Clem?"
Ah yes, as well as with Michele Bachmann... "YOU DID WHAT?"
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