I'm Dave and I'm Andrew and we are the IB English Guys and today we want to talk to you about how to read political cartoons. Mr. Giles, why are political cartoons so useful for our course? Political cartoons are a form of satire and satire is using humor for social commentary.
Typically these political cartoonists they're trying to provoke a really deep discussion or a really deep thought in their viewer. Yeah they're trying to also make comments on corporate policy or government policy. Yeah, and political cartoons are dealing with current events and global issues that are happening now. Typically, whatever's hot in the news, Mr. Giles, you'll see that being drawn and written about through political cartoons. They're talking about conflict, and they wanna show those opposing sides in their cartoons.
Yeah, and lastly, I think, and very importantly, political cartoons are meant to make us laugh. As a form of satire, of course, there's different types of irony embedded into the political cartoon. and they really are humorous, and they also are thought-provoking at the same time.
Yeah, absolutely. They make great text to unpack and explore. So how do we do that?
Yeah, so just like any text type, Mr. Giles, to fully explore, analyze, and deconstruct a text, we need a bank of terms. And luckily, we provided those terms for you underneath the video. If you look down there, you should see links to vocabulary lists and even a drawing, a cartoon about cartoon terminology.
Please take some time to study those terms and learn those terms because that is what you need. to successfully unpack the ideas. Absolutely.
So we've got a new mnemonic for you that this guy made, and it's a pretty good one. So people seem to like the Anvera mnemonic we use for advertising, so here we go for cartoon. So before I drop the mnemonic, a little context.
Giles and I live in Thailand, and of course, living in Thailand, we have amazing access to the beach, and one thing I really enjoy are snorkeling and diving. I love the coral. And in my time here, I've noticed, Mr. Giles, that the coral needs... Our care and love. Say it back to me.
Let me hear the mnemonic. I want to hear it. Coral needs our care and love.
Nailed it. Very good. All right, Giles.
What's the C? The C is the composition. And folks, when we talk about the composition, we're talking about how is the cartoon framed?
What's in the foreground? What's in the background? Is there more graphic weight on the left or more graphic weight on the right?
What's the angle shot? What's the camera distance? All of these things are dealt with when we consider the composition. We like that.
Giles, what's the N? I love the N and I know you love the N. I do.
The N is the narrative. That these cartoons are telling a story. In this story there are characters, there's a context, there's a conflict often times. And we want to really think deeply about what's going on in the cartoon. And we want to think about the characters.
How are they drawn? What do they look like? What are they wearing? How do they talk?
And really try to ask ourselves some questions about that narrative. and learn some of the techniques that describe their actions like emanata, which are these little lines that show action. We want to read the speech bubbles and think about these characters. Emanata, nice word.
I like that one. Folks, the O stands for objects or symbols. And typically the objects, these concrete nouns that the artist, the cartoonist, has embedded into his work or her work, they represent larger abstract ideas.
Maybe smoke represents industrial pollution. Maybe a briefcase represents secrecy or deception. Look for symbols.
Concrete nouns often represent abstract ideas. Oh, great. We love symbolism. The C is for care, and it stands for color in this case.
Color, we want to think about the colors. We want to think about how that creates a mood. We want to also think about how we can interpret the colors. And think also about shading, the light and dark shading in the cartoon, if it's black and white. Yeah, and the L, of course, love.
Language. We love language. We're English teachers, right? So you want to really scrutinize the words.
What is the connotation or denotation of key words? We want to think about different types of verbal irony and typically the punch line of satire, Mr. Giles, is embedded through some type of irony in the language. So you really want to look at the interplay between language and image and see how these two things work together to create that humor. That's great. So today Giles, I think it's time to apply this mnemonic to a cartoon.
Can you tell us a little bit about the cartoon that we'll be exploring today? Yeah, so we've picked a 2012 cartoon by a cartoonist that we really love called Patrick Chappat. We're going to talk more about him in detail in the next video. But this particular cartoon is from 2012. It's titled Drowned in La Pondesa and 2012 is an important context because during this time there was a large up influx of refugees and migrants that were leaving their countries, specifically Syria and lots of countries that had civil war and a lot of unrest.
They were leaving and coming to Europe. So there was a huge refugee crisis in Europe that people were addressing and talking about. Or people were not addressing, despite the fact they were talking about it.
Talking about it and that's some of the idea that's embedded into our cartoon today. That's right. All right, Giles, let's think about the mnemonic. Coral.
Sea. Composition. I'm going to take it.
Okay? Okay, do it. Composition. When I look at this cartoon, Mr. Giles, and I'm looking at it right now, you know, I notice that in the foreground... that's where the majority of the graphic weight is.
We see the dark shading of the two immigration or the two officers who are patrolling the beach and we notice that that's where the eye goes first and then if you look down to where they're looking, follow their eyesight down, we actually see the dead refugee in the foreground as well. The background is critical, that's where we see a boat, a boat that's sinking, perhaps alluding to the fact that other refugees have not actually made it. So really this long shot sort of allows you to see the perspective for what's up close in the foreground but you do get a sense of, you the whole story and what's happening in the background.
That's right. Which leads to narrative. There is a story here. There's a dramatic story of a group of people that are trying to reach shore. And we see that the man has perished on shore.
We see the people in the background, like you said, that have also drowned in the process. So we see a lot of, obviously, a huge tragedy that's unfolding in front of our eyes. But we also see these authorities that are standing over this drowned man.
And have a posture of they're shrugging. I really want to pay attention to those authorities and how they're drawn, how they're depicted. Particularly just their uniforms and the dark shading. And also just their hands and their posture of just shrugging. Like what's there to do?
Or almost this look of indifference. So we want to really think about these characters and how they're acting. Okay, Mr. Giles. The O stands for objects or symbols. In this case, I see a few prominent objects really that stand out to me.
The first object, of course, would be that European Union flag. And I think this represents the idea that, hey, this isn't a problem for one country. This is something that the entire European community has to come together and collaborate on to provide the best possible outcome for these people who are experiencing such plight and such misery.
The next object I can see really does build on that idea of misery. And it's that boat sinking in the background. And I think that boat represents all the death, all the tragedy, all the sadness that these refugees have experienced.
And thinking about the story, we can see that the emanata, we can see these people, it looks like they've just freshly, they've just drowned and it's tragic. The last object I like to look at is on the uniform, I notice there's a sash going across them. And I think that typically is a symbol for power, for authority, and it's a stark contrast and juxtaposition to the way that the dead refugee is dressed as well. You really see that power difference. It's quite, quite sad.
That was great. I just think that... The depth of your thinking there and just thinking about these symbols is really a way to unpack the cartoon on a deep level.
That's fantastic. So the C is color. Now again, this is a black and white cartoon, so there's not a color to interpret it, but there is a lot of the shading. And I'm really drawn by the graphic weight on the right side of this cartoon and obviously the graphic weight and the dark shading of these authorities. That's what I would spend my time talking about as well as the man and how he is drawn.
I think that all those things are quite significant in terms of color and shading. Yeah. Last aspect we want to consider, of course, is the L, the language. And I just would like to take a moment and read it. The speech bubble reads, he drowned before we could do anything.
to expel him. For me the word expel really jumps out to me Mr. Giles. It indicates that these officers really had no intention of ever accepting these refugees even if these people would have made it there alive seemingly they would have been turned away and then returned. return back to their country. These people were not going to find safe haven in another country.
Giles, what can you say about verbal irony? Yeah, this is, irony is the opposite of what we expect. We would expect an authority to treat these refugees with humanity and have some empathy for what's happened to them.
And again, this is deeply ironic that they're saying this and it's the opposite of what we'd expect them to say. Yeah, it really is. Again, that picks up the satire, that picks up the irony, and I think it really does capture...
Patrick Chabot's message that, you know, it is our responsibility as human beings to care for refugees. We should look at this political cartoon and after we chuckle we should feel a sense of disgust, a sense of failure, because we as humans are not doing our part to help these people in need. That's great. So just to wrap it up, just to again emphasize that we're trying to use some of these techniques but we want to use that mnemonic to help us.
So we're thinking about coral needs our care and love. What's the sea again? The C stands for composition, Giles. What's the N?
The N is the narrative, the story. The O is hour. Those are the objects. What is the C? C is color.
Why don't I think about color and shading? And lastly, folks, love language. We're language teachers. We're English teachers. We love language.
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Don't forget the handout below. Yeah. Thanks for joining everybody and have a great day.
Bye, guys.