For my satire post, I chose to analyze Saturday Night Live's skit, The Day Beyoncé Turned Black. The skit is about the day when Beyoncé came out with her "unapologetically black" song "Formation," and how it was the day when white people realized Beyoncé was black. This causes them to basically lose their minds and go into chaos.
The main satirical techniques the video uses are hyperbole and situational irony. In the video, there are white people rioting in the streets the day that "Formation" came out, over the fact that Beyoncé's new song was not catered directly to white people, which is obviously an over-exaggeration of what actually happened. The video uses situational irony too, because of how little it matters that Beyoncé's song was not catering to white people, as opposed to how they make it out to be in the video, which shows it as a life altering event.
This video is not just making fun of white people, which is what it seems like at first glance, (although it is making fun of white people) but it is pointing out real problems in our society today. The main one is that white people can only like black celebrities if they can just forget that they are black. This leads into another issue; that there is a way to "act black." This is highlighted when a white woman tells her black friend that Beyoncé is black, and that they have to leave America. The black woman says that she is black too, to which the white woman replies, "What? no you're not, you're like, my girl," as well as another part in the video where a white man says, "How can Beyoncé be black? She's already a woman!" Using hyperbole is a great way to highlight actual issues in a humorous way, this video is a great example of satire.
I think the idea that the sketch spoke to about white people liking artists when they don't think of them as black is a sad truth. It often happens that the second a black artist speaks out about being black or has songs catering to black people or lyrics empowering black people, white fans distance themselves or ignore it. Beyonce has done so much for empowering women and black people. She has such a large fan base and it is so awesome that she never backs down in pushing her messages and beliefs because change happens when people with big platforms choose not to back down and don't care if the truth is making others uncomfortable.
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