Saturday Night Live is loaded with examples of satire set to current events. Most sketches, however, are not appropriate for the classroom. Here is a list of three that are completely clean and on a level most high school students can understand.
1. Totino’s Super Bowl Ad
image from http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/totinos-super-bowl-commercial/2844000
Click here to watch it. Vanessa Bayer plays the wife who just wants to feed her “hungry guys” while they watch the big game. Instead of watching with them, she makes them snacks – Totino’s Pizza Rolls – and completes an activity pack created by Totino’s. Vanessa excitedly plays with a top, a nine-letter word search, and a connect-the-dots image you can clearly see without connecting any dots.
Satire: specifically – advertisements directed towards men often portray wives as nagging, short-order cooks who would be lost without a man. In general it mocks how we treat women and what we expect from them.
2. Star Wars Toys
Image from http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/search/star%20wars%20toys
Click here to watch it. A bunch of kids are loving the new Star Wars toys, but some toy-collecting grown men keep ruining their fun. My favorite part is when the boy asks if the man’s wife likes toys too, but he just stares sadly back at the camera.
Satire: it’s making fun of adults who do not play with toys, but instead collect and look at them.
3. President Barbie
image from http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/president-barbie/3032278
Click here to watch it. Mattel is proud of their President Barbie doll, complete with Snap Chat enabled cell phone, but young girls want nothing to do with it. They’d rather play with their Legos or even an old broom.
Satire: it’s making fun of the toy companies who are trying to empower young girls by forcing more dolls on them. Showing the toy companies’ lack of understanding with gender neutral toys and with what children are interested in.
What to do with this?
I like to pair this with “Modest Proposal” since both are satires. I show the SNL skits first and have the students complete a quick worksheet with a graphic organizer: clip name, satire (what aspect of society is being criticized), and an explanation with examples from the clip. Here’s the worksheet I’ve used with my students if you’d like to use it as well: Copy of SNL Satire Graphic Organizer.
We read “Modest Proposal” as a class to make sure no one really thinks they ate babies. There is always that one kid each class who forgets it’s satire.
As an assessment for students’ understanding of satire, I have them create their own. Students can make their own modest proposal or a quick commercial similar to the SNL examples. Last year many of the students chose to make their own commercials. One group created a cell phone for babies to give them a head-start on learning technology.
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Thank you Amanda – I love this assignment. and I’m using it with my seniors before we begin Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.
Amanda,
I just want to thank you for sharing this lesson. When I decided to teach satire, I was faced with the “Ugh, now I have to develop something from scratch” blues. On a whim, I did a quick Google search and struck GOLD! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
My students really enjoyed analyzing satire in this manner! Thank you so much for sharing this awesome resource.
Author
My pleasure! So glad they enjoyed it
I love the examples you gave, they are very well written and easy to learn.
As an AP Lang student currently studying satire with no prior knowledge, this was extremely helpful. Though I didn’t need a lesson plan, your examples and short explanations helped me to fully understand what satire is. I’m a visual/hands-on learner so this was greatly appreciated.
Thanks 🙂
Author
My pleasure!
Thanks so much for checking out the blog and taking the time to comment.
Cheers,
Amanda
Thank you so much for your lesson plans. I’m a first year teacher who was launched from teaching Kindergarten before Winter Break to Grade 7/8 ELA + Drama. I LOVE it so far and taught Grade 6 briefly which I enjoyed but am so grateful for all your lesson ideas that meet with my idea of teaching (I’m anti worksheet/forced quiet sitting) and LOVE lessons that account for all types of learners, engagement and movement! Ugh so so so grateful.
Author
Hi,
Sorry I’m just seeing this now…This year is challenging to say the least. I’m so glad you were able to find some materials here to use. I can’t imagine moving from K to 7/8. You are a rock star!
Take care,
Amanda
Thankful crying!! My students keep missing the satire in The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, and I have been looking for better ways to show satire (that are clean).
Author
Yay! So glad I could help 🙂
THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. I really needed an engaging, fun activity for my students to do tomorrow; this is perfect!
Author
Lol, we’ve all been there. My pleasure! Hope they enjoy the clips 🙂
Thank you for the clips. I didn’t show my students the Super Bowl ad because it has images of beer throughout and it is even mentioned verbally at one point (“we’re out of beer”). The other two were fantastic to use. Thanks again!
Author
I understand. I got the okay to show it at my school because it was seen as similar to characters or people in novels consuming alcohol (not promoting it – it’s just present). I’m glad you were able to use the other two. You should also check out the Jason Momoa skit about manly appliances. Should be appropriate for general audiences. Thanks for checking out the blog!
Hi,
I used this last year with the worksheet. My students loved it! However, I can’t access the worksheet form this year. Thank you for any guidance on accessing it.
Author
Hi Carol,
I’m not sure what’s going on with the worksheet. I just tested it and it worked okay for me. If you’d like, you can send me an email at aburrili126@gmail.com and I can send the worksheet to you that way.
So glad your students enjoyed the lesson!
Amanda
I agree with Amanda, the boy just wants to know if his wife likes to play with action figures. The man’s face implies either (a) a lack of a spouse or girlfriend or worse (b) that his obsession with Star Wars merch led to a strain and finally termination of that marriage or partnership. So much expressed in one face, but none of it is meant to be dirty.
This is a great exercise, and kudos to keeping a clean perspective. However, I feel some of the comedy for the skit about Star Wars toys is inappropriate if you understand what’s actually being implied. When the child asks the adult whether Mommy plays with toys, that is actually a reference to sexual interaction. Many students may pick up on the implications here, and they aren’t very good. I wish I could use this as an example of how context and inference are EXTREMELY important, but it’s definitely not age-appropriate.
Author
Thanks for checking out the blog and for the feedback. I see what you’re saying, but I disagree on what is being implied. The boy asks if his wife likes toys too and the man’s face gets very sad. This is accompanied by sad music which I understand to imply that the man has no wife. It goes along with the theme of the commercial in mocking people who collect Star Wars toys. If it were sexual I would expect a devious smile from him and music that isn’t sad.
Thank you!! For the first time in about 6 months, my entire grade 11 class was quiet and seriously engaged with this quick satire (refresher for them). And you reminded me about A Modest Proposal, so we’re going to do a class read with that. Then the students will create short satire videos of their own before we delve into the unit’s main novel- True Grit.
Author
Yay!!! Total class engagement in March is impressive. Thanks so much for the feedback and enjoy the crazy satirical videos your kiddos are going to make🙂
I did a very similar intro lesson for The Importance of Being Earnest, and many students said it was one of their favorite lessons of first semester. Another clean SNL clip that’s great is the GE Big Boys commercial parody: https://youtu.be/vZRzJJcq6Rs
I went over a lot of other humor techniques in addition to satire prior to showing the commercials (e.g. juxtaposition, low brow vs. high brow humor, parody, etc.), and it was great to see how easily they could apply the new terms to this commercial in particular. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Author
Yes!!!! This clip is perfect! (I’m slightly biased because I’m a huge Jason Momoa fan) If you don’t mind I will likely (eventually) update my blog post and worksheet to include the clip as well. Thanks for taking the time to comment and for checking out my blog 🙂
Thank you. I needed something a little lighter than “A Modest Proposal” for some struggling readers and this is PERFECT!
Author
Glad I could help! Modest Proposal is the same piece that led me to using SNL clips as well. In fact, even the SNL clips were a bit much for some of my students. Here’s a link to another blog post containing satirical movie clips: https://engagingandeffective.com/more-movie-scenes-to-teach-literary-terms/
Thanks for checking out my blog and taking the time to comment 🙂
Such a great lesson! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
Author
You’re welcome! Thanks for checking out my blog
Love this! I just used this lesson with my juniors and they loved it. I was wondering if it would be possible to pick your brain about how you assessed kids who chose to do the skit? I’m playing around with how to grade that.
Any advice? 🙂
Author
Thanks! I created a worksheet students had to fill out prior to filming. They needed to identify what they were mocking and how citing specific details and dialogue they intended to use. That way I could still assess their understanding and base a majority of their grade on that.
I like the examples you use! I usually teach “A Modest Proposal” with satire as well, so it’s fun to see how you paired it with something catchy and fun. 🙂 Thanks for the ideas!
Author
Thanks for the feedback and for checking out my blog. If SNL is too much for the students, I’ve also used the opening number from the most recent Lorax movie and the princess rescue scene from Shrek.
Thanks! This is great!
Author
My pleasure! Thanks so much for stopping by