Satire in Anchor Man

            Satire is an element in literature and media that is frequently used to make fun of and criticize stupidity or human folly.  Satire is often times mistaken for seriousness which can stir up a major conflict between individuals if it comes off as offensive.  An example of satire in literature is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and an example of satire found in media is the movie Anchorman. 
           One of Will Ferrell's most popular comedies, Anchorman,  satirizes news productions and rivalry between male and female.  Ferrell plays San Diego's top-rated anchorman in the 70s, Ron Burgundy.  Ron is completely self absorbed and his character satirizes your average anchor man.  Ron and his co-workers Brick Tamland, Brian Fantana and Champ Kind each bring something different to the table and make up the hilarious but top notch channel four news team.  This group of losers who look up to Ron enormously only make his big head even bigger.   In this clip Ron is astonished when he is speaking to a woman who has never heard of him before.  This is one of the many scenes from the movie that reveal his conceited personality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8OxKx6zKkQ.  This specific scene satirizes the idea of how news anchors can be vain.  It pokes fun at their arrogance by exaggerating how one would react if someone didn't know of their importance as a news anchor.      
            A second thing that is satirized in the movie is a battle of the sexes between Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone.  Veronica is new to the city of San Diego striving to be the head anchor woman of the news broadcast.  She is a very determined and talented woman who is willing to go where no woman has gone before to prove her power.  As Veronica becomes more and more of a threat to Ron he begins to feel that his position as head anchor is in jeopardy.  Burgundy and Corningstone are continuously going back and forth as they try to schmooze their way to the top.  This clip from the movie is one of the many evident scenes of immense tension between the two, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN-_cZNDy0w&feature=related. This satirizes the relationships between men and women in media by how they act like they are genuinely happy to be co-workers but in actuality they are verbally battling back and forth with nasty comments to one another but hiding it from the viewers to keep up a good reputation. 
            Satire is also found in Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  This novel reveals the human folly that occurred basically all throughout American history which was slavery.  Humor is frequently incorporated into the novel to uncover some of the more ridiculous Southern habits. He does not satirize the institution of slavery because to do so would be too volatile. Instead he makes fun of pretty much everything else and leaves it up to the reader to figure out that slavery is equally worthy of our contempt.  In some schools the book was banned due to its vulgar language that offended individuals.  The book was not intended to be offensive but to mock the way things were going in the past so that we may refrain from going back into that direction.
             The element of satire used in works of literature and media is used to inform people of stupidity of human folly so that we may change the way things are going or remind people not to go back to it by making a mockery of the situation.  Satire can be found in Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the movie Anchorman.  When it is not recognized satire may lead to disputes of sorts but on the other hand it can be used for comic entertainment.