CCT300+Lab8


 * Lab 8**

Culture jamming is a form of social activism in which a medium of mass communication is used to deliver negative commentary on itself. On a recent episode of //The Simpsons// (that aired on Oct. 10th, 2010), the classic opening couch gag sequence was directed by a graffiti artist from Britain known as Banksy. //The Simpsons// traditional couch gag sequence, which typically consists of harmless humour, fell victim to Banksy’s culture jamming. Banksy appears to be addressing the issues of outsourced consumerism and worker abuse that are fueled by the licensing abilities of major networks. His message is cleverly disguised in the form of humour, but the sequence may also make viewers feel emotions of shock, shame, fear and/or anger. All of which, are emotions that social activists typically want their viewers to feel in an attempt to get them thinking about social change.

Banksy’s culture jamming maneuver was definitely effective. Over the course of just a couple weeks, the “simpsons banksy couch gag” is already all over Google’s search results. The incident has made its way onto a number websites in the form of articles, commentaries and uploads of the actual clip. On YouTube alone, the clip has been viewed several hundreds of thousands of times, as users continue to upload it again and again. With the rate at which information is disseminated online with current technologies, culture jamming is proving to be a very powerful technique for social change. Through the online participation of everyday users such as ourselves, culture jamming efforts can now spread faster and further than ever before.

Kyle Martin Manoza