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Jose Chung’s The Bridge to Metamodernism
From Darrin Morgan to Dan Harmon
What is going on?
Trust
Are We Alone?
PART ONE
BEFORE Jose Chung
(very quickly)
The 1-minute guide to critical theory( As seen on TV! )
• Modernism 1945• Postmodernism 1963• Meta-Modernism
Optimism
Naivety
Sitcom1.0
Sitcom 1.5
Seeds of the Postmodern
Seeds of the Postmodern
Doubt
Irony“Anti-Families” and “Shows about Nothing”
Relativistic Cynicism
Absolutist Optimism
Knowingness
What is MetaModernism?
• Modernism– Strong Thesis– “Ideological naivety” – Sincerity– Truth– Optimism
• Postmodernism– Strong Antithesis– “Cynical insincerity”– Irony– Relativism– Doubt
• Metamodernism– Novel synthesis– “A New Sincerity”
Seeds of Metamodernism
Trends in Metamoderism
• Intertextuality• “Kicks” and “glitches”• “Deep Text”• Genre Acrobatics• A New Sincerity
PART TWO
MEET Jose Chung
From Post to Meta:Jose Chung’s “From Outer Space”
Original Airdate: April 12, 1996
Episode: 3x20
Written by: Darin Morgan
Directed by: Rob Bowman
Intertextuality
• Definition: Referencing other workse.g. Homage, satire, parody, allusion, quoation, etc
• Modernist TV attempted to be encapsulated and universally accessible.
• Postmodern TV introduced limited intertextuality, often as dogwhistles or easter eggs.
• Metamodern TV elevates intertextuality to a central role.
Intertextuality in Jose Chung
Intertextuality in Jose Chung
Intertextuality in Jose Chung
Non-Fiction Science-Fiction
Intertextuality in Jose Chung
Intertextuality in Jose Chung
Intertextuality in Jose Chung
Men in Black
Roky
Kinbote
The Caligarian Candidate
The X-Files
Intertextuality in Jose ChungUnintentional
Intertextuality in Jose Chung• 18 instances
– Star Wars– Harryhausen– Communion– Alien Autopsy– Close Encounters– Scooby Doo– Twin Peaks– Jesse Ventura Backbreaker– Alex Trebek– Roky– Lord Kinbote from Pale Fire– Manchurian Candidate– Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Klass– Hynek– Vallee– Sheaffer– Manners
“Deep Text”• Supersaturates the text with meaningful content • ‘Unlocked’ by time-shifting technology • Immersive world effect• Cultivates viewer-created connections
Contamination
• Does Crissy really remember what she remembers?
Scully: I think you and the hypnotherapistwere leading her.
• And indeed, if you go back and check:
Mulder: When you look at a particular object, do you receive the sudden flash that you're actually looking at something else? Like an alien's
face?
Contamination
“Was it a girly scream?”War of the Coprophages
Scully: Was it a girly scream?
…Jose Chung’s From Outer Space
Blaine: His face was so blank and expressionless. He didn't even seem human. I think he was a mandroid.
The only time he reacted was when he saw the dead body.
Red hair
Blaine:
One of them was disguised
as a woman, but wasn't pulling it off.
Like, her hair was red
but it was a little too red,
you know?
ReynardMuldrake
Chung:As for Reynard
Muldrake...
one shudders to think how he receives
pleasures from life.
( Reynard = Fox )
Klass & Hynek
Vallee and Sheaffer
Manners
Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex
• Warden White, Incorporated... a subsidiary of MacDougall-Kesler
Episode editors: Heather MacDougall and Sue Kessler
“Jose Chung”
• Jose is a name typically associated with the languages Spanish or Portuguese.
• Chung is typically associated with Korean or Cantonese.
(cross-cultural marriages were less frequent. )
“Kicks” & “Glitches”• “Kicks” & “Glitches” are intentionally unreal.
• “Kicks” instantly jar the viewer out of flow and into a meta mindset.
• “Glitches” reuse work in a new context. They trigger déjà vu, reminding the viewer that the text is an artificial construct, subject to distortion.
“Kicks” in Jose Chung
• “Bleeping”: Twice by Manners, once by Scully
• Scene changes without cut: Harold, Roky
• Variations on the X-Files ThemeIn ‘Dead Alien’, Conclusion
“Glitches” in Jose Chung
“Glitches” in Jose Chung
“Glitches”
Glitches: “Sounding Crazy”
Glitches: “A Dead Man”
Glitches: “How the hell should I know?”
Kicks and glitches• 27 instances
– 3 "Bleeping" – 2 Scene change without cut– 2 X-Files theme– 3 Interrogations– 3 Hypnosis sessions – 3 Alien heads– 5 Dead man– 3 I know how crazy this is going to sound– 3 How the hell should I know
Also:– 2 “I guess he’s still AWOL”
Genre Acrobatics
• Modernist TV had one genre across episodes• Postmodern TV sometimes shifted genres
between episodes• Metamodern TV shifts genres often, can shift
multiple times within a single episode
Horror
Mystery
Absurd Fantasy
Satire
Art
Meta-Recursion
• Generic:
f(x)
• Metarecursive:
f( f(x) )
• Post-Postmodernism• “The X-Files Files”
Meta-recursion
Meta-recursion
Meta-recursion
Meta-recursion in Jose Chung
Chung: You seem non-nonplussed bythese contradictions
Mulder: To see if what she remembers isreally what she remembers.
Alien Abduction abduction
A New SincerityModernism: Naïve Sincerity
Postmodernism: Jaded Irony
Metamodernism: Jaded Sincerity
A New Sincerity in Jose Chung
Then there are those who care not about extraterrestrials, searching for
meaning in other human beings...
Rare or lucky are those who find it
for although we may not be alone in the Universe
– in our own separate ways –
on this planet...
we are all... alone.
PART THREE
Beyond Jose Chung
(very quickly)
Meta-Horror
30 Rock
Intertextuality in 30 Rock
Kicks in 30 Rock
“We're on a show within a show!”
“My real name is Tracy Morgan!"
Meta-recursion in 30 Rock
Intertextuality in Community
Genre Acrobatics in Community
Genre Acrobatics in Community
Meta-Recursion in Community
Abed, stop being Meta. Why do you always have to take whatever happens to us and shove it up its own ass.
We fight about fighting about fighting.
Meta-recursion in Community
Annie: I can’t believe this is our 20th and final diorama of the year.
Britta: I can’t believe our assignment is to make a diorama of us makingour 19th diorama.
Meta-recursionWe need a Jesus movie for
the Post Post-Modern World.
I want to tell the story of Jesus from the perspective of a filmmaker exploring the life of Jesus.
In the filmmaker's film, Jesus is a filmmaker trying to find God with his camera. But then
the filmmaker realizes that he's actually Jesus and he's being filmed by God's camera.
And it goes like that forever in both directions, like a mirror in a mirror,
because all of the filmmakers are Jesus, and all their cameras are God, and the movie is called: ABED
a metafilmmetafilm. - - - - - -
You're reacting the way the world did to Jesus.I'm reacting the way the world does to movies about making movies about making movies.
- - - - - - This is the movie.
- - - - - - The story of the story is the story.
Penultimate
• Let’s leave on two moments of New Sincerity before we say goodbye for the day.
A New Sincerity in Jose Chung
Then there are those who care not about extraterrestrials, searching for
meaning in other human beings...
Rare or lucky are those who find it
for although we may not be alone in the Universe
– in our own separate ways –
on this planet...
we are all... alone.
A New Sincerity in Community
Annie:You're afraid you don't fit in.
You're afraid you'll be alone.
Great news. You share that with all of us.
So you'll never be alone,and you'll always fit in.
The End