The Taipei mayoral election has entered a fierce stage. The TVBS program "Hot Shop at 11 O'clock" specially hired actor Yixiang to imitate Shen Boyang and gave him the homonymous funny name "Shen Neck Itch", while Chen Delie imitated Jiang Wanan and named him "Good Night Jiang". Unexpectedly, Yixiang accidentally set off a political storm when he posted a group photo preview on social media recently, and was criticized by a large number of netizens for "vilifying and belittling the candidates." In this regard, scholar Li Zhongxian said that it’s not that you can’t joke, but that everyone has a microphone. Let’s look at how the information revolution has changed political satire from the perspective of “sinny neck itch”.
Li Zhongxian said in a Facebook PO post that in the past, when "Everyone's Suffering" was popular, politicians were imitated and vilified, and even family members might become a joke. "11 O'Clock Shop" hired people to imitate Shen Boyang and Jiang Wanan, but a promotional photo immediately caused controversy. Some people therefore asked: Chen Shui-bian could be laughed at like this before, why can't Shen Boyang now? I feel that if we only discuss it from the perspective of "political correctness" or "who is more glass-minded", we will miss the really important thing, because the information world 20 years ago and today are not the same.
Please read on...
Li Zhongxian analyzed that in this program, Yixiang imitated Shen Boyang and was named "Shen Neck Itch"; Chen Delie imitated Jiang Wanan, but was called "Jiang Good Night". Whether such a naming is fair can certainly be discussed. People on the Internet immediately started to compare the height, appearance and photos of the two people. However, I think what is really worth noting is not how many centimeters the two people are, but the image presentation of the program, which can give the audience a certain impression. Today's audience will no longer just sit in front of the TV and accept this impression. 20 years ago, the TV station controlled the camera, stage, lighting, actors, editing and broadcast rights. The production unit can decide who stands tall and who stands short, who is more handsome and who is more funny; they can also decide who gets a nice name and who gets a nickname with body image. The audience is primarily responsible for watching.
Li Zhongxian pointed out that "Everyone's Hot Pot" was born in this media environment. The people who controlled the camera at that time also knew "what is funny" to a large extent. Today is completely different. Before the show even airs, a photo may be screenshotted and spread all over the Internet; some people find that the names of the two parody characters are different and immediately raise questions; some people start looking for old photos, some make comparison pictures, some leave comments, some repost, some make memes, and then the news media writes about the online controversy as news, and the person involved returns to social media to respond. This time, Yixiang first promoted it on social media, which caused criticism and then deleted the article. He explained that "Shen Neck Itch" was a program arrangement and not his own idea. He also expressed that he did not want the role imitation to be directly equated with his political stance.
Li Zhongxian continued that this is the real change brought about by the information technology revolution: the audience is no longer just an audience. In the past, a TV station spoke to hundreds of thousands or millions of people; today, everyone who receives a message may also immediately become the sender of the message. The TV station can create one image, and the audience can immediately create another image; the program can set one narrative, and netizens can propose another narrative; the producer can decide how to edit, and the audience can cut out three seconds and re-distribute it. What’s even more interesting is that the three seconds that are later re-edited may even spread farther than the original two-hour program. In the past, political comedy was like a person standing on the stage with a microphone and laughing at the people in the audience; today it is like a huge chat room: you use a microphone to laugh at others, and hundreds of thousands of people below also have microphones. So the sentence "I'm just joking" is no longer as simple today as it was twenty years ago. You can decide what you want to say, but you can't decide how others will understand it.
You can say that "Shen Neck Itch" is just a homophonic meme; the audience can also ask, why did another person get "Good Night Jiang" without obvious negative body image? You can create a character through clothing, positioning, and performance; viewers can also bring up other photos to compare. You can say this is just entertainment; others can also analyze whether there is an asymmetrical symbolic design behind this entertainment.
Li Zhongxian added, but the reverse is exactly the same. The audience can criticize the program, and the program can also respond to the audience; those who support Shen Boyang can criticize the program, and those who support Jiang Wanan can also refute. Some people think this is vilification, while others think politicians should be subjected to sharp imitation, and no party naturally has the final say. Therefore, I do not think that political satire should disappear after the information technology revolution. On the contrary, it will only become more frequent, faster, and possibly more cruel. It is just that the power relationship has changed. In the past, only a few people had the ability to laugh at others on a large scale; now any ridicule may immediately become the material for another ridicule. You can make other people into memes, and others can make you into memes.
Li Zhongxian emphasized that the emergence of artificial intelligence will take this change one step further. In the past, producing a political parody required a studio, actors, photographers, editors and a television station; today a mobile phone can do most of the work, and generative artificial intelligence can even allow ordinary people to create images, sounds, animations and fictional scenes in a few minutes. At that time, the question we face may no longer just be: "Can the TV station laugh at Shen Boyang like this?" but: "When everyone has a TV station of their own, how are we prepared to face each other?" Of course, everyone can spread information, but it does not mean that the truth will increase. It can also create misinformation, take it out of context, fabricate and create new humiliations. What information technology really changes is not the ratio of truth to falsehood, but the distribution of communication power.
Li Zhongxian bluntly said that he does not miss the era when "you could joke about anything", nor does he think that people today are just less able to joke. What really changes is the information architecture. In the past, those who controlled the camera controlled the picture, those who controlled the TV station controlled the communication, and the audience was mainly responsible for receiving; today, the audience also has cameras, editing tools, and their own communication channels. It’s not that the humor is gone, it’s that there are more microphones. In the past world, it was the TV station that told us who was funny; in today's world, the TV station has just started to laugh, and hundreds of thousands of people have picked up their microphones and started discussing: Who is funnier? No one can stop you from speaking, but no one can guarantee that only others will laugh after you finish speaking. What is even more cruel and interesting is that in the era of national live broadcast, national commentary, and national production, we may finally find that "the real world is often more absurd and funnier than variety shows."
