1. Emma Calder – Why are your case studies postmodern?
Postmodernism is a critical perspective or ideology that emerged in the 1960s as a reaction to the
modernist worldview that had existed previously. Although there is much deliberation over how to
define the theory, there are a few characteristics that are agreed to make a media text postmodern.
These include: intertextuality, incredulity towards metanarratives, pastiche, self-awareness, black
humour, irony, relativism, a hybrid of genres, temporal distortion, simulacra and simulation and also
participation from the audience, i.e. breaking the fourth wall. By the 1980s, postmodernism was
more than a theory, it had become a condition; even now we live in a postmodern world. The case
studies I am defining as postmodern are: Lady Gagas music video to her song Paparazzi (Jonas
Akerlund, 2009), TV programme The Mighty Boosh (The legend of Old Gregg, series 2) and lastly,
Kicks Ass 2 (Jeff Wadlow, 2013).
Lady Gaga herself, but more specifically her music video to her song ‘Paparazzi’ fits into the
postmodern criteria with ease. The first thing that demonstrates the videos postmodernity is that
fact that it is around seven minutes long, whereas a ‘normal’ music video tends to last about three
to four minutes. This demonstrates that it’s is more of a short film, rather than a music video. This
however, is not Gagas longest music video, with the theme of ‘short film’ being carried through the
music video to ‘Telephone’ which lasts up to nine minutes long. Another element that portrays that
the music video is closer to a ‘short film’ is the fact there are rolling credits at both the beginning and
ending of the film, telling the audience who is playing who. Moreover, the continual reference to
one’s self throughout the music video further continues the postmodern feel. Ways include shots of
her ‘personal life’ being included in the music video such as being photographed, newspaper articles
and also shots of her walking out to a crowd of paparazzi. Not only this the song title itself is a
reference to her a life as Gaga is constantly being ‘papped’ for her different lifestyle. This is to
highlight her own self-importance in order to create self-awareness of her to global audiences, to
further exploit her image even when she is not in reality. The music video also pays homage to many
other media texts, with the most interestingly but obscure tribute being Princess Dianna, who Lady
Gaga said was her main reference point. She describe Dianna as the ‘most iconic martyr of fame,
who died because of it’, linking to the message of the music video which was to illustrate to the
youth what happens to celebrities when they become ‘fame-whores’ as she described. Gaga also
implied that this was the reasoning for the ‘dark’ themes in the music video, with it ‘Exploring ideas
about the sort of hyperbolic situations that people will go to in order to be famous, Most specifically,
pornography and murder’. These themes can be represented by the shots of Gaga poisoning her
lover, to get payback, without showing any emotion and also through the mise-en-scene of Lady
Gaga wearing revealing and tight clothing, (also conforming to Laura Mulveys ‘Male gaze theory’).
The music video also pays homage to Alfred Hitchocks film ‘Vertigo’ in the scene when Lady Gaga
lay’s on the ground covered in blood, whilst the paparazzi continue to take photos of her. Homage to
the Disney character ‘Minnie Mouse’ is also present at the end of the music video when Gaga
poisons her lover. Lady Gaga’s music videos in general are heavily filled with intertextuality
references. Her video to Telephone references many media products such as Polaroid and Virgin
Media, in order to advertise the companies to get money from them. These examples demonstrate
that postmodernity is obviously present in Gagas ‘Paparazi’ music video.

2. My second case study that can be considered as postmodern comes from the British TV series ‘The
Mighty Boosh’ who produced the episode ‘The Legend of Old Gregg’. At the beginning of every
episode the audience is greeted with a voice over saying ‘come with use now through a journey of
time and space’. The Mighty Boosh often bends time and space boundaries in their episodes. In this
particular episode the show jumps from one setting to another, i.e. from a fisherman’s pub to an
underwater world, to a flat, and back to a lake. All these spaces were in one episode so it is
imaginable how much the series bends time and space boundaries. Intertextual references play a
massive part in creating humor in the show. Over the episodes generally there are also references to
Mick Jagger, (Vince Noirs idol, who they also play homage to) and many other music stars. For
example in this episode, there was reference to the Funk singer Bootsy Collins and the Country
singer Kenny Rodgers. These references played a huge part in story line. However, this is risky as for
the audience to find the episode funny; they would have to understand the references. This is
consistent with the show, meaning you have to be of a particular nice audience to find the show and
the jokes funny and to actually understand them. At the end of the episode, homage was paid to
Bootsy Collins as all the characters were dressed like him and sung a song of the Funk genre.
Furthermore, this particular episode consists of nostalgia; the character ‘Old Gregg’ is a type of
mutant described as half fish, half man. It could be argued that Old Gregg is an imitation of the
mutants that can be found in the Marvel comics. With The Mighty Boosh, being postmodern the
imitation is represented in a playful jokey way and not in an aggressive way, which modernist’s
shows demonstrate. Lastly, The Mighty Boosh is hyperconscious; this means they are aware that
they are a constructed TV show. They play on this by making props and characters which clearly are
people dressed up, for example the moon which is obviously someone’s face with cream on and also
the naan bread which clearly is someone dressed up. The Mighty Boosh is an act against modernism
as the show is obviously surreal and very unpredictable. Examples include a talking monkey which
appears in every episode, a man made out of cheese and also a man with a door in his afro. Ironically
the Boosh have made something very original out of already used things. It doesn’t matter that the
characters are surreal and do not make sense, this is what the audience like and want to see, making
it a successful act against modernism.
Lastly, the film Kick Ass 2 which came out in 2013 and the sequel to Kick Ass is a prime example of
postmodernism. The film itself is a hybrid of genres, being classed as a British-American superhero,
action comedy. This illustrates its genre without even watching it. The merge of genres is typical of a
postmodern text. To continue, the flattening effect and black humor are present in the film. The film
is all about killing enemies and fighting crimes. It takes death and puts a ‘humorous’ twist on it, even
when the methods of killing are extremely gruesome, i.e. decapitation. Jim Carrey who plays
‘Colonel Stars and Stripes’ in the film wanted to distance himself from the film due to its ‘high level
of violence’, particularly due to the fact it came out after the Sandy Hook Shootings. The film also
contains simulacra. Jean Bauldrillard proposed the theory of simulacra. He proposed that simulacra
are copies of copies that depict things that either had no reality to begin with or that no longer have
an original. Kick Ass/2 is a copy of all superhero movies and also superhero’s themselves. There are
so many superhero movies now that there is no originality in them. This applies to Kick Ass which
has once again recycled the idea of superhero’s fighting crimes and saving the world, portraying that
there is no originality in the media anymore. In the film, the character Kick Ass, suggests to his friend
‘Hit Girl’ that they could be the ‘new’ Batman and Robin, thus showing that Kick Ass is a copy from a

3. copy. The lack of originality also stems from the fact that the film is an exact copy to the comic books
which have the same name, by Mark Millar and John Romita. The film plays homage to the comics in
a celebratory way. This is typical of a postmodern text, with most films being based or partially
revolved around previous books, comics and films. Another way in which Kick Ass 2 is postmodern is
the way in which it borders on racism, particularly toward ethnicities such as African American. In a
scene in the movie the ring leader of the villains recruits a man to join and names him after his skin
colour; ‘Black Death’. The film even realizes the racism, when the ring leaders assistants says to him
‘don’t you think that’s a little bit incredibly racist’. This is just one problem with postmodern films;
they tend to take playfulness a bit too far, particularly towards race and ethnicity. Lastly, there is a
consistent reference to media sites in the film, such as Twitter. For example, the villian comes up
with an idea of how he is going to kill Kick Ass and says straight after, ‘I need to tweet this’. This is
typical of our modern world, who often takes to social networking sites to express their feelings and
ideas, thus supporting the fact that we are a techno culture driven society, revolved around a media
saturated world. Kick Ass 2 follows Marshall Mcluhans theory, which like Bauldrillard provides a
provocative theory on the role of new media and technology in the constituting and contemporary
world. Mcluhan proposes that print culture is succeeded by electronic culture and technology. The
film itself follows this theory that our world predominately uses electronic media, firstly by the social
networking references and also via the fact that they have turned the original which was comic book
(print media) into an electronic copy i.e. a film.
Although it has been argued that the postmodern movement has come to an end, I believe that the
above examples reflect that even today, we live in a postmodern world. The postmodern condition is
inherent to contemporary media and because of the digital revolution, the future looks to be even
more postmodern, with audiences gaining more control over what media is being produced.
Furthermore, with the introduction of augmented reality and structured reality TV programmes such
as The Only Way is Essex, Made in Chelsea, Big Brother and Geordie Shore all blur the boundaries
between reality and hyper reality even further.