EP69. The Satirical Body & The Horrors of Age: Generation Z & The Substance

Smith & Waugh Talk About Satire

Jo and Adam reflect on their recent experience of venturing to a special screening at York Picture House Cinema on Halloween night to watch a film so disgusting viewers have been reported to have left the cinema to be sick. The film is The Substance, and Adam and Jo are here to analyse its satire. Heralded as a satire on female beauty standards, we wonder if it is actually having too much fun laughing at grotesque caricatures of the ageing female body? Is patriarchal capitalism really the target, or is it the vanity of Demi Moore's character for hoping she still had a place in it? Intergenerational conflict is also the theme of our second study in this episode: Ben Wheatley's Generation Z, which announces itself as a 'satirical horror series in which Baby Boomer Zombies eat their relatives' -- but is that really all that is going on? Also, Jo and Adam talk about the role of satire during the American presidential election, and the suggestion that big tech should use AI to label online content as satire.