Satire is one of the oldest forms of humor. Adding music seems to make it even more powerful. In early Germanic and Celtic societies, people who were mocked in songs would break out in boils and even commit suicide. In this course, we will explore the art of musical satire in a variety of genres, cultures, and eras, especially America since 1950. This multimedia course covers Yankee Doodle, Gilbert and Sullivan, the Gershwins, the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, South Park, and Key and Peele. We will also cover a bountiful bevy of B’s: Leonard Bernstein, the Beatles, Bo Burnham, and Bugs Bunny. Because satire is often dependent on social and historical events, this course is as much cultural history as music appreciation. And while words are preeminent in musical satire, we will also discuss the music and its interactions with lyrics. But please—no students who are prone to boils.

Instructor: David Misch is a former stand-up comedian, screenwriter (Mork and Mindy, Saturday Night Live, and The Muppets Take Manhattan), author (Funny: The Book, and A Beginner’s Guide To Corruption), teacher (his own courses on comedy at USC and musical satire at UCLA) and lecturer at Yale, Columbia, the Smithsonian, 92Y (NYC), Oxford University, Trinity College Dublin, University of Sydney, VIEW Cinema (Italy), and Raindance Film Festival (London), Austin Film Festival, American Film Institute, Writers Guild of America, Sony, DreamWorks, Lucasfilm, Disney, Second City, Actors Studio. 

Course dates: Wednesdays, January 29 to March 5, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM (Eastern)

Course preview (video): https://vimeo.com/948867262

Registration is required to attend, and limited space is available.

Osher Online is a shared program exclusively for members of select Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLIs). This collaboration between the Osher National Resource Center and the School of Professional Studies at Northwestern University presents lecture and discussion-style courses over four academic terms – fall, winter, spring, and summer – yearly. The purpose of Osher Online is to share quality online courses and occasional special community events with local OLLIs.