Irony has been a recognized part of rhetoric for centuries, but is it meant to be absorbed by everyone? Is everyone supposed to fully understand and piece together the altered signs, metaphors and metonyms? In the case of Attack of the Show, a certain audience is being catered to and anyone outside of that target might not quite understand what is going on. The jokes aren’t quite as funny or perhaps not even recognized at all. The ironic representations in the show separate those “in the know” from those who probably just happened to stumble upon the program.

The show sets its tone of voice up right away with the skit about an office meeting. It appears to be an actual documentation of a meeting until the camera scans to a man that highly resembles Jesus with a cell phone. Having this Jesus look-a-like interrupt a moment of silence with a cell phone conversation completely alters the syntagm of the scene. The signifiers of answering the phone during a meeting, speaking during a moment of silence, and calling the meeting a waste of time do not usually lead to "Jesus" as the signified. Jesus is the complete opposite of what any normal person would conclude from this information. Even though the skit here is clearly ironic, some might be offended that Jesus was depicted in such a crude way and completely bypass the non-literal intentions of the segment.

The hosts of Attack of the Show did their part to add to the ironic inferences as well by interjecting comments loaded with sarcasm. When referring to a poll they had set up online, Kevin said without hesitation, “Tens of people voted.” The comment was made as though that was the normal way of stating the number of a population. When referring to the price of the new gaming computer, Seanbaby said it was “Very affordable for the average gamer,” when it clearly wasn’t since most hard core gamers are stereotyped to sit at home all day without jobs.

The two best features of the show that play off its ironic qualities effortlessly (and filter out the intended viewers better than the other sections) are The Happy Tree Friends and Hot Karl. The Happy Tree Friends is a textbook example of irony and metonymy. Cute, happy music and playfully animated characters that have fish swimming in their mouths-full-of-blood could not possibly be more twisted. Once again, this could be found very offensive for a large number of viewers who don’t understand the cartoon’s humorous intentions. Hot Karl, with his name emblazoned on a Lite Brite, gives The Happy Tree Friends a run for their money. First off, “hotness” is not usually associated with the name Karl. Secondly, “rap” is not usually associated with a semi-preppy white guy named Karl and his equally white sidekick. Thirdly, his music is about how life was in the 80s and references things that only a limited audience would understand as intended. Anyone thirty and over would have a hard time relating to the song.

Back to the question of irony being elitist. I don’t believe that irony could ever be understood by a full audience. It could be understood by a full target audience, however. Attack of the Show caters to a certain type of viewer and one could even venture to say a certain age group or those closely associated with the age group. Metaphors, metonyms and ironic statements on television shows such as this are meant to be like an inside joke; only a few people are really in on the hidden meaning. Everyone might laugh, but not everyone knows exactly what they’re laughing about.

Is ironic articulation elitist? This question cannot be asked without first asking, is postmodernism elitist? This must be asked because irony, in many ways, has become one of the many languages of postmodern culture. This culture, which is grounded in a sense of absurdity and obscurity seemingly accessible to all, is in fact elitist, as well as the vehicle of irony that expresses it. This is clearly seen in the sketch cartoon Happy Tree Friends, which is presented on the G4 Network’s Attack of the Show.

A semiotic analysis of this show not only helps to reveal the irony at work, but helps to answer the question of whether or not irony is elitist. Irony completely depends upon the binary opposition of certain signifiers and signifieds. The signified is placed within a context which, once decoded, does not make sense. In the case of Happy Tree Friends, this confused decoding takes place to an extreme extent. The main character of the sketch, “Cuddles,” exhibits just that: cuddles. The signifier is a yellow figure. He, or “it,” is completely sexless, has long, floppy ears, big eyes and a no fingers or toes on its arms or legs. The signified is a cartoon rabbit, but the connotation is something more specific: a cute and cuddly character that speaks no language, but screams to be hugged. And squeezed and poked. Cuddles brings back a thousand memories of childhood cartoons and picture books. These “thousand memories” are the context which becomes the site of the irony. During the sketch, Cuddles has a glass bottle dropped on his head and proceeds to walk across broken glass. Blood and violence ensue. This site of irony is only possible because the cultural context in which the signifier exists is completely inappropriate.

Irony, while sometimes elitist, is mainly used to code messages as ‘cool’ that would, in any other context, be ‘uncool.’ The opening lines of the UGM (Ultimate Gaming Machine) segment of the G4 program Attack of the Show are one such example. “Feel free to get on the edge of your seat,” says one of the hosts with a ‘knowing smile’ (Daniel Chandler). The irony in this comes from the fact that the audience is about to see a computer that looks very similar (sans a few blinking lights) to any other computer. The over the top celebration that follows bleeds irony. Yet, the use of irony here departs from Chandler’s argument in a striking way.

Chandler asserts that irony is a false statement that decodes as false by those who know—usually not the mainstream. However, in this case, the statement “feel free to get on the edge of you seat,” decodes variously as true to the fringes, ironic (i.e. false) to the current mainstream, and does not decode at all to those who belong to mainstreams of the past (the elderly). These signifiers, however, do not immediately decode as true to the fringe in a one-to-one relationship. It decodes in a sort of double irony. With no change in the syntagm, the paradigm flips from “feel free to not get on the edge of your seat,” which is the ironic read of the mainstream viewer back to “feel free to get on the edge of you seat,” which now has been drained of all its ironic mileage and thus decodes as true. Irony of this caliber becomes an ironic read of an ironic read.

The truth-value of the sentence does not stay the same between read one and read three. The mistake would be to read this sentence as absolutely true and that one should take this time to get on the edge of one’s seat. This is the mistake of ‘the elderly,’ those that just do not get it. A straight reading such as this would leave that party confused and unsure whither or not to take this strange order, in other words, this party ‘would not get it.’ A reading of single irony would change the truth-value negative, but with intent to amuse (Chandlers argument). This is the point where the mainstream stops, content to smile at the absurdly of the statement and confident in their mastery of irony. The truth-value changes once again at the third read, flipping to true, but it is not the simple truth of the elderly, rather it is a new truth derived from a mix of the original statement and the smugness of the mainstream. Thus, the paradigm shifts from the simple ironic read of those who get it vs. those who do not, to those who really get it vs. those who think they do.

By using this double irony, the fringe can code anything it says as ‘cool’ while keeping its true subtext out of the reach of the mainstream.

Much like modernists who wouldn’t get postmodernism, if you don’t get the irony in the G4 Network show Attack of the Show, you might just think it's for dorks and posers. You might just think that Shawnbaby is serious about his name being Shawnbaby and that Sarah really does like Kevin in a wig. But in fact, while outsiders wouldn’t "get it," these elements are exactly the joke—the joke that is irony. Yes, they are indeed elitist in this fact. But at the same time, anyone can tell that they are serious about gaming—but only about gaming. Everything else in their show is supposed to be amusing—supposed to be taken as ironic.

Semiotician Daniel Chandler says in his book Semiotics: The Basics that "variations [such] as understatement and overstatement can. . .be regarded as ironic" (134). Applying this to the set of Attack of the Show, you can see yet another element of elitist irony. In a show about games, it makes sense to overexaggerate a connotative "gaming-ness." The signifiers of "gaming-ness" can be found in the set colors. The set is very high-tech looking, with parts of it painted in a kind of purple-ish color, and others in a red, black, and gray scheme—signifying ever-so-subtly original Nintendo, perhaps? But if you weren’t on the inside of old-school gaming knowledge, this element, as small as it is, wouldn’t even register in your subconscious.

Other colors in the show worth mentioning, in a reflection on elitist irony, are the colors of Shawnbaby's and Kevin’s hair. Blue and pink, as hair colors, can hardly be taken seriously. And while during this day and age, bright colored hair connotes "punk" for most people, you somehow know that these gamers are not punk—and they know it. Again, irony is the purpose of the joke—if you don’t get it, they don’t really care. At least they think it’s funny.

At least one more element of this show makes it ironic and that is the "let’s take some phone calls" segment near the end of the show. Ironically, what would be "callers" in any other interactive television show are called "phoners" on Attack of the Show. This aspect is not ever pointed out, thus making the aspect that much more ironic. It’s like the hidden wink, the pulling below the eye, or the knowing smile. And then, when you expect these "phoners" to be calling to ask real questions and get real answers from the "experts," you get the exact opposite. The questions asked of Shawnbaby and Kevin are nothing more than other male gamers asking for personal opinions on the most irrelevant things, and weird-edging-on-creepy fan worship statements. Once again, the non-Attack of the Show watchers are left out. They are outsiders excluded from the elitist ironics of G4 gaming.

A happy beaver dies in a fish bowl full of its own blood. Now, tell me—what is elitist about that? Well maybe there is some elitism going on in a geekish, small pond type way. I say "small pond" because I’m assuming the great silent majority does not watch Attack of the Show very often if at all. The people who sit, watch and enjoy this show dig irony or video games. The show is not meant to have a tone of exclusion but at times has content that excludes and suggest elitism.

The “Happy Tree Friends” I would argue is the most inclusive use of irony. The cartoon begins with la la la music and cute cuddly giggles before we even see our fuzzy tragic hero. The cartoon takes the tone of a children’s “too”-happy cartoon. So sweet it hurts, oh and it will. The beaver changes a light bulb and decides to change it with his mouth. Soon enough, the beaver is running around his living room with glass lodged in his gums breaking anything that will break. But when he gets stuck in a fish bowl, it won’t break. And to really top it off, after he drowns in the bowl, the bowl breaks. This is a physical display of irony and is very accessible. Sick somewhat, but hilarious to a wider group of people because it is visual.

Subtler pieces of irony show up all over the show. There is the New Year's like celebration of the video game system that they were unveiling. The most elitist-seeming instances, however, are the ones that have to do with the structure of the show. Attack of the Show bears the syntagm of a talk show, like The View, or morning news programs. But the paradigms are played with in ways that create irony. The banter between the shows hosts is always nonsense, but it makes sense. The banter of the hosts of Good Morning America has nothing to do with the news or any real information. It is there to transition or make us feel like these people are real people, but it is nonsense that we can understand: ‘How was your vacation?’ ‘It was good.’ The nonsense on Attack of the Show is truly nonsense: when transitioning from the ‘golf?’ segment to something else one guy says, “Better than brownies at Disneyland.’ Then another says, “no magic wand.” This is not something that makes sense. It does, however, in that replicates the babble that takes place in a show like this. The words they are saying don’t make sense, though, and it becomes the flip-flop of irony. This is not funny, but to someone enjoying the irony in the paradigmatic shift of babble truly being babble, it is. This is elitist because it not a display to be seen by everyone, but a subtle element that must be thought about before it’s pleasing or funny.

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Last update: 1/22/2005