About "Exposing the Ridiculous"
Exposing the Ridiculous is about playing on the absurdities of institutional power through the skillful remixing of popular culture. It explores how activists are experimenting with, challenging and reframing what it means to be political through some of the sharpest tools in the activists' toolkit – humour, irony, satire, parody and lampooning.
Culture jamming is a tactic that embodies these and more: scathing critiques, clever reversals, hijacked official versions, subverted language, re-appropriated visuals. To jam is to interrupt the flow of information controlled by governments, corporations, the advertising industry, media corporations, fundamental religious leaders and other powerful people in society. In doing so, the lies, deceptions and sheer absurdities in their messages are laid bare.
Exposing the Ridiculous is a glimpse into some smart new campaigns and activists putting these tactics into practice. As the philosopher Hannah Arendt once said: “The greatest enemy of authority is contempt, and the surest way to undermine it is laughter”.