Jose Chung’s The Bridge to Metamodernism

From Darrin Morgan to Dan Harmon

What is going on?

Trust

Are We Alone?

PART ONE

BEFORE Jose Chung

(very quickly)

The 1-minute guide to critical theory( As seen on TV! )

• Modernism 1945• Postmodernism 1963• Meta-Modernism

Optimism

Naivety

Sitcom1.0

Sitcom 1.5

Seeds of the Postmodern

Seeds of the Postmodern

Doubt

Irony“Anti-Families” and “Shows about Nothing”

Relativistic Cynicism

Absolutist Optimism

Knowingness

What is MetaModernism?

• Modernism– Strong Thesis– “Ideological naivety” – Sincerity– Truth– Optimism

• Postmodernism– Strong Antithesis– “Cynical insincerity”– Irony– Relativism– Doubt

• Metamodernism– Novel synthesis– “A New Sincerity”

Seeds of Metamodernism

Trends in Metamoderism

• Intertextuality• “Kicks” and “glitches”• “Deep Text”• Genre Acrobatics• A New Sincerity

PART TWO

MEET Jose Chung

From Post to Meta:Jose Chung’s “From Outer Space”

Original Airdate: April 12, 1996

Episode: 3x20

Written by: Darin Morgan

Directed by: Rob Bowman

Intertextuality

• Definition: Referencing other workse.g. Homage, satire, parody, allusion, quoation, etc

• Modernist TV attempted to be encapsulated and universally accessible.

• Postmodern TV introduced limited intertextuality, often as dogwhistles or easter eggs.

• Metamodern TV elevates intertextuality to a central role.

Intertextuality in Jose Chung

Intertextuality in Jose Chung

Intertextuality in Jose Chung

Non-Fiction Science-Fiction

Intertextuality in Jose Chung

Intertextuality in Jose Chung

Intertextuality in Jose Chung

Men in Black

Roky

Kinbote

The Caligarian Candidate

The X-Files

Intertextuality in Jose ChungUnintentional

Intertextuality in Jose Chung• 18 instances

– Star Wars– Harryhausen– Communion– Alien Autopsy– Close Encounters– Scooby Doo– Twin Peaks– Jesse Ventura Backbreaker– Alex Trebek– Roky– Lord Kinbote from Pale Fire– Manchurian Candidate– Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Klass– Hynek– Vallee– Sheaffer– Manners

“Deep Text”• Supersaturates the text with meaningful content • ‘Unlocked’ by time-shifting technology • Immersive world effect• Cultivates viewer-created connections

Contamination

• Does Crissy really remember what she remembers?

Scully: I think you and the hypnotherapistwere leading her.

• And indeed, if you go back and check:

Mulder: When you look at a particular object, do you receive the sudden flash that you're actually looking at something else? Like an alien's

face?

Contamination

“Was it a girly scream?”War of the Coprophages

Scully: Was it a girly scream?

…Jose Chung’s From Outer Space

Blaine: His face was so blank and expressionless. He didn't even seem human. I think he was a mandroid.

The only time he reacted was when he saw the dead body.

Red hair

Blaine:

One of them was disguised

as a woman, but wasn't pulling it off.

Like, her hair was red

but it was a little too red,

you know?

ReynardMuldrake

Chung:As for Reynard

Muldrake...

one shudders to think how he receives

pleasures from life.

( Reynard = Fox )

Klass & Hynek

Vallee and Sheaffer

Manners

Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex

• Warden White, Incorporated... a subsidiary of MacDougall-Kesler

Episode editors: Heather MacDougall and Sue Kessler

“Jose Chung”

• Jose is a name typically associated with the languages Spanish or Portuguese.

• Chung is typically associated with Korean or Cantonese.

(cross-cultural marriages were less frequent. )

“Kicks” & “Glitches”• “Kicks” & “Glitches” are intentionally unreal.

• “Kicks” instantly jar the viewer out of flow and into a meta mindset.

• “Glitches” reuse work in a new context. They trigger déjà vu, reminding the viewer that the text is an artificial construct, subject to distortion.

“Kicks” in Jose Chung

• “Bleeping”: Twice by Manners, once by Scully

• Scene changes without cut: Harold, Roky

• Variations on the X-Files ThemeIn ‘Dead Alien’, Conclusion

“Glitches” in Jose Chung

“Glitches” in Jose Chung

“Glitches”

Glitches: “Sounding Crazy”

Glitches: “A Dead Man”

Glitches: “How the hell should I know?”

Kicks and glitches• 27 instances

– 3 "Bleeping" – 2 Scene change without cut– 2 X-Files theme– 3 Interrogations– 3 Hypnosis sessions – 3 Alien heads– 5 Dead man– 3 I know how crazy this is going to sound– 3 How the hell should I know

Also:– 2 “I guess he’s still AWOL”

Genre Acrobatics

• Modernist TV had one genre across episodes• Postmodern TV sometimes shifted genres

between episodes• Metamodern TV shifts genres often, can shift

multiple times within a single episode

Horror

Mystery

Absurd Fantasy

Satire

Art

Meta-Recursion

• Generic:

f(x)

• Metarecursive:

f( f(x) )

• Post-Postmodernism• “The X-Files Files”

Meta-recursion

Meta-recursion

Meta-recursion

Meta-recursion in Jose Chung

Chung: You seem non-nonplussed bythese contradictions

Mulder: To see if what she remembers isreally what she remembers.

Alien Abduction abduction

A New SincerityModernism: Naïve Sincerity

Postmodernism: Jaded Irony

Metamodernism: Jaded Sincerity

A New Sincerity in Jose Chung

Then there are those who care not about extraterrestrials, searching for

meaning in other human beings...

Rare or lucky are those who find it

for although we may not be alone in the Universe

– in our own separate ways –

on this planet...

we are all... alone.

PART THREE

Beyond Jose Chung

(very quickly)

Meta-Horror

30 Rock

Intertextuality in 30 Rock

Kicks in 30 Rock

“We're on a show within a show!”

“My real name is Tracy Morgan!"

Meta-recursion in 30 Rock

Intertextuality in Community

Genre Acrobatics in Community

Genre Acrobatics in Community

Meta-Recursion in Community

Abed, stop being Meta. Why do you always have to take whatever happens to us and shove it up its own ass.

We fight about fighting about fighting.

Meta-recursion in Community

Annie: I can’t believe this is our 20th and final diorama of the year.

Britta: I can’t believe our assignment is to make a diorama of us makingour 19th diorama.

Meta-recursionWe need a Jesus movie for

the Post Post-Modern World.

I want to tell the story of Jesus from the perspective of a filmmaker exploring the life of Jesus.

In the filmmaker's film, Jesus is a filmmaker trying to find God with his camera. But then

the filmmaker realizes that he's actually Jesus and he's being filmed by God's camera.

And it goes like that forever in both directions, like a mirror in a mirror,

because all of the filmmakers are Jesus, and all their cameras are God, and the movie is called: ABED

a metafilmmetafilm. - - - - - -

You're reacting the way the world did to Jesus.I'm reacting the way the world does to movies about making movies about making movies.

- - - - - - This is the movie.

- - - - - - The story of the story is the story.

Penultimate

• Let’s leave on two moments of New Sincerity before we say goodbye for the day.

A New Sincerity in Jose Chung

Then there are those who care not about extraterrestrials, searching for

meaning in other human beings...

Rare or lucky are those who find it

for although we may not be alone in the Universe

– in our own separate ways –

on this planet...

we are all... alone.

A New Sincerity in Community

Annie:You're afraid you don't fit in.

You're afraid you'll be alone.

Great news. You share that with all of us.

So you'll never be alone,and you'll always fit in.

The End