Prohibition

The prohibition in the United States was instituted with the Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution on January 16, 1919. The prohibition was heavily sponsored by the evangelical protestant churches, and it made the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol illegal in the states. However, one misconception is that drinking alcohol itself was illegal, which is not true. In essence, the prohibition made it much more difficult to obtain alcohol, it was not strictly enforced  because many large cities were uninterested in following through with the legislation. As a result of the prohibition organized crime in relation to the production and distribution of alcohol, opening up the black market to it. At the time of the prohibition, only the most wealthy people had unlimited access to alcohol just like Jay Gatsby, making them extremely popular amongst the normal crowd. In The Great Gatsby this is already evident. We can see how Gatsby's parties are filled with uninvited guests leaching off of his wealth and access to alcoholic drinks. These people lack morals and values because they do not even care where they are or who the host of the party is; they are only concerned about drinking and partying. However, Gatsby does not seem to be bothered by this actuality which is quite mysterious.

Bootleggers

Burger King Hacked by McDonald's

Early Monday morning Burger King's twitter was hacked by a group of people and made to look like the twitter page for McDonald's. Salvador Rodriguez writes about it in an article titled, "Burger King's Twitter Page Hacked, Made to Look Like McDonald's" published on February 18, 2013, in the Los Angeles Times. The entire page has been completely altered, from the profile picture to the cover photos and even tweets. Instead of having the Burger King logo as the profile picture hackers changed it to the McDonald's logo and replace cover photos with pictures of McDonald's food. The last time Burger King seemed to be in control of the twitter account was Sunday night. The hackers have identified themselves to be a part of the LulzSec group, who have previously gone after several other companies such as, Sony and other governmental agencies. It surprises me how open they are about their hacking skills, considering its illegal. However, I find this extremely funny and it shows the great rivalry between the two great American burger companies.

The Daily Show

In The Daily Show episode from May 7th, 2012 John Stewart, the host of the show, satirizes several people and events such as, Vladimir Putin being sworn in as president and the idea of dictatorships through the character of Admiral General Aladeen from the movie The Dictator. He satirizes Vladimir Putin facial expressions as he is being sworn in as the President of Russia. It is funny because Putin does not show any excitement throughout the entire process. He keeps a straight face the whole time, almost as if he is mad. Clearly Putin is the target and Jon Stewart uses techniques such as verbal irony, and more specifically sarcasm to get his point across. The motive is to make fun of Putin as a commander and possible Russia as a whole. Then he brings in Admiral General Aladeen the character from the move The Dictator and compares him to former dictators such as, Muammer Gaddafi and Kim Jon Il, who are all dead. He is trying to prove a point that dictatorships are out of date and no longer belong in the present time period. His target is all dictators and his purpose is to criticize the stupidity of a dictatorship in a humorous manner through General Aladeen's character and techniques like distortion, where he takes the dictators and puts them in different surroundings to show their faults. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPVR_ymMqDg

God

An unknown author writes about God in an article titled, "God Freaks Self Out By Lying Awake Contemplating Own Immortality" published on January 31, 2013 in the Onion, a humorous, so-called news source. The author writes about God's sleepless night, in which he tossed and turned in bed and contemplates how much longer he is going to live. According to the author's "sources" God was pacing through the heavens questioning his own significance. “This is worse than a prison sentence,” the Lord said. “At least prisoners can escape, die, or be released. But I’ve been stuck here doing the same thing for 14 billion years, and in another 14 billion, I’ll still be here. I create things, I destroy them. I’m omnipotent—how insane is that? I am He Who Commanded Light to Shine Out of Darkness, but eventually everything I create disappears. And I have to sit around and watch it all die”(the Onion). God's anxiety does not allow him to sleep all throughout the night. According to the author, God is just exhausted from being so powerful and no longer wants to be so omniscient. Sources say that when God finally fell asleep and woke up the next morning he decided to create an immortal dog or cat to keep him company forever. This article is funny because the author is satirizing God's existence, however at the same time it is quite disrespectful to all those who truly believe in God.