Parody group presentation

15th September 2009


Our class had parody group presentation at DK FPP 2 classroom. My group members were Rachel, Shamini, Mala, Manesha, Yin Chean, Fei Ying and me, Joyce. Our group presentation was a parody of the story Beauty and the Beast. We did it in the Hindustan version and it was very funny and interesting. The characters were Yin Chean as the handsome prince, Mala as the Beast, Shamini as the old lady who gave the beast a spell rose, Manesha as Belle, Fei Ying as the candle, Rachel as the narrator and I as Belle’s old father. The storyline was the same as Beauty and the Beast, but a parody.
In the presentation, I learned some Indian language such as “pia” means love. When the beast was dying, Manesha who was the beautiful Belle said to the beast “I Love you” in Indian language. Then, Mala (the beast) said “pia?” “pia?”…then she was alive again and turned into the prince charming who was Yin Chean. I laughed a lot as I saw her response of saying the word “pia?”..”pia?”. Her facial expression was so surprise and full of wonder. As for Yin Chean, I saw that she had a “handsome” appearance of a prince as she wore the Punjabi suit with a shawl around her neck. Besides that, I saw Fei Ying put in a great effort in doing props for the candle character. There was a mask for the flame and two little flame coverings on her hands which were very carefully made and suitable for flame prop. I would grade her as a very well done effort in her props.
As a reflection, I changed my point of view where previously I said I disliked parody because by reading and acting out was a total different. Even though parody may have an internal message of an issue, as I read, I could only imagine the story in my mind and felt irritated about the twist and illogical portrayal of the story where the villain survived or the protagonist was killed. However, when the parody was acted out, I could see that it was totally different. The characters were funny in the form of facial expressions, use of language, actions and tone.
In my opinion, parody is necessary to introduce to the class in a literature lesson because it is a type of literary work that carries some messages where students can be exposed to different views such as feminism. It would be even more interesting and meaningful lesson if we ask the students to act or role play the whole parody. Students will have a fun time of acting and laugh at the characters. From here, they can also have a clearer picture of what is parody and how is it being conveyed to the readers.