On 20th to 27th June 2010, during their holidays, 15 young people went overseas and stayed at Santi Forest Monastery, Ulu Tiram, Johor for a meditation retreat joined-organised by NTUBS and NUSBS. This is a break from the usual tradition of organising a retreat in the busy city of Singapore. It allows a change in environment from noises of cars and aircons to noises by the wildlifes in the forest and natural shades, which definitely is more condusive to meditation.
We toiled, worked, and pushed hard everyday on our meditation practice, having 5 hours of group sitting (with monks), 2 hours of chanting, 3 hours of group sitting (by ourselves), totalling in 10 hours of opportunity per day to hone our meditation skills! The 2-3 hours talks and group Q&A sessions by Bante Seng everyday are the most interesting, enlightening and inspirational part of the day. He teaches us always, if possible, quoting the words of the Lord Buddha himself, from the suttas. Everyone benefits from the group Q&A too as many of the questions asked by eager students are the questions in everyone’s mind.
Bante Seng managed to finish a basic (intermediate) meditation course including, Anapanasati (mindfulness on breathing), Metta (loving kindness), Asubha (on the loathsome, to combat lust), Buddhanussati (Contemplation on the Buddha), The 5 subjects for frequent recollections, How to overcome sleepiness, How to remove distracting thoughts, and much more......
The atmosphere is verrrrrry nice there, too a while to get used to washing our own clothes and the 4-5 hours of sleeping time there, but it is wellllllllllllll worth it.
Santi Forest Monastery allows most of us to take turns and join in the Pintapata (alms collecting) as a kapiya (helpers) for the monks. Other than that, a special experience not to be found in city monasteries is living in a Kuti, a small hut in the forest. (to experience and overcome laziness, pain and fear) The experience is very close to what is available in the early Buddhism and for that we hope that we will be able to follow the footsteps of the Buddha and Arahants to be free from all suffering.
Finally, we are grateful to Bante Seng for teaching us and guiding us with patience and tolerance, Santi Forest Monastery for providing the opportunity and grounds for the making of merits, Sis Meng Hui from NTUBS and Bro. Xin Zhao from NUSBS for co-organising the event. Sadhu to all.
Hopefully next time we have a retreat there, you guys will not miss it!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
NUS Module Review: PC4245 Particle Physics
| Description: | This is an introductory course on the fundamental constituents of matter and their basic interactions; important concepts and principles, recent important experiments, underlying theoretical tools and calculation techniques in elementary particles physics will be expounded. The topics covered are: basic properties of elementary particles and the standard model, relativistic kinematics; symmetries: isospin and SU(3), quark model; parity and CP violation; Feynman diagrams and rules; quantum electrodynamics; cross sections and lifetimes: deep inelastic scattering; and introductory gauge theories and unified models. This module is mainly targeted at physics majors. | ||||||||||||
| Credits: | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Workload: |
|
Personal Experience:
I feel like catching up finally to the frontier of physics 30 years back, but to catch up those 30 years requires really speciallisation in this area. I like the way Feymann make his rules about how QED works... And you don't need QED to know this module.... it's not too applied Physics either, you need to apply the theory to get to deduce from new theories+ experimental facts to find out the Standard Model..... A very cool module I say! A must take for anyone serious in Theorectical Physics (and in uniting the quantum and the gravity).
Teaching Staff:
A very nice and patient Prof. Dr. Teo Kian Boon is. You might get lost in his speed but be sure to catch him and tell him to go slow if that happens and you are lost. But to be able to cover so much in one module is just plain amazing!
Workload:
Same as almost all level 4 Physics Theory modules, it covers the tutorials in class and have 2 term test each 15% and a 70% final term test. It's bearable but beware of the heavy tutorials, and make sure you do it to get good grades in the term tests. Just read, understand, and do then you should get an A.
Content:
Quite heavy in Maths and Problem solving, but also essential for any good foundation in Particle Physics, after this course, you can read the graduate Particle Physics and Electroweak theory, Higgs Mechanism etc.......(which was covered briefly)....
Friday, June 18, 2010
Reminder: What to post online...
This is another update on my life, and due to time constrain.... (ironically it's the holiday when I'm supposed to have more time than during the semester) I shall be briefer than I would like to write.....
Last I updated was just before moving off to my uncle's home in Woodlands. My parents came (all the way from Malaysia!) and helped out (and including my roommate) to pack my stuffs and put them to a car. Then I also visited some relatives in Singapore before going off to Malaysia and stopping by Santi Forest Monastery for a brief visit. Photos here.
Then going back to Malacca to visit my grandparents, and to Petaling where I read Integrated Photonics for my upcoming internship with Data Storage Institute (DSI), A*Star (which I got the acceptance email only at 30th April). It's kinda the only time I had to play some of my games before realising that I've wasted too much time on them and deleted them all (almost all). (Or I did that during the middle of last sem.... Doesn't matter)
The rational is that I'm too busy to play anyway and it takes up my PC space, making it slow. (So bye bye, X-men, Neverwinter Nights 1&2, Spiderman Web of Shadows, Ultimate Spiderman, World of Warcraft, Spore, Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic, Star Wars: Jedi Acedemy, Street Fighter 4, Dynasty Warriors 6, Civilization 4, Rise of Nations, and Pokemon!)
Didn't realise there are so many games..... Wow!
Ok, so back to Malaysia, I went for the National Buddhist Undergraduate Conference in Malaysia where about 100+ undergrads from Buddhist Societies of Local Universities come to Buddhist Maha Vihara Malaysia (Brickfields temple) for 3 days 2 nights and listen to current issues in forums and discussions of the Buddhist circles of Undergrads in Malaysia!
The conference ended at 9th May where a friend helped to fetch me back to home and there came a surpise early Birthday Party! I have my mother to thank for that: my relatives and cousins are here to help me celebrate!
The early part is because the next day I came back to Singapore and Straight to DSI for the first day briefing! Then there is the China Immession Programme (CHIP) for the next 2 weeks and then I came back to Singapore and work!
Gone back to Malaysia one weekend, (had a near accident!) and came to work again....
(Sorry for the brievity, each paragraph above is worth a post)
I've lots of things on my list to do now.
See why I'm so busy to write something here now?
See ya all next time.
Last I updated was just before moving off to my uncle's home in Woodlands. My parents came (all the way from Malaysia!) and helped out (and including my roommate) to pack my stuffs and put them to a car. Then I also visited some relatives in Singapore before going off to Malaysia and stopping by Santi Forest Monastery for a brief visit. Photos here.
Then going back to Malacca to visit my grandparents, and to Petaling where I read Integrated Photonics for my upcoming internship with Data Storage Institute (DSI), A*Star (which I got the acceptance email only at 30th April). It's kinda the only time I had to play some of my games before realising that I've wasted too much time on them and deleted them all (almost all). (Or I did that during the middle of last sem.... Doesn't matter)
The rational is that I'm too busy to play anyway and it takes up my PC space, making it slow. (So bye bye, X-men, Neverwinter Nights 1&2, Spiderman Web of Shadows, Ultimate Spiderman, World of Warcraft, Spore, Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic, Star Wars: Jedi Acedemy, Street Fighter 4, Dynasty Warriors 6, Civilization 4, Rise of Nations, and Pokemon!)
Didn't realise there are so many games..... Wow!
Ok, so back to Malaysia, I went for the National Buddhist Undergraduate Conference in Malaysia where about 100+ undergrads from Buddhist Societies of Local Universities come to Buddhist Maha Vihara Malaysia (Brickfields temple) for 3 days 2 nights and listen to current issues in forums and discussions of the Buddhist circles of Undergrads in Malaysia!
The conference ended at 9th May where a friend helped to fetch me back to home and there came a surpise early Birthday Party! I have my mother to thank for that: my relatives and cousins are here to help me celebrate!
The early part is because the next day I came back to Singapore and Straight to DSI for the first day briefing! Then there is the China Immession Programme (CHIP) for the next 2 weeks and then I came back to Singapore and work!
Gone back to Malaysia one weekend, (had a near accident!) and came to work again....
(Sorry for the brievity, each paragraph above is worth a post)
I've lots of things on my list to do now.
- Job
- Website
- UROPS
- Study (for next sem)
- Write Book (finally started 3 pages so far)
- Blog (finally a brief update)
- and Retreat to Santi Forest Monastery
See why I'm so busy to write something here now?
See ya all next time.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
What Does One "Do" With an Undergraduate Physics Degree?
I've just been introduced to the blog post in the link and I think it is a worthwhile read for those who are interested in physics but keep on worrying what can One "Do" With an Undergraduate Physics Degree? And thus barring oneself from loving Physics.
As I said in a previous post, do what you like in Uni, don't suffer for 4 years.
As I said in a previous post, do what you like in Uni, don't suffer for 4 years.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Places to visit in Malaysia and Singapore
Malacca:
My hometown in Malaysia is in Malacca, the historical city of Malaysia. There's a saying that visiting Malacca means visiting Malaysia. The main attractions here(other than museums and the cultural values) is the food and Jonker Street. Jonker Street is opened at the nights of Fridays and weekends where you can walk the whole lenght and buy many interesting souvenirs. The must try food here is Chicken Ball Rice (opened during the day).
There's also the Taming Sari tower which brings you up to view the whole of Malacca while spinning slowly. Be sure to take photos of the iconic A Famosa door near the mall called Dataran Pahlawan.
There's waterworld, and A Famosa resort too, but if your time is tight I wouldn't recommend these as each is worth a full day of exploration.
Kuala Lumpur
There's lots of megamalls in this area: Times Square (has an indoor rollercoster), Suria KLCC, Sunway Piramid, One Utama, MidValley Megamall, The Curve (included is the bookstore Borders, one of the biggest in Malaysia, if you intend to buy books, do it in Malaysia, it's most likely cheaper there than in Singapore).
If shopping is not your style, perhaps the science of the Petroscience would interest you more. Petroscience is in Suria KLCC, where you can spend the whole day in there enjoying the sciences involved in mining Petroleum. The National Science Centre is also worth a visit, where it is sure to interest you.
Of course, I almost forgot to mentioned the KL Tower which you can go up and enjoy the highest McDonald in the world. And the KLCC Twin Towers, where there's limited passes everyday to go up to the link bridge. Oh, and for Water fun, Sunway Lagoon (besides Sunway Piramid) is a good choice.
Pulau Perhentian
Here's the place to go scuba diving, the water is clear and nice, you can even see sharks and go forest hiking too!
Genting Highlands
The City of entertainment, go there for a whole day for the cool temperature and enjoy Disneyland like attractions and rides.
Perak
There's the Gua Tempurung, a dark cave where you will get your pants wet and have an adventure of a lifetime! Be sure to bring a flashlight!
Pulau Pinang
Go there for the food, they claim to have the best food, try anything, laksa mee, to kuey tiao goreng, eat till you're filled! The bridge there is one very beautiful bridge, so enjoy the view too!
Also there's the Taman Negara (National Park) and the mountains in the middle of the Penisula, for your adventurous legs.
Ok, that's all for Malaysia, you can have a full week's worth of fun there.
Singapore
Well to tell the truth, I don't know much about Singapore, I've been staying in campus most of the time. But there's Chinatown, MacRitchie Reseviour, Little India, Orcard Road, the Singapore Science centre, and the Singapore EXPO. For camping, night cycling and barbecues, the East Coast Park is a very good location.
My hometown in Malaysia is in Malacca, the historical city of Malaysia. There's a saying that visiting Malacca means visiting Malaysia. The main attractions here(other than museums and the cultural values) is the food and Jonker Street. Jonker Street is opened at the nights of Fridays and weekends where you can walk the whole lenght and buy many interesting souvenirs. The must try food here is Chicken Ball Rice (opened during the day).
There's also the Taming Sari tower which brings you up to view the whole of Malacca while spinning slowly. Be sure to take photos of the iconic A Famosa door near the mall called Dataran Pahlawan.
There's waterworld, and A Famosa resort too, but if your time is tight I wouldn't recommend these as each is worth a full day of exploration.
Kuala Lumpur
There's lots of megamalls in this area: Times Square (has an indoor rollercoster), Suria KLCC, Sunway Piramid, One Utama, MidValley Megamall, The Curve (included is the bookstore Borders, one of the biggest in Malaysia, if you intend to buy books, do it in Malaysia, it's most likely cheaper there than in Singapore).
If shopping is not your style, perhaps the science of the Petroscience would interest you more. Petroscience is in Suria KLCC, where you can spend the whole day in there enjoying the sciences involved in mining Petroleum. The National Science Centre is also worth a visit, where it is sure to interest you.
Of course, I almost forgot to mentioned the KL Tower which you can go up and enjoy the highest McDonald in the world. And the KLCC Twin Towers, where there's limited passes everyday to go up to the link bridge. Oh, and for Water fun, Sunway Lagoon (besides Sunway Piramid) is a good choice.
Pulau Perhentian
Here's the place to go scuba diving, the water is clear and nice, you can even see sharks and go forest hiking too!
Genting Highlands
The City of entertainment, go there for a whole day for the cool temperature and enjoy Disneyland like attractions and rides.
Perak
There's the Gua Tempurung, a dark cave where you will get your pants wet and have an adventure of a lifetime! Be sure to bring a flashlight!
Pulau Pinang
Go there for the food, they claim to have the best food, try anything, laksa mee, to kuey tiao goreng, eat till you're filled! The bridge there is one very beautiful bridge, so enjoy the view too!
Also there's the Taman Negara (National Park) and the mountains in the middle of the Penisula, for your adventurous legs.
Ok, that's all for Malaysia, you can have a full week's worth of fun there.
Singapore
Well to tell the truth, I don't know much about Singapore, I've been staying in campus most of the time. But there's Chinatown, MacRitchie Reseviour, Little India, Orcard Road, the Singapore Science centre, and the Singapore EXPO. For camping, night cycling and barbecues, the East Coast Park is a very good location.
Physics in NUS part 2
Today I got an email like this:
I was wandering on the Internet and found your blog. I see you're a physics major at NUS, so I guess maybe you can help me with these questions as I'm pretty baffled about physics at NUS. Would you, please?
- What is the forte of NUS Physics department? (Quantum I guess, because I see a lot of researches done in this field)
- What about the research opportunity available in those fields?
- And how about the physics professors at NUS and the learning environment?
I would appreciate it very much if you help me with those questions. Thank you.
And I replied:
Hi,
Sorry but before giving my opinion, can you please give me some relevant info about yourself? This is for me to create some more personalized advice instead of the generic ones you can find in my blog.
And I got back the reply:
1 - I'm coming to NUS this year for undergrad study. Actually I was accepted to Electrical Engi. (because it's my first choice when I applied), but it's just a pragmatic choice and unsuitable to me (I know it for sure, but it's still a practical choice), so I'm considering to switch my major to physics. At least, I know I love physics. Besides I got a scholarship from NUS so there won't be anything distracting me. I'm quite sure that NUS will consider my request to change course, as my interviewer in the scholarship interview told me so.
2 - I'm from Vietnam. Vietnamese physics major at NUS is quite rare, right?
3 - Undecided I guess. But not applied physics certainly as I tend to like pure physics things. The 2 things most appealing to me right now are Quantum Physics and Cosmology.
4 - The other one is NTU. Actually there were more, but I gave up on them due to my financial need.
5 - Yes, AY 2010/2011, starting in August 2010, which means I have 2 months to decide.
6 - Yes. But (sorry for saying this) I found it quite generic. I mean, most info can be found on the website.
And then I replied again:
Xin Chao,
Haha, thanks for telling me that, I do enjoy studying physics here.
- What about the research opportunity available in those fields?
All fields, so far that I see (quantum, applied, cosmo) have some students doing research in it. Even theorectical black holes! (by Prof. Edward Teo, student of Stephen Hawkings, was my group's supervisor) It's just that sometimes people tell you it's weak or strong in it only reflects the number of students (and profs) that are doing research in this field. Let that not bother you, more people in one field means more help you can find, less means less competition you'll face.
Besides, you're only here for undergrad study, so relax on the research part first. Did you know about SPS? I highly recommend it to you. Oh and undergrad here doesn't mean grad study here, although the 3 year bond is kinda tricky and hard to go around.
- And how about the physics professors at NUS and the learning environment?
I don't know about other Universities, sorry can't compare. But there are a few very good lecturers here, this doesn't mean that the rest are bad, some are good some are bad, it's the same in all Uni I believe. The learning environment? I'm not so sure, I heard the others around me say that NUS is very stressful...... I'm playing games most of the time.....lol. Anyway, it'll likely be tougher than your high school, so don't be cocky if you're good at physics, you still need to work hard. Anyway I'm in SPS room most of the time, and the people there are like my family away from home, so I can destress there.
Year 1 physics is boring here, you can go read year 2 stuffs then, or have more time to enjoy other aspects of Uni life (CCA).
Year 2 physics really need understanding to score.
Year 3 physics is nice and challenging, lots of maths and concepts.
Year 4 physics is like upgraded year 3 physics, challenging and fun.
Anyway for me, doing physics is understanding. The practical way I know of to do the exam is to do past year papers to prepare oneself. Nothing disappointing there I think. Cheatsheet is a good bonus that some of the lecturer let us bring during exam. Maybe that's another practical way.
Oh and to introduce myself, I'm a year 2 physics major from Malaysia in SPS, USP and double major in Maths. And unless you're like me or better that takes so many modules in a semester, there's definately enough time to understand Physics.
There's a Research Centre of Excellence just for Physics,
http://www.quantumlah.org/
And it's expensive, so I don't think that Singapore doesn't care about physics!
Lastly can I publish some of the advices here to my blog? I haven't updated it for so long now. Thanks!
I was wandering on the Internet and found your blog. I see you're a physics major at NUS, so I guess maybe you can help me with these questions as I'm pretty baffled about physics at NUS. Would you, please?
- What is the forte of NUS Physics department? (Quantum I guess, because I see a lot of researches done in this field)
- What about the research opportunity available in those fields?
- And how about the physics professors at NUS and the learning environment?
I would appreciate it very much if you help me with those questions. Thank you.
And I replied:
Hi,
Sorry but before giving my opinion, can you please give me some relevant info about yourself? This is for me to create some more personalized advice instead of the generic ones you can find in my blog.
- Are you planning to come to NUS for undergrad study or grad study?
- Which country are you from?
- What's your interest in Physics? Theory? Applied? Which field? Comology? Quantum? or just not yet decided? (it's ok to be undecided yet)
- What other University are you considering other than NUS?
- When are you coming in NUS if you decide to come? This coming academic year 2010/11 or the next?
- Have you read this page? http://ngxinzhaomonk.blogspot.
com/2010/02/physics-at-nus. html
And I got back the reply:
1 - I'm coming to NUS this year for undergrad study. Actually I was accepted to Electrical Engi. (because it's my first choice when I applied), but it's just a pragmatic choice and unsuitable to me (I know it for sure, but it's still a practical choice), so I'm considering to switch my major to physics. At least, I know I love physics. Besides I got a scholarship from NUS so there won't be anything distracting me. I'm quite sure that NUS will consider my request to change course, as my interviewer in the scholarship interview told me so.
2 - I'm from Vietnam. Vietnamese physics major at NUS is quite rare, right?
3 - Undecided I guess. But not applied physics certainly as I tend to like pure physics things. The 2 things most appealing to me right now are Quantum Physics and Cosmology.
4 - The other one is NTU. Actually there were more, but I gave up on them due to my financial need.
5 - Yes, AY 2010/2011, starting in August 2010, which means I have 2 months to decide.
6 - Yes. But (sorry for saying this) I found it quite generic. I mean, most info can be found on the website.
And then I replied again:
Xin Chao,
Haha, thanks for telling me that, I do enjoy studying physics here.
- I'm glad you choose physics over engin (me too!)
- You can say so, about 2% or less of the people in Physics is from Vietnam.
- Me too!
- I don't know much about physics NTU, so can't say much on that, but I still think (bias due to me being in NUS) that NUS physics is better!
- Ok, hope to see you as a junior.
- Yes, it's ok, I refered to the website while making it. At least it brought you to email me.
- What is the forte of NUS Physics department? (Quantum I guess, because I see a lot of researches done in this field)
Yes, there's also a lot of other directions in applied physics, in cosmology it is not strong here, but things are getting brighter as they just introduced a new module "Cosmology" last semester (I'm taking it next year)- What about the research opportunity available in those fields?
Besides, you're only here for undergrad study, so relax on the research part first. Did you know about SPS? I highly recommend it to you. Oh and undergrad here doesn't mean grad study here, although the 3 year bond is kinda tricky and hard to go around.
- And how about the physics professors at NUS and the learning environment?
Year 1 physics is boring here, you can go read year 2 stuffs then, or have more time to enjoy other aspects of Uni life (CCA).
Year 2 physics really need understanding to score.
Year 3 physics is nice and challenging, lots of maths and concepts.
Year 4 physics is like upgraded year 3 physics, challenging and fun.
Anyway for me, doing physics is understanding. The practical way I know of to do the exam is to do past year papers to prepare oneself. Nothing disappointing there I think. Cheatsheet is a good bonus that some of the lecturer let us bring during exam. Maybe that's another practical way.
Oh and to introduce myself, I'm a year 2 physics major from Malaysia in SPS, USP and double major in Maths. And unless you're like me or better that takes so many modules in a semester, there's definately enough time to understand Physics.
There's a Research Centre of Excellence just for Physics,
http://www.quantumlah.org/
And it's expensive, so I don't think that Singapore doesn't care about physics!
Lastly can I publish some of the advices here to my blog? I haven't updated it for so long now. Thanks!
Saturday, May 01, 2010
End of Year 2
My Year 2 University Life is officially over with the end of my last exam paper yesterday. This marks a remarkable milestone. I'm halfway through University Undergrad!
As there is nothing much that I did, except to watch 8 movies of Stephen Chow, other than studying that is, I guess there is nothing much for me to update here. So after some 6 hours of hard-work rearranging my stuffs in SPS, I think I should sleep now. See ya all!
As there is nothing much that I did, except to watch 8 movies of Stephen Chow, other than studying that is, I guess there is nothing much for me to update here. So after some 6 hours of hard-work rearranging my stuffs in SPS, I think I should sleep now. See ya all!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Analysis of Cartoon Heroes by Aqua for Irony
The song “Cartoon Heroes” by Aqua was released on 31st Jan 2000 (SANCHE) and since then has remained popular amongst the public, even school teachers, childrens and youths are enjoying the songs as numerous dances are made for the song (cutiepinay00) (jeje0jess). The youths in International Youth Foundations even said that this dance expresses their dreams to be leaders of the world despite many hardships (Chuson05). In the behind the scene video, Lene Nystrøm said that “I don’t think that it (the music video) is haha like the Barbie girl video”, Søren Rasted then said “It’s ironic” (Pler). This makes for an interesting case of finding if there is irony in the song “Cartoon Heroes” because this may contribute to the reason why the song is so popular. In this paper, the various backgrounds for the analysis will be defined including the use of Nietzsche’s concept that truth is a contruct (Nietzsche), the real and cartoon world are constructed. Then the lyrics of the song cartoon heroes is analysed using the criteria of irony according Mongomery et.al (Montgomery, Durant and Fabb) with the help of the two worlds. Next, the music video is analysed for irony and its parodies. After that, the two different parts are combined to obtain an underlying message common to both and illustrated with the song being a parody of the singer’s famous status. Finally, the usefulness of the tools of irony is briefly mentioned.
Background
Wilson and Sperber said that parody involves both echoic allusion and dissociative attitude. Echoic allusion can be seen as repeating a work of art, resembling it and not nessary identical to it. Dissociative attitude is to dissociate with the original work, ussually in disgust and to make fun of the original. Parody is to direct quotation means that the characters in parody should quote, with echoic allusion, the form of the original work. Irony is to indirect quotation means that irony resembles the meaning instead of just the form of the work. Parody can also be both parody of form and content (Wilson and Sperber).
Nietzsche in his essay, the Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings, questions extensively what truth is. The concepts and words that we use to represent things are removed from the orginal things that they meant. Truths then are a mobile army of metaphors that are widely accepted and agreed upon by humans (Nietzsche). There is no absolute truth then according to him. Therefore the concept of relative truths is used to create a real world and a cartoon world.
The real world is defined as the current world where we live in or at least the world in year 2000 when the song “Cartoon Heroes” was released. In this world, there are no superheroes, but animations, comics and even live action movies of superheroes are made and enjoyed by kids and adults. The normal laws of physics also holds, so nothing with mass can travel at the speed of light and the human body ussually does not survive a fall from sufficient heights. We are certainly aware of the cartoon world and for a brief while, when we are enjoying the movie or comic, we are immersed in it.
The cartoon world is defined by the existance of superheroes in the world, and the necessary bending of the laws of science that allows superpowers, giant monsters and advanced technology. It is in short the world that the people in the superheroes comics, animation, and movies are living in. Examples would include the DC universe where Superman lives or the Marvel universe where Spiderman lives in. Also, depending on the past history of the world, they maybe aware of the existence of our real world or not.
According to Montgomery, there are two main types of irony, verbal and situational. Both involve correctly disbeliving or incorrectly beliving a proposition. In verbal irony, the correctly disbelievers, like the speaker, is the main focus and the incorrect believer is not made explicit but just implied; while in situational irony, the incorrect believer is the main focus and the correct disbeliever is implied. (Montgomery, Durant and Fabb). The basis for judging the truth or falseness of a proposition is the unstated assumptions of the accepted truths, which depend on which world we are working with. For example, the proposition that anything with mass can travel at the speed of light is false in the real world but can be true in the cartoon world.
The group Aqua is composed of Lene Nystrøm, René Dif, Søren Rasted, and Claus Norreen. They are most famous for their song “Barbie girl” that caused a lawsuit against them for parodying the body shape of the dolls as bimbotic sex symbol (Barbie loses battle over bimbo image). Their second album, Aquarius released in year 2000, features “Cartoon Heroes” which, for the purpose of this paper, is divided into two parts, the music video and the lyrics or song.
The music video describes Aqua in the role of space patrol, saving the Earth from a giant octopus and succeeding in the end with the help of their spaceship/ submarine, Aquarius. The video has a budget of 3.5 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive music video at that time (Pler).
The lyrics or the song describes the four heroes, Aqua singing directly from the cartoon world to the real world as will be shown later.
Lyrics
This section analyses lyrics of the song according to Montgomery’s criteria. To be ironic, the propositions in the lyrics of the song must be false relative to a set of truths.
Before proceeding further, the lyrics, as propositions, has to be analysed in terms of the two worlds, the cartoon world and the real world. The proposition of “We are the Cartoon Heroes” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics) is only true in the cartoon world, thus defining the “we” in the rest of the song to be always interperted to be in the cartoon world. Then the proposition “We are the color symphony” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics) must be interperted in two worlds for it to be true. The “we” existing in the cartoon world, are just colours that sing in the real world. Lines like “We learned to run at speed of light and to fall down from any height” are only true if the whole sentence is interperted in the cartoon world, as the laws of physics in the real world prevents anything with mass to reach the speed of light and the human body generally cannot survive any fall from too high without external equipments. Lines that contain “you” like “What we do is what you wish to do” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics) the “you” refers to the listener. The interpertation of the line is what “we” do in the cartoon world (run at speed of light, fall from any height) is what “you” want to do in the real world, but as the laws of Science constricts “you” from doing them, “What we do is what you just can't do” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics). This proves the statement above in the background section that the singers are singing directly from the cartoon world to the real world.
From the above analysis, the lyrics of the song can be divided into two camps, one to be entirely interperted in the cartoon world, and the other, except for the word “we”, to be interperted in the real world. Let the name of the lines in the first camp to be cartoon lines and the other to be real lines. So examples of real lines are: “We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh and walked out on a piece of paper” and “All dots and lines that speak and say” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics), reflecting the fact that comics (the traditional media of superheroes) are just printed small dots and lines on papers so that it looks like a complete picture. “Frame by frame, to the extreme” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics) reflects the fact that motion and animated films (the adapted media for many superheroes from which the name cartoon heroes comes from) are just multiple frames per second that creates the illusion of motion.
An example of cartoon lines is “We learned to run at speed of light and to fall down from any height” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics). The following paragraphs will analyse the cartoon lines with respect to the real world, and the real lines with respect the cartoon world to create the basic condition for irony, that the proposition to be false.
Firstly, the case for cartoon lines interperted in the real world is considered, say “We learned to run at speed of light and to fall down from any height” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics). The above proposition is known to be false in the real world as mentioned. Now that a false propostition is identified, all that is needed for irony is to identify the singers as either incorrect believers or correct disbelievers. This strongly depends upon which roles the “singers” are interperted to be, real life people living in the real world, or characters playing superheroes in the cartoon world. Note that cartoon lines are true in the cartoon world and so any analysis for irony must steer clear from that world.
Examining first the case of incorrect believers, this is only possible if the singers as real people living in the real world still believe that they have superpowers! Obviously this is not the case as the singers know that they are just singing for that particular song. This is clear from the fact that they keep on producing songs like “Around the world”, “Bumble Bee”, and “We belong to the sea” (SANCHE) without the delusion of thinking that they are superheroes. Thus the case for situational irony according to Montgomery fails to hold in the real world for the lines “We learned to run at speed of light and to fall down from any height” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics).
How about the case of correct disbelievers? The song (and perhaps combined with the music video) must focus on the singers as real people with clear ironic intention that “we are just singing this” instead of focusing on the singers as superheroes saying that “these are what we can do in the cartoon world”. A review on the music video shows that they are about to enter warp speed (faster than light travel) (YouTube Aqua - Cartoon Heroes (Full Version)) when the lines are sung, so it can be seen that the song and music video wants to be serious and retain the cartoon world where they are singing the song. And yet, there is a slight hint of verbal irony from the movement of the eyes of Lene in the video. So, in conclusion, there is a slight irony intended and yet it is not the main attraction. The video seems to be serious (in staying in the cartoon world) overall, as Søren Rasted said, “We want to make a little bit more serious kind of video not the kind of slap-stick kind of videos that we did in the beginning (in the first album like Barbie girl).” (Pler)
To complete the analysis of ironic interpertation, the interpertation of the real lines like “We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh, and walked out on a piece of paper” in the cartoon world is done. In the cartoon world, the proposition above is false as the superheroes in the cartoon world would have to be created via radioactivity, biotechnology, freak accidents, aliens, almost anything except being created by a writer in another world. They are real, in the flesh, living, and not existing in dots and lines, frame by frame, or in a piece of paper. Now the question is: Are the singers Aqua incorrect believers or correct disbelievers as seen by people in the cartoon world, say Superman?
To answer this question, one must enter the boots of Aqua in the cartoon world to understand what they are thinking. They are just singing to people in the real world from the cartoon world. This indicates that they are aware of the real world and its truths. Correspondigly, they are also aware that the truths in the real world are not true in the cartoon world, so they cannot be, as cartoon world entities, truly believe in what they sing. That is, if Superman comes and ask them the meaning of the song, they will say that it is not meant for the cartoon world people. So this rules out them as incorrect believers as they know which world to apply this song to.
To qualify as them as correct disbelievers, the attitude of dissociation must be there to show that they do not believe what they are singing (Wilson and Sperber). However, since the singers are singing to the people in the real world, where most of the song will make sense, there is no need for the dissociative attitude. They need not disbelieve the fact that, “It's all an orchestra of strings doing unbelievable things” And indeed, by the fervor that they show while singing in the music video, one can see that they are serious in bringing the message across, the most notable line being “What we do is what you just can't do” which is repeated six times in total.
The music video
The music video made by Aqua on their song “Cartoon Heroes” is easily seen as a parody of science fiction horror movies such as Godzilla, featuring a world in need of help calling and reanimating Aqua, the heroes from outer space to battle against a big octopus (Aqua.dk.tp).
The music video is a parody of many science fiction movies and related event. Firstly, the radio broadcast of the War of the Worlds in 1938 which caused wide spread panic from a fictitious radio show in the format of news bulletin is echoed from the way that the news reporter in the television reports how one by one the major cities of the world are attacked (19s). The fact that the television used is in black and white reinforces the idea of the 1950s or earlier. Secondly, the movie Godzilla has a scene where Godzilla’s eye is as big as an average human (m0ds 1m 40s) is parodied by the big eye of the octopus looking into the living room of a family (52s). Thirdly, the popular image of aliens being “little green man” is used in the design of the aliens at the UFO gas station where they refueled their spaceship (2m 38s). Next, Star Wars uses hyper drive to travel faster than the speed of light (Lucas) and this is also parodied by the warp speed of the spaceship Aquarius (3m 21s). After that, Sphere, a 1998 film featuring a team of scientist going underwater to investigate an alien object contains a scene where the scientist are all in diving suits underwater (Levinson). Aqua walking underwater with full diving suit on closely parallels this image (4m). Lastly, Moby Dick features fighting scenes between a whale and humans (Melville), which is parodied by Aqua fighting a giant octopus with guns (4m 22s).
Other than the parodies, there is also some blue comedy in the video. Blue comedy is comedy involving profanity (blue) which is shown on (2m 43s) by René holding a Playalien magazine, parody of Playboy, a magazine for adults. This scene last only for a second and is easy to miss, thus it is also barely noticeable like the verbal irony by Lene earlier.
Now that both the music video and the lyrics are analysed, it is time to combine them.
The combination
The lyrics of the song show various departures from the music video, for example, the music video shows real live humans as heroes even through they are singing “Cartoon Heroes”, meaning heroes in animation. Furthermore, there is no mention of spaceship or the giant octopus in the lyrics of the song. The song seems to have no relation to the music video on the surface level. If they have no relationship, then why put them together in the first place?
Søren Rasted said, on the music video, “It is a good story. We are four super heroes who save the world – but not four super heroes who take themselves too seriously. The universe is futuristic yet old-fashioned, a mixture of past and present to make everything a bit corny in a funny way” (SANCHE). And from the lyrics of the song “you think we're so mysterious (from the unconventional use of the real lines in the song) - don't take us all too serious (which is why this paper only appears ten years after year 2000)” along with the overall tone of the song, the music video and the song share the same message “Have fun folks” (Stuart)! This presents an interesting case where the song and the music video do not need to be matching, just as long as the central message is brought across.
The claim that they are not taking themselves too seriously is strengthen by the hint of verbal irony from Lene and the Playalien scene with René. Lene did the eye movement to convey her dissociative attitude towards the line “and to fall down from any height” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics), indicating her disbelieve in the line and showing that she is actually a singer in the video. René’s Playalien scene in a song called “Cartoon Heroes” is a daring and playful insertion as many kids will definitely be watching the music videos. This shows that they are indeed as in the words of René Dif that, “We have to look serious (as the argument in the lyric section relies upon), still funny, can’t be that serious (not taking themselves too seriously), not serious (reference to their playful and good natured attitude in general).” (Pler)
The not so serious attitude implies that they may put their real live characters into their song. In fact at various points in the song, there are possible interpertations that seems like they are parodying themselves. The opening sequence of the music video, where the singers are waking up, is a symbolism of the coming back of Aqua with the second album (Pler). The line “We are what we're supposed to be, illusions of your fantasy” can be taken to imply that the band Aqua is what it is supposed to be, famous and rich, which is the fantasy of many people. The line “We are the ones who're gonna last forever” also reflects the fame of the group that will make them be remembered for a very long time. “What we do is what you just can't do” then means that the singing, touring and money making of the singers Aqua are not what an average human can do. It can also mean, along with the line “Be original”, that the other musical bands should and could not copy or borrow the style and lyrics of their songs.
The fact that the video does not show Aqua as having superpowers, and most of the shots are on the singers themselves, seems to highlight that the video is about them. This supports the notion that they are parodying themselves.
Looking at the song in this light, then it is situationally ironic for the many fans of Aqua to like the song if the singers had meant to parody themselves and singing with this in mind, they are producing verbal irony. For the verbal irony, the proposition here is that the song “Cartoon Heroes” is just to pass the message of “Have fun folks”. In reality, the song is meant as a parody of the band Aqua themselves. The correct disbelievers would be Aqua and the incorrect believers are the listeners who are unaware of the parody. The situational irony is then seen via the same proposition, just switching the focus to the audience. They would be incorrect believers that Aqua is just paying tribute to the superheroes in the cartoon world, and the correct disbelievers are those who can see the parody of the song. Perhaps this is why they said not to take the song too seriously.
Conclusion
We have seen that there is largely no irony present via direct interpertation of the song “Cartoon Heroes” save for a little verbal irony from Lene, the music video does indeed parody many science fiction works and the combination of both gives the message of do not take the song too seriously, just have fun! And this maybe the main reason for its popularity. Then a possible alternate interpertation of the song as parody of the singers Aqua themselves leads directly to both verbal and situational irony. In conclusion, the tools for analysing irony and parody are capable of opening up and give deeper meaning to an otherwise simple song that no one will take seriously.
Works Cited
Aqua.dk.tp. 21 April 2010.
"Barbie loses battle over bimbo image." 25 July 2002. BBC News. 13 March 2010.
"blue." Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online. 23 April 2010.
"Cartoon Heroes lyrics." elyrics.net. 15 March 2010.
Chuson05. "Cartoon Heroes ." 1 July 2009. YouTube. 18 April 2010.
cutiepinay00. "Aqua- Cartoon Heroes." 19 December 2009. YouTube. 18 April 2010.
jeje0jess. "Cartoon Heroes 2001 Dancing." 12 July 2009. YouTube. 18 April 2010.
m0ds. "Godzilla teaser trailer #2." YouTube. 23 April 2010.
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Richard Bentley, 1851.
Montgomery, Martin, et al. "Irony." Montgomery, Martin, et al. Ways of Reading. London, New York: Routledge, 1992. 161-169.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. "OfTruth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense." Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 141-153.
Pler, Lleonard. "Aqua-Cartoon Heroes Videography." Aquarama.tk. 23 April 2010.
SANCHE, Karine. "Aqua - Cartoon Heroes." Eurodance Encyclopaedia. 18 April 2010.
Sphere . Dir. Barry Levinson. 1998.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Dir. George Lucas. 1977.
Stuart, Alan J. The A to Z of Aqua. 30 November 2000. 21 April 2010.
Wilson, Deirdre and Dan Sperber. "On Verbal Irony." Weber, Jean Jacques. The Stylistic Reader. London and New York: Arnold, 1996. 260-279.
YouTube Aqua - Cartoon Heroes (Full Version). 14 March 2010.
Brief summary of the music video
In the music video, the earth is threatened by giant octopus which is destroying the major cities of the world. A distress signal is sent to a spaceship to wake up the four heroes, played by the band Aqua. They then travel towards earth, stopping midway to refuel at an alien gas station. The spaceship turns into a submarine and they came out in diving suits to search under the sea for the giant octopus. They encountered the octopus and does battle, just as the situation seems dire for them, the spaceship/submarine sends out an electrical attack that made the giant octopus explode. The heroes then celebrate the victory. (YouTube Aqua - Cartoon Heroes (Full Version))
Cartoon Heroes lyrics
We are what we're supposed to be
Illusions of your fantasy
All dots and lines that speak and say
What we do is what you wish to do
We are the color symphony
We do the things you wanna see
Frame by frame, to the extreme
Our friends are so unreasonable
They do the unpredictable
All dots lines that speak and say
What we do is what you wish to do
It's all an orchestra of strings
Doin' unbelievable things
Frame by frame, to the extreme
One by one, we're makin' it fun
We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
And walked out on a piece of paper
Here comes Spiderman, arachnophobian
Welcome to the toon town party
Here comes Superman, from never-neverland
Welcome to the toon town party
We learned to run at speed of light
And to fall down from any height
It's true, but just remember that
What we do is what you just can't do
And all the worlds of craziness
A bunch of stars that's chasing us
Frame by frame, to the extreme
One by one, we're makin' it fun
We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
And walked out on a piece of paper
Here comes Spiderman, arachnophobian
Welcome to the toon town party
Here comes Superman, from never-neverland
Welcome to the toon town party
You think we're so mysterious
Don't take us all too serious
Be original, and remember that
What we do is what you just can't do
What we do is what you just can't do
What we do is what you just can't do
What we do is what you just can't do
What we do is what you just can't do
We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
And walked out on a piece of paper
There's still more to come
And everyone will be
Welcomed at the
Toon – Toon Town - Town
Party (Cartoon Heroes lyrics)
Background
Wilson and Sperber said that parody involves both echoic allusion and dissociative attitude. Echoic allusion can be seen as repeating a work of art, resembling it and not nessary identical to it. Dissociative attitude is to dissociate with the original work, ussually in disgust and to make fun of the original. Parody is to direct quotation means that the characters in parody should quote, with echoic allusion, the form of the original work. Irony is to indirect quotation means that irony resembles the meaning instead of just the form of the work. Parody can also be both parody of form and content (Wilson and Sperber).
Nietzsche in his essay, the Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings, questions extensively what truth is. The concepts and words that we use to represent things are removed from the orginal things that they meant. Truths then are a mobile army of metaphors that are widely accepted and agreed upon by humans (Nietzsche). There is no absolute truth then according to him. Therefore the concept of relative truths is used to create a real world and a cartoon world.
The real world is defined as the current world where we live in or at least the world in year 2000 when the song “Cartoon Heroes” was released. In this world, there are no superheroes, but animations, comics and even live action movies of superheroes are made and enjoyed by kids and adults. The normal laws of physics also holds, so nothing with mass can travel at the speed of light and the human body ussually does not survive a fall from sufficient heights. We are certainly aware of the cartoon world and for a brief while, when we are enjoying the movie or comic, we are immersed in it.
The cartoon world is defined by the existance of superheroes in the world, and the necessary bending of the laws of science that allows superpowers, giant monsters and advanced technology. It is in short the world that the people in the superheroes comics, animation, and movies are living in. Examples would include the DC universe where Superman lives or the Marvel universe where Spiderman lives in. Also, depending on the past history of the world, they maybe aware of the existence of our real world or not.
According to Montgomery, there are two main types of irony, verbal and situational. Both involve correctly disbeliving or incorrectly beliving a proposition. In verbal irony, the correctly disbelievers, like the speaker, is the main focus and the incorrect believer is not made explicit but just implied; while in situational irony, the incorrect believer is the main focus and the correct disbeliever is implied. (Montgomery, Durant and Fabb). The basis for judging the truth or falseness of a proposition is the unstated assumptions of the accepted truths, which depend on which world we are working with. For example, the proposition that anything with mass can travel at the speed of light is false in the real world but can be true in the cartoon world.
The group Aqua is composed of Lene Nystrøm, René Dif, Søren Rasted, and Claus Norreen. They are most famous for their song “Barbie girl” that caused a lawsuit against them for parodying the body shape of the dolls as bimbotic sex symbol (Barbie loses battle over bimbo image). Their second album, Aquarius released in year 2000, features “Cartoon Heroes” which, for the purpose of this paper, is divided into two parts, the music video and the lyrics or song.
The music video describes Aqua in the role of space patrol, saving the Earth from a giant octopus and succeeding in the end with the help of their spaceship/ submarine, Aquarius. The video has a budget of 3.5 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive music video at that time (Pler).
The lyrics or the song describes the four heroes, Aqua singing directly from the cartoon world to the real world as will be shown later.
Lyrics
This section analyses lyrics of the song according to Montgomery’s criteria. To be ironic, the propositions in the lyrics of the song must be false relative to a set of truths.
Before proceeding further, the lyrics, as propositions, has to be analysed in terms of the two worlds, the cartoon world and the real world. The proposition of “We are the Cartoon Heroes” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics) is only true in the cartoon world, thus defining the “we” in the rest of the song to be always interperted to be in the cartoon world. Then the proposition “We are the color symphony” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics) must be interperted in two worlds for it to be true. The “we” existing in the cartoon world, are just colours that sing in the real world. Lines like “We learned to run at speed of light and to fall down from any height” are only true if the whole sentence is interperted in the cartoon world, as the laws of physics in the real world prevents anything with mass to reach the speed of light and the human body generally cannot survive any fall from too high without external equipments. Lines that contain “you” like “What we do is what you wish to do” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics) the “you” refers to the listener. The interpertation of the line is what “we” do in the cartoon world (run at speed of light, fall from any height) is what “you” want to do in the real world, but as the laws of Science constricts “you” from doing them, “What we do is what you just can't do” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics). This proves the statement above in the background section that the singers are singing directly from the cartoon world to the real world.
From the above analysis, the lyrics of the song can be divided into two camps, one to be entirely interperted in the cartoon world, and the other, except for the word “we”, to be interperted in the real world. Let the name of the lines in the first camp to be cartoon lines and the other to be real lines. So examples of real lines are: “We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh and walked out on a piece of paper” and “All dots and lines that speak and say” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics), reflecting the fact that comics (the traditional media of superheroes) are just printed small dots and lines on papers so that it looks like a complete picture. “Frame by frame, to the extreme” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics) reflects the fact that motion and animated films (the adapted media for many superheroes from which the name cartoon heroes comes from) are just multiple frames per second that creates the illusion of motion.
An example of cartoon lines is “We learned to run at speed of light and to fall down from any height” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics). The following paragraphs will analyse the cartoon lines with respect to the real world, and the real lines with respect the cartoon world to create the basic condition for irony, that the proposition to be false.
Firstly, the case for cartoon lines interperted in the real world is considered, say “We learned to run at speed of light and to fall down from any height” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics). The above proposition is known to be false in the real world as mentioned. Now that a false propostition is identified, all that is needed for irony is to identify the singers as either incorrect believers or correct disbelievers. This strongly depends upon which roles the “singers” are interperted to be, real life people living in the real world, or characters playing superheroes in the cartoon world. Note that cartoon lines are true in the cartoon world and so any analysis for irony must steer clear from that world.
Examining first the case of incorrect believers, this is only possible if the singers as real people living in the real world still believe that they have superpowers! Obviously this is not the case as the singers know that they are just singing for that particular song. This is clear from the fact that they keep on producing songs like “Around the world”, “Bumble Bee”, and “We belong to the sea” (SANCHE) without the delusion of thinking that they are superheroes. Thus the case for situational irony according to Montgomery fails to hold in the real world for the lines “We learned to run at speed of light and to fall down from any height” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics).
How about the case of correct disbelievers? The song (and perhaps combined with the music video) must focus on the singers as real people with clear ironic intention that “we are just singing this” instead of focusing on the singers as superheroes saying that “these are what we can do in the cartoon world”. A review on the music video shows that they are about to enter warp speed (faster than light travel) (YouTube Aqua - Cartoon Heroes (Full Version)) when the lines are sung, so it can be seen that the song and music video wants to be serious and retain the cartoon world where they are singing the song. And yet, there is a slight hint of verbal irony from the movement of the eyes of Lene in the video. So, in conclusion, there is a slight irony intended and yet it is not the main attraction. The video seems to be serious (in staying in the cartoon world) overall, as Søren Rasted said, “We want to make a little bit more serious kind of video not the kind of slap-stick kind of videos that we did in the beginning (in the first album like Barbie girl).” (Pler)
To complete the analysis of ironic interpertation, the interpertation of the real lines like “We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh, and walked out on a piece of paper” in the cartoon world is done. In the cartoon world, the proposition above is false as the superheroes in the cartoon world would have to be created via radioactivity, biotechnology, freak accidents, aliens, almost anything except being created by a writer in another world. They are real, in the flesh, living, and not existing in dots and lines, frame by frame, or in a piece of paper. Now the question is: Are the singers Aqua incorrect believers or correct disbelievers as seen by people in the cartoon world, say Superman?
To answer this question, one must enter the boots of Aqua in the cartoon world to understand what they are thinking. They are just singing to people in the real world from the cartoon world. This indicates that they are aware of the real world and its truths. Correspondigly, they are also aware that the truths in the real world are not true in the cartoon world, so they cannot be, as cartoon world entities, truly believe in what they sing. That is, if Superman comes and ask them the meaning of the song, they will say that it is not meant for the cartoon world people. So this rules out them as incorrect believers as they know which world to apply this song to.
To qualify as them as correct disbelievers, the attitude of dissociation must be there to show that they do not believe what they are singing (Wilson and Sperber). However, since the singers are singing to the people in the real world, where most of the song will make sense, there is no need for the dissociative attitude. They need not disbelieve the fact that, “It's all an orchestra of strings doing unbelievable things” And indeed, by the fervor that they show while singing in the music video, one can see that they are serious in bringing the message across, the most notable line being “What we do is what you just can't do” which is repeated six times in total.
The music video
The music video made by Aqua on their song “Cartoon Heroes” is easily seen as a parody of science fiction horror movies such as Godzilla, featuring a world in need of help calling and reanimating Aqua, the heroes from outer space to battle against a big octopus (Aqua.dk.tp).
The music video is a parody of many science fiction movies and related event. Firstly, the radio broadcast of the War of the Worlds in 1938 which caused wide spread panic from a fictitious radio show in the format of news bulletin is echoed from the way that the news reporter in the television reports how one by one the major cities of the world are attacked (19s). The fact that the television used is in black and white reinforces the idea of the 1950s or earlier. Secondly, the movie Godzilla has a scene where Godzilla’s eye is as big as an average human (m0ds 1m 40s) is parodied by the big eye of the octopus looking into the living room of a family (52s). Thirdly, the popular image of aliens being “little green man” is used in the design of the aliens at the UFO gas station where they refueled their spaceship (2m 38s). Next, Star Wars uses hyper drive to travel faster than the speed of light (Lucas) and this is also parodied by the warp speed of the spaceship Aquarius (3m 21s). After that, Sphere, a 1998 film featuring a team of scientist going underwater to investigate an alien object contains a scene where the scientist are all in diving suits underwater (Levinson). Aqua walking underwater with full diving suit on closely parallels this image (4m). Lastly, Moby Dick features fighting scenes between a whale and humans (Melville), which is parodied by Aqua fighting a giant octopus with guns (4m 22s).
Other than the parodies, there is also some blue comedy in the video. Blue comedy is comedy involving profanity (blue) which is shown on (2m 43s) by René holding a Playalien magazine, parody of Playboy, a magazine for adults. This scene last only for a second and is easy to miss, thus it is also barely noticeable like the verbal irony by Lene earlier.
Now that both the music video and the lyrics are analysed, it is time to combine them.
The combination
The lyrics of the song show various departures from the music video, for example, the music video shows real live humans as heroes even through they are singing “Cartoon Heroes”, meaning heroes in animation. Furthermore, there is no mention of spaceship or the giant octopus in the lyrics of the song. The song seems to have no relation to the music video on the surface level. If they have no relationship, then why put them together in the first place?
Søren Rasted said, on the music video, “It is a good story. We are four super heroes who save the world – but not four super heroes who take themselves too seriously. The universe is futuristic yet old-fashioned, a mixture of past and present to make everything a bit corny in a funny way” (SANCHE). And from the lyrics of the song “you think we're so mysterious (from the unconventional use of the real lines in the song) - don't take us all too serious (which is why this paper only appears ten years after year 2000)” along with the overall tone of the song, the music video and the song share the same message “Have fun folks” (Stuart)! This presents an interesting case where the song and the music video do not need to be matching, just as long as the central message is brought across.
The claim that they are not taking themselves too seriously is strengthen by the hint of verbal irony from Lene and the Playalien scene with René. Lene did the eye movement to convey her dissociative attitude towards the line “and to fall down from any height” (Cartoon Heroes lyrics), indicating her disbelieve in the line and showing that she is actually a singer in the video. René’s Playalien scene in a song called “Cartoon Heroes” is a daring and playful insertion as many kids will definitely be watching the music videos. This shows that they are indeed as in the words of René Dif that, “We have to look serious (as the argument in the lyric section relies upon), still funny, can’t be that serious (not taking themselves too seriously), not serious (reference to their playful and good natured attitude in general).” (Pler)
The not so serious attitude implies that they may put their real live characters into their song. In fact at various points in the song, there are possible interpertations that seems like they are parodying themselves. The opening sequence of the music video, where the singers are waking up, is a symbolism of the coming back of Aqua with the second album (Pler). The line “We are what we're supposed to be, illusions of your fantasy” can be taken to imply that the band Aqua is what it is supposed to be, famous and rich, which is the fantasy of many people. The line “We are the ones who're gonna last forever” also reflects the fame of the group that will make them be remembered for a very long time. “What we do is what you just can't do” then means that the singing, touring and money making of the singers Aqua are not what an average human can do. It can also mean, along with the line “Be original”, that the other musical bands should and could not copy or borrow the style and lyrics of their songs.
The fact that the video does not show Aqua as having superpowers, and most of the shots are on the singers themselves, seems to highlight that the video is about them. This supports the notion that they are parodying themselves.
Looking at the song in this light, then it is situationally ironic for the many fans of Aqua to like the song if the singers had meant to parody themselves and singing with this in mind, they are producing verbal irony. For the verbal irony, the proposition here is that the song “Cartoon Heroes” is just to pass the message of “Have fun folks”. In reality, the song is meant as a parody of the band Aqua themselves. The correct disbelievers would be Aqua and the incorrect believers are the listeners who are unaware of the parody. The situational irony is then seen via the same proposition, just switching the focus to the audience. They would be incorrect believers that Aqua is just paying tribute to the superheroes in the cartoon world, and the correct disbelievers are those who can see the parody of the song. Perhaps this is why they said not to take the song too seriously.
Conclusion
We have seen that there is largely no irony present via direct interpertation of the song “Cartoon Heroes” save for a little verbal irony from Lene, the music video does indeed parody many science fiction works and the combination of both gives the message of do not take the song too seriously, just have fun! And this maybe the main reason for its popularity. Then a possible alternate interpertation of the song as parody of the singers Aqua themselves leads directly to both verbal and situational irony. In conclusion, the tools for analysing irony and parody are capable of opening up and give deeper meaning to an otherwise simple song that no one will take seriously.
Works Cited
Aqua.dk.tp. 21 April 2010
"Barbie loses battle over bimbo image." 25 July 2002. BBC News. 13 March 2010
"blue." Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online. 23 April 2010
"Cartoon Heroes lyrics." elyrics.net. 15 March 2010
Chuson05. "Cartoon Heroes ." 1 July 2009. YouTube. 18 April 2010
cutiepinay00. "Aqua- Cartoon Heroes." 19 December 2009. YouTube. 18 April 2010
jeje0jess. "Cartoon Heroes 2001 Dancing." 12 July 2009. YouTube. 18 April 2010
m0ds. "Godzilla teaser trailer #2." YouTube. 23 April 2010
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Richard Bentley, 1851.
Montgomery, Martin, et al. "Irony." Montgomery, Martin, et al. Ways of Reading. London, New York: Routledge, 1992. 161-169.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. "OfTruth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense." Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 141-153.
Pler, Lleonard. "Aqua-Cartoon Heroes Videography." Aquarama.tk. 23 April 2010
SANCHE, Karine. "Aqua - Cartoon Heroes." Eurodance Encyclopaedia. 18 April 2010
Sphere . Dir. Barry Levinson. 1998.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Dir. George Lucas. 1977.
Stuart, Alan J. The A to Z of Aqua. 30 November 2000. 21 April 2010
Wilson, Deirdre and Dan Sperber. "On Verbal Irony." Weber, Jean Jacques. The Stylistic Reader. London and New York: Arnold, 1996. 260-279.
YouTube Aqua - Cartoon Heroes (Full Version). 14 March 2010
Brief summary of the music video
In the music video, the earth is threatened by giant octopus which is destroying the major cities of the world. A distress signal is sent to a spaceship to wake up the four heroes, played by the band Aqua. They then travel towards earth, stopping midway to refuel at an alien gas station. The spaceship turns into a submarine and they came out in diving suits to search under the sea for the giant octopus. They encountered the octopus and does battle, just as the situation seems dire for them, the spaceship/submarine sends out an electrical attack that made the giant octopus explode. The heroes then celebrate the victory. (YouTube Aqua - Cartoon Heroes (Full Version))
Cartoon Heroes lyrics
We are what we're supposed to be
Illusions of your fantasy
All dots and lines that speak and say
What we do is what you wish to do
We are the color symphony
We do the things you wanna see
Frame by frame, to the extreme
Our friends are so unreasonable
They do the unpredictable
All dots lines that speak and say
What we do is what you wish to do
It's all an orchestra of strings
Doin' unbelievable things
Frame by frame, to the extreme
One by one, we're makin' it fun
We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
And walked out on a piece of paper
Here comes Spiderman, arachnophobian
Welcome to the toon town party
Here comes Superman, from never-neverland
Welcome to the toon town party
We learned to run at speed of light
And to fall down from any height
It's true, but just remember that
What we do is what you just can't do
And all the worlds of craziness
A bunch of stars that's chasing us
Frame by frame, to the extreme
One by one, we're makin' it fun
We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
And walked out on a piece of paper
Here comes Spiderman, arachnophobian
Welcome to the toon town party
Here comes Superman, from never-neverland
Welcome to the toon town party
You think we're so mysterious
Don't take us all too serious
Be original, and remember that
What we do is what you just can't do
What we do is what you just can't do
What we do is what you just can't do
What we do is what you just can't do
What we do is what you just can't do
We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
And walked out on a piece of paper
There's still more to come
And everyone will be
Welcomed at the
Toon – Toon Town - Town
Party (Cartoon Heroes lyrics)
Friday, April 16, 2010
A short thing about me, denouncing the IPhO
Hi,
I'm got interested in Maths first, then as my education progresses on, science caught my attention, but it wasn't until after the spliting of science into 3 disciplines that I found out that it is Physics that I like about Science. Not surpisingly, it is also the one with the most maths in it.
And so after my secondary school education, high school provides me with many books, popular science books, books that tells me of the 30 years that shook physics, or the formation of Quantum Mechanics, the progress of Physics from Galelio to Einstein, the particle physics, and most importantly, the Unification of Physics, String theory, and others. All these pushes oneself to really love Physics. I kinda remember the days of learning Special Relativity on my own, through the net. It was a treasure trove that I desparately wish to share with others!
Then came the International Physics Olympiad, that had really sealed my fate with Physics, my University major could be nothing else. What's more I've went twice! Representing Malaysia. However, as I look back on it now, the IPhO students knows only how to solve the physics problems, they are not really well versed in deeply understanding Physics. As Physics Undergraduates, we should be proud, because we are greater than the Olympiad student, we understand Physics! Thank you.
I'm got interested in Maths first, then as my education progresses on, science caught my attention, but it wasn't until after the spliting of science into 3 disciplines that I found out that it is Physics that I like about Science. Not surpisingly, it is also the one with the most maths in it.
And so after my secondary school education, high school provides me with many books, popular science books, books that tells me of the 30 years that shook physics, or the formation of Quantum Mechanics, the progress of Physics from Galelio to Einstein, the particle physics, and most importantly, the Unification of Physics, String theory, and others. All these pushes oneself to really love Physics. I kinda remember the days of learning Special Relativity on my own, through the net. It was a treasure trove that I desparately wish to share with others!
Then came the International Physics Olympiad, that had really sealed my fate with Physics, my University major could be nothing else. What's more I've went twice! Representing Malaysia. However, as I look back on it now, the IPhO students knows only how to solve the physics problems, they are not really well versed in deeply understanding Physics. As Physics Undergraduates, we should be proud, because we are greater than the Olympiad student, we understand Physics! Thank you.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
April Update
After the last post, it has been a long time since I talk about myself. Now this is all about me. Or what I did.
I went for a 8-precept day retreat in Wat Palelai one Weekend, which brings me to Ajahn Seng, then after the first time in my life meditating for 5 hours in one day, I and NTUBS people when to see Ajahn Seng to discuss on the next meditation retreat, one that we're to organise. So that's why we went to Wat Palelai again yesterday night to have an insightful and nice discussions about the details surrounding the retreat.
Then the next Saturday I had a Nam Wah Pai grading, which brings me to senior green belt now! And the following Sunday, I had another training, the very last one before the competition today! And today's competition I gave up during the second round, mostly to protect my brain. I do value my brain more than victory. Indeed. Anyway today's competition is very nice and fun and an enlightening, it tells me that if I ever am involved in a fight, running would be a better choice, for now.
So still sustaining some minor injury now, let me tell you about the time when I broke down. I went and played Civilisation 4 the weekend before I had 3 term test 2 and 2 lab reports to hand up. Well, it caused me to have 3 consecutive times of waking up one day, not sleeping that night, strive to not sleep during the day, then sleep for one night, then repeat.... Well comparatively, the previous time before that, I was reading Dune, and it fared better. Although there's also one time when I over eat (again) in my research group's nights out to celebrate birthdays, and I got sick the whole of next day, Dune did help me pass through it.
Before that sickness, I went to a doctor and got some medicine for my running nose, now that the medicine is finished, I think the condition is a bit better.
Ok enough. Signing off here.
I went for a 8-precept day retreat in Wat Palelai one Weekend, which brings me to Ajahn Seng, then after the first time in my life meditating for 5 hours in one day, I and NTUBS people when to see Ajahn Seng to discuss on the next meditation retreat, one that we're to organise. So that's why we went to Wat Palelai again yesterday night to have an insightful and nice discussions about the details surrounding the retreat.
Then the next Saturday I had a Nam Wah Pai grading, which brings me to senior green belt now! And the following Sunday, I had another training, the very last one before the competition today! And today's competition I gave up during the second round, mostly to protect my brain. I do value my brain more than victory. Indeed. Anyway today's competition is very nice and fun and an enlightening, it tells me that if I ever am involved in a fight, running would be a better choice, for now.
So still sustaining some minor injury now, let me tell you about the time when I broke down. I went and played Civilisation 4 the weekend before I had 3 term test 2 and 2 lab reports to hand up. Well, it caused me to have 3 consecutive times of waking up one day, not sleeping that night, strive to not sleep during the day, then sleep for one night, then repeat.... Well comparatively, the previous time before that, I was reading Dune, and it fared better. Although there's also one time when I over eat (again) in my research group's nights out to celebrate birthdays, and I got sick the whole of next day, Dune did help me pass through it.
Before that sickness, I went to a doctor and got some medicine for my running nose, now that the medicine is finished, I think the condition is a bit better.
Ok enough. Signing off here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)