Modern Living

November 29th, 2008 | BY JASON SAFIR

Modern Living is a series of fifteen television parodies that mock various perspectives of television culture

The five-minute compilation pokes fun at our TV-addicted age by presenting a variety of imitated television programming and advertisements. These segments center around issues and themes that is relevant in our modern times including mass-consumption, obsession with stardom and ubiquitous technology. Each parody is presented with the same recognizable character throughout, who is placed in different mediated contexts. The performer also acts as the viewer of his own programming, revealing a perspective of television we don’t see when sitting on our couch.


Modern Living advances on my continuous interest in mocking television culture. These parodies are meaningful to me because they reveal the deceptiveness behind media corporations in a fun and creative way. The work also illustrates the damaging effects television can place on a viewer’s impression of the world.