There are many types of parody artists: many like Shin parody political issues, sometimes clashing with the parody subjects, who usually are those with political power. Others parody popular cultural themes for commercial purposes. As Seo Dong-wook (30) of T09 says, ?arody artists are people who can criticize in interesting and fun ways. The most important thing is maintaining a critical train of thought- without it, parody would be nothing more than child? play. Seo goes on to add, ? parody artist must have expansive knowledge on culture and current events, and be sensitive to new trends and fads. And of course, it would be best to know how to express your opinion through writing, designs, pictures, and music.
As parody artists use these tools to get their message across, their work causes new waves of thought, which in turn may lead to suspicion. During last April? National Assembly elections, many artists and authors who posted parody strips on the Internet were investigated by the police; about 12,000 posts were deleted and up to 1,170 writers arrested. In turn, more writers and artists revolted against the violation on their freedom of expression and demanded greater attention to basic human rights during the investigation process. Many Internet parody strip artists united to form the ?and of Writers, an amateur Parody Artist Association (http://www.bangbup.com).
Most experts seem to agree with Shin, but many note that parody artists should, themselves, exercise restraint. Professor Lee Yun-bae (Chosun University) claims, ?arody strips must be created with wit and humor, and artists must always exercise self-restraint and expel work made for impure purposes such as damaging another person? reputation or infringing on any of their rights. Most citizens only want and expect humorous epigrams when they look at parody strips, not those with purposely delinquent content.
sooky13@ewha.ac.kr