Absolutely Ridiculous!

What do Candide and Little Miss Sunshine have in common?

Outside of the fact that they are generally both of the satiric kind, they also utilize ridiculous scenarios. The scenarios are so crazy and unrealistic, but at the same time they almost feel real in a weird way. For me, it wouldn't have been a total shocker if there was a "Based on a true story" at the start of each story.

Because both works are satiric, they attack some of the "untouchable" topics of the time. They're supposed to make the readers/moviegoers a little uncomfortable because they know that there is truth behind the all the wildness. That's the point of a satire, and nothing helps satire achieve its purpose more than the sheer ridiculousness of a situation.

Ridiculous satiric situations are based on somewhat realistic scenarios. However, they then proceed to exaggerate what is being satirized so that it become blatantly obvious to the audience what is wrong in that situation. However, due to the situation's basis in reality, the scene will still allow the audience to see its relevance to their real lives despite the cover of ridiculousness. It's obviously not real, yet it's strangely real at the same time.

Someone that has a relatively optimistic perspective (like me) wouldn't tend to see some of the things that are caused by religious hypocrisy. As someone who is religious myself, I might even prefer to ignore it. However, while reading something like Candide, even though the outcomes are rather ridiculous, something didn't sit well with me. I knew deep down inside that religious hypocrisy is real. It was real, and its effects can't be ignored. Religious hypocrisy has led to horrible things like slavery and genocide, and I knew this. I knew that deep down inside, there was also some semblance of that religious hypocrisy within me, however hard I tried to suppress it. Fortunately for me, it hasn't led to anything major, but the ridiculousness of Candide helped me realize the inescapable truth. Though the scenes were funny, I felt uncomfortable throughout, knowing that I was being forced to confront a part of myself that I had been trying to ignore.

Sometimes, it takes something wacky, something that's too good to be true, to break through the wall of lies that is built up to hide the truth.