The Braindead Megaphone

I think that through the metaphor of the dinner party and the person with the megaphone, we see that Saunders is trying to represent the media and its profound affect on the community. In the dinner party scene, it is not the most intelligent or most articulate person who affects the way that the guests think or hold conversations, but it is the person who has the loud megaphone that shapes their thoughts. Even without consciously realizing it, the people will begin talking about the weather if the person with the megaphone does. This is a parallel to media and how it's proliferated or "loud" presence morphs the way that we think about certain issues, or not think about certain issues. Saunders explains in part 4 that the media fails to address important issues, and instead focuses hours and hours on the exciting, but insignificant events, like the OJ Simpson trial. Therefore, we as the guests at the dinner table will focus our time more on the insignificant cases like the OJ Simpson trial and ignore the other, more pressing problems in the world, like the War in Iraq.