Satire

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Satire

• The Mace and Rapier

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What is Satire?

• Satire is a weapon used
• to ridicule
• to attack the vices and follies they see in human
  behavior.
• Usually states or implies some idea of what
  should be the correct behavior or thought.
• Goal of satire self-examination and change
  foolish ways.
• In written satire, the pen can be a mace
  hacking and bashing the victims to smithereens
  or a rapier delicately piercing the target.

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Questions for Satire

• What does the satire ridicule? What are its
  targets?
• What does the satire suggest is preferable to
  whatever is criticized?
• What techniques does the satirist use to convey
  his or her ridicule?
• To what extent is the satirist justified in
  attacking his target?
• How successful is the satire?

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Distance from Satirical Target

• To be effective, writers or performers must have
  a detachment from their target.
• Henry Rule confessed, In truth I dont ever seem
  to be in a good enough humor with anything to
  satirize it no, I want to stand up before it and
  curse it, and foam at the mouthor take a club
  and pound it to rags and pulp (Nilsen Nilsen
  259).

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Horatian VS. Juvenalian Satire

• Gentle and humorous satire is called Horatian
  Satire after the writing style of the Roman
  poet Horace.
• Heavy or biting satire called Juvenalian Satire
  after the Roman poet Juvenal.

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Satire vs. Gallows Humor

• Satirists may use their humor to inspire reform
  and change, or they may use it to promote the
  status quo.
• Satire MUST HAVE A TARGET
• If the creators of satire dont have a reform or
  a solution in mind but are simply holding up an
  aspect of the world as ridiculous, then they are
  creating irony or gallows humor rather than
  satire.
• Gallows Humor? Humor from stressful situations,
  i.e., death at the gallows.

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Satire Techniques

• Naïve speaker doesnt understand the
  implications of his narration
• Take a trivial concern or situation seriously
• Treat a serious concern as unimportant or trivial
• Sarcasm sneering, jesting, or mocking a person,
  situation or thing.
• Exaggerate blow the issue out of proportion to
  make people focus on it
• Understate minimize the issue to make people
  realize its importance
• Oxymoron a figure of speech that combines
  normally contradicting terms. Such as extremely
  average, deliberate puns like same difference' or
  'pretty ugly
• Tone The attitude the writer or speaker takes
  toward a subject. It reflects the feelings of
  the writer or speaker. The choice of words and
  details given help establish the tone, which
  might be serious, humorous, sarcastic, playful,
  ironic, bitter, or objective.

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Types of Satire

• Cartoons and art
• Exaggeration and caricature
• Irony
• Speaker
• Parody
• Reversal

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Cartoons and Art

• Lampoon or parody aspects of society or practices
  
• Example In the
• example to the right,
• what is being
• criticized? How
• does the cartoon
• help make a point?

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Cartoons and Art
Is this just funny? Or is it making a
statement? What techniques does the satirist use?
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Exaggeration

• Focuses on one or two elements of a situation
• Extends them beyond reality or out of proportion
  to everything else

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Consider the following
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Caricature

• Distorts one or two elements of appearance,
  usually for humorous effect.
• Gentle form of exaggeration (usually)

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Burlesque

• Ridiculous exaggeration of language.
• Used for comic effect the language used in a
  situation is so absurd as to make it funny.
• Example In the following clip, how do we expect
  the characters to sound? What does the change do?
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v1CDcjHVG2Kg

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Irony

• Incongruity presents things that are out of
  place or are absurd in relation to its
  surroundings
• Example But
• why is this satire?
• What does it
• target?

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Examples of Irony

• Situational Irony Occurs when a character or the
  reader expects one thing to happen but something
  else actually happens. There is a great
  difference between the purpose of a particular
  action and the result.
• Verbal Irony Occurs when a writer or character
  says one thing but means another.

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Why is this song ironic?

• Listen to the lyrics and then compare it to the
  music played along with it.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vulTmmTIlM_o
• Who is the target?
• Why is this satire?

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The Speaker in Satire

• Sometimes very angry voices making direct
  attacks.
• Sometimes evil men and women confessing their own
  sins proudly.
• Sometimes reveal their own folly without
  intending to.
• Diatribe direct, angry attack in the hope of
  eliminating what the satirist regards as
  undesirable conditions, attitudes, and behavior.

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Parody

• Imitates the style of a particular work or writer
  
• Style is crucial HOW the satire is done
• Examples Airplane! or The Key of Awesome on
  youtube
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vEyBwZeoxISk

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Parody of Fine Art
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Reversal

• Presents the opposite of the normal order
• Order of events or Expectation
• Dessert first, then main course.
• The princess saving Prince Charming
• Hierarchal order
• When a child runs the household and the parent is
  treated like a child.