Satire

Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. In Celtic societies, it was thought a bard's satire could have physical effects, similar to a curse. A satirist is one who satirizes.

Satire is not exclusive to any viewpoint. Parody is a form of humor that imitates another work of art in an exaggerated fashion for comic effect, usually deriding the subject of the parody in the process. Although the techniques of satire and parody often overlap, they are not synonymous. Satires need not be humorous – indeed, they are often tragic – while parodies are almost inevitably humorous. Parodies are imitative by definition, while satires need not be. Humorous satires often base the humor on the juxtaposition between the satire and reality. The main intent of satire is political, social, or moral and not comic. The humor of such a satire tends to be subtle, using irony and deadpan humor liberally.

Notable examples of satire

• Sir Peter MaxwellSatirical look at an ageing Thatcherite tycoon.
• Ovid The Art of Love
• Juvenal (c. A.D. 55–140) – 16 Satires
• Petronius (c. A.D. 55–140) – Satirae
• Nigel of Canterbury – Speculum Stultorum (Mirror for Fools), 12th c. satire of monks and universities
• De Nugis Curialibus (The Courtiers' Jests), 12th c. satire of life at court in England
• Jonathan Swift – A Tale of a Tub, Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal, exposing the coarse, harsh world for what it really is. Some mistake this for misanthropy, but Swift clearly wrote what he wrote to better mankind; by showing its flaws unabashedly in hopes that people would recognize the folly or even evil in their own life and then actually improve. Swift is considered by many to be the greatest satirist of the English language, and possibly of the world.
• Voltaire – Candide, satirizing optimism
• Samuel Butler II – Erewhon, a utopia, a form of literature that commonly has satire.
• George Orwell – Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopia, a form of literature which also commonly has satire.
• Alfred Jarry – Ubu Roi (or King Turd), a cacotopia
• Anatole France – Penguin Island, a utopia
• Aldous Huxley – Brave New World, a dystopia
• Mark Twain – Later works, notably The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg
• Flannery O'Connor – Wise Blood, satirizing contemporary religious attitudes
• C. Northcote Parkinson – various satires of bureaucracy.
• Thomas Nast – Political cartoons against Boss Tweed
• Stanley Kubrick – Movies Doctor Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange.
• Robert Clark Young – One of the Guys
• Dario Fo – Accidental Death of an Anarchist
• le Canard Enchaîné publishes satirical cartoons and columns along with well-researched information on French political or economic life.
• Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – Cat's Cradle is a political satire, adopting a sci-fi motif.
• Chuck Palahniuk – Fight Club, a satire of masculinity, consumerism, and nihilism.
• Chris Morris – Brass Eye, a satire of Britsh news programmes
• The Onion and The Daily Show, satires of the American news media
• Michael Moore – Stupid White Men, thick to the brim with satire.
• George Ouzounian, a.k.a. Maddox – The Best Page in the Universe
• Terry Pratchett – Discworld series is quality satire, well disguised as fantasy.
• The Landover Baptist Church – Internet parody of Christian fundamentalism
• Skits and "updates" that air on the Rush Limbaugh radio program.

Satire in Pop Culture and Public Media

Some works of satire are subtle enough in their exaggeration that they still seem believable to many people. The satiric nature of these works may be lost on the public at large, and there have been instances where the author or producers of a satirical work have been harshly criticized as a result. In 2002 the British network Channel 4 aired a satiric mockumentary entitled Paedogeddon in the Brass Eye series, which was intended to mock and satirize the fascination of modern journalism with child molestors and paedophiles. The TV network received an enormous number of complaints from members of the public, who were outraged that the show would mock a subject considered by many to be too "serious" to be the subject of humor. The movie This is Spinal Tap, a spoof of rockumentaries, about a fictitious and ridiculous hard rock band was mistaken for a non-fiction by some critics.

On occasion, satire can cause social change when used to make a political or social point (although simply revealing absurdities to the public, as opposed to the quality of the satire, may be the actual cause of any consequences). For instance, the comic strip Doonesbury satirized a Florida county that had a racist law that minorities had to have a passcard in the area; the law was soon repealed with an act nicknamed the Doonesbury Act. In the 2000 Canadian federal election campaign, a Canadian Alliance proposal for a mechanism to require a referendum in response to a petition of sufficient size was satirized by the television show This Hour Has 22 Minutes so effectively that it was discredited and soon dropped.

Satire enjoyed a renaissance in the UK in the early 1960s with the Satire Boom, led by such luminaries as Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, David Frost, Eleanor Bron and Dudley Moore and the television programme That Was The Week That Was.

Today, Sasha Baron Cohen satirizes predjudices, ignorance, and racism by portraying Ali G, a white Rastafarian rapper from West Staines, Borat, a Kazakh man making films about America to send back to the old country, and Bruno, a gay Austrian fashionista. The latter two are professed anti-Semites, though Cohen, who acts out their personas, is actually Jewish himself. The satire is often evident in the respones Cohen's characters racial slurs get, which often reveal the more sordid opinions those who interviews hold.