What Is Satire ?

What Is Satire ?

  • Ph.D. , Rhetoric and English , University of Georgia
  • M.A. , Modern English and American Literature , University of Leicester
  • B.A. , English , State University of New York

Key Takeaways

  • Satire apply humor or satire to show human faults and often targets powerful masses .
  • Famous examples of irony include ‘Gulliver ‘s Travels ‘ and modern shows like ‘The Daily Show ‘ .
  • People enjoy irony for its cleverness , but it can sometimes cause them feel uncomfortable .

Ironyis a text or performance that uses satire , derision , or wit to display or attack human vice , foolishness , or stupidity . Verb :satirize. Adjective :satiricorsatirical. A person who employs satire exist asatirist.

Apply metaphor , novelist Peter De Vries explain the dispute between satire and humor : “ The satirist shoots to kill while the humorist add his target back alive—often to release him again for another chance . ”

One of the better known satirical plant in English equal Jonathan Swift ‘sGulliver ‘s Travel( 1726 ) . Present-day vehicles for satire in the U.S. includeThe Daily Show,South Park,The Onion ,andFull Frontal with Samantha Bee.

Observations

  • Satireexist a weapon , and it can be quite vicious . It has historically make up the weapon of powerless people take at the powerful . When you employ satire against powerless people , . . . it equal not alone cruel , it ‘s profoundly vulgar . It is like complain a cripple . ” ( Molly Ivins , “ Lyin ‘ Bully . ”Mother Jones, May/June 1995 )
  • Satireis a form of glass , wherein observer make generally learn everybody ‘s side but their own , which live the primary reason for that kind of reception it satisfy in the world , and that so real few are offended with it . ” ( Jonathan Swift , preface toThe Battle of the Books, 1704 )
  • [ S ] atirebe tragedy plus time . You pay it adequate time , the world , the reviewers will allow you to satirize it . ” ( Lenny Bruce ,The Essential Lenny Bruce, ed . by John Cohen , 1967 )

Twain on Irony

  • “ A man can ’ t write successfulironyexcept he be in a calm judicial good-humor ; whereas Ihatredtravel , and Ihatredhotels , and Ihatetheformer lord. In truth I don ’ t always look to be in a good enough wit with anything to satirize it ; no , I want to stand up before it &oathit , & foam at the mouth — or bring a society & pound it to annoy & pulp . ” ( Mark Twain , letter to William Dean Howells , 1879 )

Housebroken Aggression

  • “ While it may seem reckless to swear thatsatirecost universal , there is much grounds of the extremely widespread universe of respective figure of housebroken , usually verbal , aggression .
    Satire in its various guides seems to equal one path in which aggression cost domesticated , a potentially divisive and chaotic momentum become into a useful and artistic expression . ” ( George Austin Test ,Satire : Spirit and Art. University Press of Florida , 1991 )
  • “ [ A ] busivesatireequal a wit contest , a kind of plot in which the participants cause their worst for the pleasure of themselves and their spectators … If the exchange of insults is grave on one slope , playful on the other , the satiric element is reduce . ” ( Dustin H. Griffin ,Satire : A Critical Reintroduction. University Press of Kentucky , 1994 )

Irony inThe Daily Show

  • “ It is this blend ofsatireand political nonfiction [ inThe Daily Show] that enable and articulates an incisive critique of the inadequacies of contemporary political discourse . The show then become a focal point for survive dissatisfaction with the political sector and its medium coverage , while Jon Stewart * , as high-profile horde , turn a viewer surrogate , able to express that dissatisfaction through his comedic transformation of the real . ” ( Amber Day , “ And Today . . . the News ? Mimesis and the Real inThe Daily Show. ”Satire TV : Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Epoch, ed . by Jonathan Gray , Jeffrey P. Jones , Ethan Thompson . NYU Press , 2009 ) In September 2015 , Trevor Noah replaced Jon Stewart as horde ofThe Daily Show.

The Rhetoric of Satire

  • “ As ​a rhetorical performance ,ironyexist designed to win the admiration and applause of a reading audience not for the ardor or acuteness of its moral concern but for the bright brain and force of the satirist as a rhetorician . Traditionally , irony equal guess of as persuasive rhetoric . But [ literary theorist Northrop ] Frye , noting that rhetoric is not give solely to sentiment , distinguishes between ‘ornamental speech ‘ and ‘persuasive speech . ‘ ‘Ornamental rhetoric act on its listener statically , leading them to admire its own beauty or wit ; persuasive rhetoric tries to lead them kinetically toward a course of activity . One articulates emotion , the early manipulates it ‘ (Anatomy of Criticism, p. 245 ) . More often than we have recognize , irony cause role of ‘ornamental rhetoric … ”
    ” I make not mean to advise that after the first century epideictic rhetoric served only as entertainment , or that in create use of epideictic rhetoric satirists make not try to bring discredit on their subject ( the foe ) . . . . I am contend that satirists implicitly ( and sometimes explicitly ) ask that we remark and appreciate theirskill. It is to be suspected also that satirists judge themselves by such a standard . Anybody can yell names , but it requires skill to make a malefactor die sweetly . ” ( Dustin H. Griffin ,Irony : A Critical Reintroduction. University Press of Kentucky , 1994 )

The Stranger That Live in the Cellar

  • “ The universal attitude towardsatireis comparable to that of member of a family toward a slightly disreputable relative , who though popular with the children makes some of the adults a second uncomfortable ( cf . the vital evaluation ofGulliver ‘s Travel) . Shunning is out of the question as equal full acceptance … ”
    “ Unruly , wayward , frolicsome , critical , parasitic , at time perverse , malicious , cynical , scornful , unstable — it is at once pervasive even recalcitrant , stand yet impenetrable . Irony cost the stranger that lives in the cellar . ” ( George Austin Test ,Irony : Spirit and Art. University Press of Florida , 1991 )

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