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
Are these just funny? Or are they making a
statement? What techniques does the satirist use?
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Cartoons and Art
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(No Transcript)
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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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• Ten thousand spoons when all you need is a
  knife not ironic.
• Not being able to find a knife in a knife factory
  ironic.

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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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Understatement

• Understatement is a form of speech where a lesser
  expression is used than what would be expected
• For example, in Monty Python's The Meaning of
  Life, an Army officer has just lost his leg.
  Asked how he feels, he looks down at his bloody
  stump and says, "Stings a bit."

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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
• Example Airplane!

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Parody of Fine Art
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(No Transcript)
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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.