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1867 edition of Punch, a ground-breaking British magazine of popular humour, including a good deal of satire of the contemporary social and political scene.
Satire is strictly a literary genre, although it is found in the graphic and performing arts as well as the printed word. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with an intent to bring about improvement.Robert C. Elliott, Satire, in: Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Although satire is usually meant to be funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humor itself, but rather an attack using wit on something with which author disapproves .
A very common, almost defining feature of satire is its strong vein of irony or sarcasm, but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. The essential point, however, is that "in satire, irony is militant"Northrop Frye, literary critic, quoted in: Elliott, satire. This "militant irony" (or sarcasm) often professes to approve the very things the satirist actually wishes to attack.
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The word satire comes from Latin satura lanx and means "medley, dish of colourful fruits" - it was held by Quintilian to be a "wholly Roman phenomenon" (satura tota nostra est). This derivation properly has nothing to do with the Greek mythological figure satyrWith the Renaissance mixup of the two, the presumed Greek origin had some influence on the satire making it more aggressive than Roman satire generally was, B.L. Ullman "Satura and Satire" Classical Philology 8:2. To Quintilian, the satire was a strict literary form, but the term soon escaped from its original narrow definition. Robert Elliott wrote:
Satire (in the modern sense of the word) is found in many artistic forms of expression, including literature, plays, commentary, and media such as song lyrics. The term is nowadays applied to many works other than those which would have been considered satire by Quintilian - including, for instance, ancient Greek authors predating the first Roman satires.
Satirical works often contain "straight" (non-satirical) humour - usually to give some relief from what might otherwise be relentless "preaching". This has always been the case, although it is probably more marked in modern satire. On the other hand some satire has little or no humour at all. It is not "funny" - and nor is it meant to be.
Humour about a particular subject (politics, religion and art for instance) is not necessarily satirical because the subject itself is often a subject of satire. Nor is humour using the great satiric tools of irony, parody, or burlesque always meant in a satirical sense.
The Satire of the TradesM. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, volume I, 1973, pp.184-193 dates to the beginning of the 2 millennium BC and is one of the oldest texts using hyperbole in order to achieve a didactic aim. It describes the various trades in an exaggeratedly disparaging fashion in order to convince students tired of studying that their lot as scribes will be far superior to that of the ordinary man in the street. Some scholars like Helck W. Helck, Die Lehre des DwA-xtjj, Wiesbaden, 1970 think that, rather than satirical, the descriptions were intended to be serious.
The Papyrus Anastasi IAlan H. Gardiner, Egyptian Hieratic Texts - Series I: Literary Texts of the New Kingdom, Part I, Leipzig 1911 (late 2nd millennium BC) contains the text of a satirical letter in which the writer at first praises the virtues but then mercilessly mocks the meagre knowledge and achievements of the recipient of the letter.
The Greeks had no word for what later would be called a satire, although cynicism and parody were used. In retrospect, the Greek playwright Aristophanes is one of the best known early satirists; he is particularly famous for his political satire in which he criticized the powerful Cleon (as in The Knights) and for the persecution he underwent.POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SATIRE OF ARISTOPHANES in The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, vol. 2. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 55-59.J. E. Atkinson Curbing the Comedians: Cleon versus Aristophanes and Syracosius\' Decree The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 42, No. 1 (1992), pp. 56-64Aristophanes: the Michael Moore of his Day by John Louis AndersonSutton, D. F., Ancient Comedy: The War of the Generations (New York, 1993), p.56.
The oldest form of satire still in use is the Menippean satire by Menippos of Gadara. His own writings are lost, but his admirers and imitators mix seriousness and mocking in dialogues and parodies before a background of diatribe, a cynicistic criticism, a very biting comment by cynics.
In Rome, the first to discuss satire critically was Quintilian, who invented the term to describe the writings of Lucilius. In the 16th century, most believed that the term satire came from the Greek satyr; satyrs were the companions of Dionysos and central characters of the satyr plays of the Theatre of Ancient Greece. Its derivatives satirical and satirise are indeed, but the style of the Roman satire is rather linked to the satira, or satura lanx, a "dish of fruits" resembling the colourful mockings or figuratively a "medley". Pliny reports that the 6th century BC poet Hipponax wrote satirae that were so cruel that the offended hanged themselves.Cuddon, Dictionary of Literary Terms, Oxford 1998, "satire" The confusion with the satyr supported the understanding of satire as biting, like Juvenal, and not mild, like Horace, method of criticism in Early Modern Europe until the 17th century.
Criticism of Roman emperors (notably Augustus) needed to be presented in veiled ironical terms - but the term when applied to Latin works actually titled as "satires" is much wider than in the modern sense of the word, including fantastic and highly coloured humorous writing with little or no real mocking intent.
Prominent satirists from Roman antiquity include Horace and Juvenal, who were active during the early days of the Roman Empire and are the two most influential Latin satirists. Other important Roman satirists are Lucilius and Persius.
There are examples of satire from the Early Middle Ages, especially songs by goliards or vagants now best known as an anthology called Carmina Burana and made famous as texts of a composition by the 20th century composer Carl Orff. Satirical poetry is believed to have been popular, although little has survived. With the advent of the High Middle Ages and the birth of modern vernacular literature in the 12th century, it began to be used again, most notably by Chaucer. The disrespectful manner was considered "Unchristian" and ignored but for the moral satire, which mocked misbehavior in Christian terms. Examples are Livre des Manières (~1170), and in some of Chaucer\'s Canterbury Tales. The epos was mocked, and even the feudal society, but there was hardly a general interest in the genre. After the Middle Ages in the Renaissance reawakening of Roman literary traditions, the satires Till Eulenspiegel and Reynard the Fox were published, and also in Sebastian Brant\'s Narrenschiff (1494), Erasmus\' Moriae Encomium (1509) and Thomas More\'s Utopia (1516).
Obeid e zakani introduced satire into Persia during the 14th century. Between 1905 and 1911, Bibi Khatoon Astarabadi and other Iranian writers wrote notable satires.
The Elizabethan (i.e. 16th century English) writers thought of satire as related to the notoriously rude, coarse and sharp satyr play. Elizabethan "satire" (typically in pamphlet form) therefore contains more straight forward abuse than subtle irony. The French Huguenot Isaac Casaubon pointed out in 1605 that satire in the Roman fashion was something altogether more civilised. 17th century English satire once again aimed at the "amendment of vices" (Dryden).
Direct social commentary via satire returned with a vengeance in the 16th century, when farcical texts such as the works of François Rabelais tackled more serious issues (and incurred the wrath of the crown as a result). In the Age of Enlightenment, an intellectual movement in the 17th and 18th century advocating rationality, began the breakthrough of English satire, largely due to the creation of Tory and Whig groups and the necessity to convey the true meaning of criticism, especially true for Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, John Dryden and Alexander Pope. Here, astute and biting satire of institutions and individuals became a popular weapon. Although Isaac Casaubon discovered and published Quintilian\'s writing and presented the original meaning of the term (satira, not satyr), Early Modern satire was already an established genre, but the sense of wittiness (reflecting the "dishfull of fruits") became more important again.
Jonathan Swift was one of the greatest of Anglo-Irish satirists, and one of the first to practice modern journalistic satire. For instance, his A Modest Proposal suggests that poor Irish parents be encouraged to sell their own children as food, while his The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters says that dissenters (from established Church doctrine) are to be vigorously persecuted. In his book Gulliver\'s Travels he writes about the flaws in human society in general and English society in particular. Swift creates a moral fiction, for instance a world in which parents do not have their most obvious responsibility, which is to protect their children from harm, or in which freedom of religion is reduced to the freedom to conform. His purpose is of course to attack indifference to the plight of the desperately poor, and to advocate freedom of conscience.
John Dryden also wrote an influential essay on satire that helped fix its definition in the literary world.
Ebenezer Cooke, author of "The Sot-Weed Factor," was among the first to bring satire to the British colonies; Benjamin Franklin and others followed, using satire to shape an emerging nation\'s culture through shaping its sense of the ridiculous.
Mark Twain was a great American satirist: his novel Huckleberry Finn is set in the antebellum South, where the moral values Twain wishes to promote are completely turned on their heads. His hero, Huck, is a rather simple but good-hearted lad who is ashamed of the "sinful temptation" that leads him to help a runaway slave. In fact his conscience – warped by the distorted moral world he has grown up in, often bothers him most when he is at his best. Ironically, he is prepared to do good, believing it to be wrong.
Twain\'s younger contemporary Ambrose Bierce gained notoriety as a cynic, pessimist and black humourist with his dark, bitterly ironic stories, many set during the American Civil War, which satirized the limitations of human perception and reason. Bierce\'s most famous work of satire is probably The Devil\'s Dictionary, in which the definitions mock cant, hypocrisy and received wisdom.
Novelists such as Charles Dickens often used passages of satiric writing in their treatment of social issues. Several satiric papers competed for the public\'s attention in the Victorian era and Edwardian period, such as Punch and Fun.
Perhaps the most enduring examples of Victorian satire, however, are to be found in the Savoy Operas of W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. In fact, in The Yeomen of the Guard, a jester is given lines that paint a very neat picture of the method and purpose of the satirist, and might almost be taken as a statement of Gilbert\'s own intent:
In the 20th century, satire was used by authors such as Aldous Huxley and George Orwell to make serious and even frightening commentaries on the dangers of the sweeping social changes taking place throughout Europe and United States. The film, The Great Dictator (1940) by Charlie Chaplin is a satire on Adolf Hitler. Many social critics of the time, such as Dorothy Parker and H. L. Mencken used satire as their main weapon, and Mencken in particular is noted for having said that "one horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms" in the persuasion of the public to accept a criticism. Joseph Heller\'s most famous work, Catch-22, satirizes bureaucracy and the military, and is frequently cited as one of the greatest literary works of the Twentieth Century[1]"What is Catch-22? And why does the book matter?" BBC. Novelist Sinclair Lewis was known for his satirical stories such as Babbitt, Main Street, and It Can\'t Happen Here. His books often explored and satirized contemporary American values.
The film Dr. Strangelove from 1964 was a popular satire on the Cold War. A more humorous brand of satire enjoyed a renaissance in the UK in the early 1960s with the Satire Boom, led by such luminaries as Peter Cook, John Cleese, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, David Frost, Eleanor Bron and Dudley Moore and the television programme That Was The Week That Was.
Contemporary popular usage often uses the term "satire" in a very imprecise manner. While satire often uses caricature and parody; by no means all uses of these, and other humorous devices, are satiric. Refer to the careful definition of satire that heads this article.
Stephen Colbert satirizes an opinionated and self-righteous television commentator on his Comedy Central program in the United States.
Stephen Colbert’s television program The Colbert Report is instructive in the methods of contemporary Western satire. Colbert\'s character is an opinionated and self-righteous commentator who, in his TV interviews, interrupts people, points and wags his finger at them, and "unwittingly" uses every logical fallacy known to man. In doing so, he demonstrates the principle of modern American satire: the ridicule of the actions of politicians and other public figures by taking all their statements and purported beliefs to their furthest (supposedly) logical conclusion, thus revealing their hypocrisy and stupidity. Other political satire includes various political causes in the past, including the relatively successful Polish Beer-Lovers\' Party and the joke political candidates Molly the Doghttp://www.mollythedog2008.com and Brian Miner http://www.brianminer2008.com.
Cartoonists often use satire as well as straight humour. Garry Trudeau, whose comic strip Doonesbury has charted and recorded many American follies for the last generation, deals with story lines such as Vietnam (and now, Iraq), dumbed-down education, and over-eating at "McFriendly\'s". Trudeau exemplifies humor mixed with criticism. Recently, one of his gay characters lamented that because he was not legally married to his partner, he was deprived of the "exquisite agony" of experiencing a nasty and painful divorce like heterosexuals. This, of course, satirized the claim that gay unions would denigrate the sanctity of heterosexual marriage. Doonesbury also presents an example of how satire can cause social change. The comic strip satirized a Florida county that had a law requiring minorities to have a passcard in the area; the law was soon repealed with an act nicknamed the Doonesbury Act.Melnik, Rachel. A picture is worth a thousand politicians, Cartoons catalyze social justice, McGill Tribune (2007-01-23), Retrieved on 2007-01-25.
Like some literary predecessors, many recent television "satires" contain strong elements of parody and caricature; for instance the popular animated series The Simpsons and South Park both parody modern family and social life by taking their assumptions to the extreme; both have led to the creation of similar series. As well as the purely humorous effect of this sort of thing, they often strongly criticise various phenomena in politics, economic life, religion and many other aspects of society, and thus qualify as "satirical". Due to their animated nature, these shows can easily use images of public figures and generally have greater freedom to do so than conventional shows using live actors.
While atypical of the medium, satire can also be more pointed on contemporary television, for example on US cable outlets where creative freedom (with regard to the shows purpose) is more likely to be given to the writers. An example of this is Mad Men which shines a light on contemporary presumptions through the use of historical fiction, at times poking fun at the seemingly archaic use of cigarettes and alcohol, as well as the open and encouraged sexual harassment of the day.
Other satires are on the list of satirists and satires.
Because satire often combines anger and humour it can be profoundly disturbing - because it is essentially ironic or sarcastic, it is often misunderstood. In an interview with Wikinews, Sean Mills, President of The Onion, said angry letters about their news parody always carried the same message. "It’s whatever affects that person," said Mills. "So it’s like, \'I love it when you make a joke about murder or rape, but if you talk about cancer, well my brother has cancer and that’s not funny to me.\' Or someone else can say, \'Cancer’s hilarious, but don’t talk about rape because my cousin got raped.\' I’m using extreme examples, but whatever it is, if it affects somebody personally they tend to be more sensitive about it."An interview with The Onion, David Shankbone, Wikinews, November 25, 2007.
Common uncomprehending responses to satire include revulsion (accusations of poor taste, or that it\'s "just not funny" for instance), to the idea that the satirist actually does support the ideas, policies, or people he is attacking. For instance, at the time of its publication, many people misunderstood Swift’s purpose in "A Modest Proposal" – assuming it to be a serious recommendation of economically-motivated cannibalism. Again, some critics of Mark Twain see Huckleberry Finn as racist and offensive, missing the point that its author clearly intended it to be satire (racism being in fact only one of a number of Mark Twain\'s known pet bugbears attacked in Huckleberry Finn).
Because satire is stealthy criticism, it frequently escapes censorship. Periodically, however, it runs into serious opposition.
In 1599, the Archbishop of Canterbury John Whitgift and the Bishop of London George Abbot, whose offices had the function of licensing books for publication in England, issued a decree banning verse satire. The decree ordered the burning of certain volumes of satire by John Marston, Thomas Middleton, Joseph Hall, and others; it also required histories and plays to be specially approved by a member of the Queen\'s Privy Council, and it prohibited the future printing of satire in verse.A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554-1640, Vol. III, ed. Edward Arber (London, 1875-94), p.677. The motives for the ban are obscure, particularly since some of the books banned had been licensed by the same authorities less than a year earlier. Various scholars have argued that the target was obscenity, libel, or sedition. It seems likely that lingering anxiety about the Martin Marprelate controversy, in which the bishops themselves had employed satirists, played a role; both Thomas Nashe and Gabriel Harvey, two of the key figures in that controversy, suffered a complete ban on all their works. In the event, though, the ban was little enforced, even by the licensing authority itself.
In Italy the media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi attacked RAI Television\'s satirical series, Raiot, Daniele Luttazzi\'s Satyricon, Enzo Biagi, Michele Santoro\'s Sciuscià, even a special Blob series on Berlusconi himself, by arguing that they were vulgar and full of disrespect to the government. He claimed that he would sue the RAI for 21,000,000 Euros if the show went on. RAI stopped the show. Sabina Guzzanti, creator of the show, went to court to proceed with the show and won the case. However, the show never went on air again.
In 2001 the British television network Channel 4 aired a special edition of the spoof current affairs series Brass Eye, which was intended to mock and satirize the fascination of modern journalism with child molesters and pedophiles. 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 humour.
In 2005, the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy caused global protests by offended Muslims and violent attacks with many fatalities in the Near East. It was not the first case of Muslim protests against criticism in the form of satire, but the Western world was surprised by the hostility of the reaction: Any country\'s flag in which a newspaper chose to publish the parodies was being burnt in a Near East country, then embassies were attacked, killing 139 people in mainly four countries (see article); politicians throughout Europe agreed that satire was an aspect of the freedom of speech, and therefore to be a protected means of dialogue. Iran threatened to start an International Holocaust Cartoon Competition, which was immediately responded to by Jews with a Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoons Contest. Although not really satirical, the response to Salman Rushdie\'s Satanic Verses from 1988 was similarly violent; Khomeinei responded with a fatwa, death sentence, for the author, resulting in a 10-year breach of Irano-British diplomatic relations and a continued threat to the author\'s life.
In 2006 British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen released Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan a "mockumentary" that satirized everyone, from high society to frat boys. Criticism of the film was heavy, from claims of antisemitism (forgetting the author is Jewish), to the massive boycott of the film by the Kazakh government; the film itself had been a reaction to a longer quarrel between the government and the comedian.
Satire is often prophetic: the jokes precede actual events.Daniele Luttazzi Lepidezze postribolari (2007, Feltrinelli, p.275) (Italian) Among the eminent examples is the 1784 presaging of modern Daylight saving time, later actually proposed in 1907. While an American envoy to France, Benjamin Franklin anonymously published a letter in 1784 suggesting that Parisians economize on candles by arising earlier to use morning sunlight.Benjamin Franklin, writing anonymously (1784-04-26). "Aux auteurs du Journal" (in French). Journal de Paris (117). Retrieved on 2007-05-16. Its first publication was in the journal\'s "Économie" section. The revised English version (retrieved on 2007-05-26) is commonly called "An Economical Project", a title that is not Franklin\'s; see A.O. Aldridge (1956). "Franklin\'s essay on daylight saving". American Literature 28 (1): 23–29. Retrieved on 2007-05-16. In the 1920s an English cartoonist imagined a very laughable thing for that time: a hotel for cars. He drew a Multi-story car park.
Example of a Satire
Random Guy 3/11/2008 Grade 9 Mills English 9 Regular Satire Irrationality
I have the protection of the first amendment, so please, don’t try and get this removed or me in trouble for this satire. Because it is a satire, expect the twisted and the sarcastic, so please, just relax and enjoy the humor.
Random High School is home to many sports and clubs. The mix of sports is very rich. Sports on this list are baseball, golf, tennis, football, soccer, cross country, basketball, track and field, swim, gymnastics, cheerleading, and lacrosse. There is a group of clubs though, that have competitions. To name some of these, crew, Certamen, model U.N., and Winter Guard. Of these, Winter Guard and Crew are sports. Of course, all this is good and healthy. It is a good sign to have many clubs and sports with such a large number members. The Winter Guard is absolutely great. The members are punctual and dedicated, the coach is compassionate and understanding. He also drives the students to do their best. He won’t even let doctor’s orders and sickness keep members from attending meetings. He also has an iron-bound resolve. When a competition is coming up, he extends practice. His attitude is, (in a very real way) guard comes first before anything else. Be it health or grades. He also won’t allow lazy people to attend. He forced a student to leave guard after, two late arrivals, and one absence. Those were all due to problems or medical advice. Doesn’t that show the kind of absolute commitment he requires? The Guard Students are all very hard working. They know what they signed up for. A serious team, long hours, complex routines, travel time, and a coach with the compassion of Roman Emperor Nero. The season started like this: Practice on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Tuesdays: 7-9 P.M. Thursdays: 7-9 P.M. Saturdays: 2-6P.M. Then, as the season progressed, the hours got longer. The weekday practices became one hour longer and the weekend practices became two hours longer. Then, you have to get up for school the next day. For Tuesday, you could sleep in if it is a collaboration Wednesday tomorrow, with 7 hours sleep at best. If you have non-collaboration Wednesday tomorrow, then you get about five hours of sleep at best. Nothing says team spirit like having sleep-deprivation hallucinations. On Thursdays, it is even worse. You have to go just as long, but you are probably still depleted from Tuesday. That big end-of-the-week test that you are depending on to boost your grade, you haven’t had enough time to prepare, so you nuke it. Then, the weekend is finally in front of you. All you have to do is make it through one drained Friday. If you have another big test today, I hope you reviewed that in class. Then on Saturday, you have to get up at eight so you can go back to dear, old, Tarquinus Superbus. Doesn’t that sound like a great week that just fills you up with joy?
Look up Satire in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Theories/Critical approaches to satire as a genre:
The Plot of Satire.
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