Following Up On Satire

 During last Thursday’s class when we merged onto the topic of satire, we exited before I felt everything was answered and I was left wanting to investigate further. Being immersed into both worlds of English and Theatre, I have come across multiple forms of satire. From plays like Oscar Wilde's The importance of Being Earnest and Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, to books like Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and many more. But I never had a clear definition of satire formed and ready to shoot off at any moment. This lack of a coherent definition can cause plenty of people, like myself, to stumble over answering a question like “When is it satire and when is it just mocking?” (A question posed by Prof. D)

Digging into my investigation I found numerous answers to define satire. All of them had a base sense of satire but none that really congealed them all together for me. Satire as I have understood it, aims to challenge and bring light to a flaw in society by ways of humor and ridicule. Under the layers of humor and ridicule, audiences are supposed to recognize the problem and come to a greater understanding of ourselves, humanity, society, and etc. 

Political cartoons are one form of satire that sums up this definition. They take on complex modern situations within the world and condense it to just one or two pictures. Nonetheless they hold a deep meaning and provide a greater understanding to the one looking at it. Or, at least that is the intent of a political cartoon. In some cases can they be taken too far? Like in the Charlie Hebdo case. For me, there are some lines that shouldn’t be crossed, like making something that makes fun of a certain race, gender, or sexuality. For me that isn’t what satire is about. There is no deeper meaning that can come from that except that these are people that want to spread hate. 

Satire, like any genre, is built and played upon until eventually it starts to produce subsections. Satire plays with irony and exaggeration of a subject, and it can develop from the most light-hearted of  commentary to the darkest. Riddled with sub-genres and trying to hold onto core values, satire can eventually lead to and be confused with parody. Before my trails of clues lead me to the difference between parody and satire, I probably would have said they were one in the same. Now, I understand there is a distinct difference. Both satire and parody use humor to convey a message. However, they don’t bring about similar outcomes. Satire as we know brings light to a problem and tries to give a greater understanding and challenge viewpoints. Meanwhile, parody’s purpose is to produce laughs rather than deeper understanding. Parody does this by mimicking surface-level “flaws” that an audience would recognize and possibly laugh at. 

As my investigation neared an end I found answers that could help me navigate a conversation about satire again. There is a difference between satire and just mocking, and it makes a big difference to plenty of people engaged in all forms of satire. Knowing the different facets of satire could be the deciding factor when it comes to crossing a line, and it’s better to be informed now rather than later.