Satire and Parody

The Serious Business of Making Fun

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Also known as:◦ A spoof◦ A send up

The point is to make fun of a person or situation

Examples:◦ Saturday Night Live sketches◦ Weird Al songs

Tone is usually “tongue-in-cheek” or humorous

Parody

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Example of Parody

May be humorous or serious in tone Targets a specific person or situation Unlike parody, satire has one of three main

aims:◦ to make people aware of a problem ◦ to warn against a situation or problem◦ to promote reform of a situation

Examples:◦ The Daily Show with Jon Stewart◦ The Daily Onion◦ http://www.mediaite.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Jon-Stewart.jpeg

Satire

Satire Example

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Every satire or parody has three main elements:◦ A purpose:

To make fun or light of a situation To call for reform To warn To raise awareness

◦ A target: a specific person, issue or situation◦ A tone: a specific attitude on the part of the

author◦ An audience: a set of people towards whom the

text is directed

Four key elements

Where it started…18th Century/Restoration Period

Why it started…The culture began to emphasize reason and intellect over so-called emotional arguments

Who it started with…Dydren, Swift, Pope, Defoe, Johnson, Lord Byron

Forms of satire…novels, short stories, poems, skits, cartoons, videos, films, blogs, websites

What’s the big deal about satire?

has a clear target. exaggerates and distorts the target provides recurring, unrelenting sources of humor. sets up a certain distance between the character

and the audience. does not consider the inner feelings or motives of

the target. confronts the audience with the difference between

what the characters say and do and what we fully understand by their actions.

Pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable, touches a nerve.

How do we recognize satire?

Satire is by nature unfair and the target is only life-like, not a true copy.

A satire fails if the audience thinks it is unclear, stupid or offensive--or chooses, instead, to embrace the trait or person being satirized as admirable. ◦ If they say, “That offends me,” or “Life’s not like that so I don’t

get the point,” or “Hey…maybe we should all be more like that,” then the satire is not very effective.

  Remember as well…If it is to be funny, then that sense

of shared moral meaning must exist in the audience as well—it can’t be just something that enrages you…it must enrage your audience as well.

Final words on satire

It may seem easy to put together a satire or parody.

However, satirists have a wide range of tools at their disposal

One of the most powerful tools is irony We’ll look more at these next time.

Cute but so what?