SATIRE
Satire is a literally work, holding up human vices and follies to ridicules or
scorn. In order word satire is the art of making someone or something look
ridiculous, raising laughter in order to embarrass, bumble or discredit its target.
KINDS OF SAFTIRE
1. Horatian Satire tends to be good-natured and light-hearted, looking to raise
laughter to encourage moral improvement.
2. Juvenalian Satire tends to be more bitter and dark, expressing anger and outrage
at the state of the world.
Example:
Over-the-top social media posts mocking political corruption:
Imagine a fake tweet:
"Breaking News: Politician prioritizes personal yacht fund over healthcare again.
Citizens are advised to swim if hospitals sink!"
This harshly criticizes greed and neglect in leadership.
3. Menippean: Menippean satire is writing that targets people's attitudes.
The genre of Menippean satire is a form of satire, usually in prose, that is
characterized by attacking mental attitudes rather than specific individuals or
entities.
Examples: SpongeBob SquarePants (certain episodes): Episodes like “Squidville,”
where Squidward moves to a town full of identical squid neighbors, satirize the
pursuit of a "perfect" life by showing how boring and empty it can become.
SEVEN SATIRE TECHNIQUES
1. Exaggeration
Exaggeration entails making a situation or person look better or worse than they
are by overstating or understating certain characteristics beyond reality.
a. Caricature: Caricature is the exaggeration of physical characteristics. For
example, if you describe someone as tall, you might compare them to a tree or a
building.
b. Burlesque: Burlesque exaggeration is the exaggeration of language. This might
include creating new words based on how someone from a particular city pronounces
them.
c. Overstating and understating: These techniques either increase or decrease a
person, object or idea's size or significance. Understating the effects of
something can show a character's deception while overstating can highlight a
person's desires in relation to reality.
2. Incongruity
Incongruity is an often absurd method of satire where you present something
unexpected into an otherwise normal scene or story.
3. Reversal
Reversal is a type of satire that switches the positions of two things or people.
This can be effective to highlight absurdities in human actions or behaviors.
Reversal often exposes problematic qualities in situations or characteristics that
we view as normal.
4. Parody
Parody in satire is the act of imitating either a person or an original work.
Parodies often mock common conventions in literature and style.
5. Irony
Irony is satire that compares what someone actually means with their language
against what they actually say or do.
a. Verbal: Verbal irony is when the meaning of what someone says is the opposite of
the intended message.
b. Dramatic: Dramatic irony is when a situation occurs despite what a character
knows.
c. Situational: Situational irony is the difference between what people expect to
happen and what actually happens.
d. Socratic: Socratic irony is when a person pretends to be ignorant for personal
gain. This reveals information to the audience through one character tricking
another character.
6. Anachronism
Anachronism is a type of satire that places people or objects in other periods of
time.
7. Malapropism
Malapropism is the intentional mispronunciation or misuse of a word by a writer.