Satire

Not to be confused with satyr.
"Satires" redirects here. For other uses, see Satires (disambiguation).
1867 edition of Punch, a ground-breaking British magazine of popular humour, including a great deal of satire of the contemporary, social, and political scene.

Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government or society itself, into improvement.[1] Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.

A feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm—"in satire, irony is militant"[2]—but parody, burlesque, exaggeration,[3] juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This "militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist wishes to attack.

Satire is nowadays found in many artistic forms of expression, including literature, plays, commentary, television shows, and media such as lyrics.

Etymology and roots

The word satire comes from the Latin word satur and the subsequent phrase lanx satura. Satur meant "full" but the juxtaposition with lanx shifted the meaning to "miscellany or medley": the expression lanx satura literally means "a full dish of various kinds of fruits."[4]

The word satura as used by Quintilian, however, was used to denote only Roman verse satire, a strict genre that imposed hexameter form, a narrower genre than what would be later intended as satire.[4][5] Quintilian famously said that satura, that is a satire in hexameter verses, was a literary genre of wholly Roman origin (satura tota nostra est). He was aware of and commented on Greek satire, but at the time did not label it as such, although today the origin of satire is considered to be Aristophanes' Old Comedy. The first critic to use satire in the modern broader sense was Apuleius.[4]

To Quintilian, the satire was a strict literary form, but the term soon escaped from the original narrow definition. Robert Elliott writes:

As soon as a noun enters the domain of metaphor, as one modern scholar has pointed out, it clamours for extension; and satura (which had had no verbal, adverbial, or adjectival forms) was immediately broadened by appropriation from the Greek word for “satyr” (satyros) and its derivatives. The odd result is that the English “satire” comes from the Latin satura; but "satirize", "satiric", etc., are of Greek origin. By about the 4th century AD the writer of satires came to be known as satyricus; St. Jerome, for example, was called by one of his enemies 'a satirist in prose' ('satyricus scriptor in prosa'). Subsequent orthographic modifications obscured the Latin origin of the word satire: satura becomes satyra, and in England, by the 16th century, it was written 'satyre.'[1]

The word satire derives from satura, and its origin was not influenced by the Greek mythological figure of the satyr.[6] In the 17th century, philologist Isaac Casaubon was the first to dispute the etymology of satire from satyr, contrary to the belief up to that time.[7]

Satire and humor

Laughter is not an essential component of satire;[8] in fact there are types of satire that are not meant to be "funny" at all. Conversely, not all humour, even on such topics as politics, religion or art is necessarily "satirical", even when it uses the satirical tools of irony, parody, and burlesque.

Even light-hearted satire has a serious "after-taste": the organizers of the Ig Nobel Prize describe this as "first make people laugh, and then make them think".[9]

Social and psychological functions

Satire and irony in some cases have been regarded as the most effective source to understand a society, the oldest form of social study.[10] They provide the keenest insights into a group's collective psyche, reveal its deepest values and tastes, and the society's structures of power.[11][12] Some authors have regarded satire as superior to non-comic and non-artistic disciplines like history or anthropology.[10][13][14] In a prominent example from Ancient Greece, philosopher Plato, when asked by a friend for a book to understand Athenian society, referred him to the plays of Aristophanes.[15][16]

Historically, satire has satisfied the popular need to debunk and ridicule the leading figures in politics, economy, religion and other prominent realms of power.[17] Satires confronts public discourse and the collective imaginary, playing as a public opinion counterweight to power (being political, economic, religious, symbolic, or otherwise), by challenging leaders and authorities. For instance, it forces administrations to clarify, amend or establish their policies. Satire's job is to expose problems and contradictions, and it's not obligated to solve them.[18] Karl Kraus set in the history of satire a prominent example of a satirist role as cofronting public discourse.[19]

For its nature and social role, satire has enjoyed in many societies a special freedom license to mock prominent individuals and institutions.[20] The satiric impulse, and its ritualized expressions, carry out the function of resolving social tension.[21] Institutions like the ritual clowns, by giving expression to the antisocial tendencies, represent a safety valve which reestablishes equilibrium and health in the collective imaginary, which are jeopardized by the repressive aspects of society.[22][23]

The state of political satire in a given society reflects the intolerance or intolerance that characterizes it,[17] and the state of civil liberties and human rights. Under totalitarian regimes any criticism of a political system, and especially satire, is suppressed. A typical example is the Soviet Union where the dissidents, such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov were under strong pressure from the government. While satire of everyday life in the USSR was allowed, the most prominent satirist being Arkady Raikin, political satire existed in the form of anecdotes.[24] that made fun of Soviet political leaders, especially Brezhnev, famous for his narrow-mindness and love for awards and decorations.

Classifications of satire

Satire is a diverse genre which is complex to classify and define, with a wide range of satiric "modes".[25][26]

Horatian, Juvenalian, Menippean

"Le satire e l'epistole di Q. Orazio Flacco", printed in 1814.

Satirical literature can commonly be categorized as either Horatian, Juvenalian, or Menippean.[27]

Horatian

Horatian satire, named for the Roman satirist Horace (65–8 BCE), playfully criticizes some social vice through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humour. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) wrote Satires to gently ridicule the dominant opinions and “philosophical beliefs of ancient Rome and Greece” (Rankin).[28] Rather than writing in harsh or accusing tones, he addressed issues with humor and clever mockery. Horatian satire follows this same pattern of “gently [ridiculing] the absurdities and follies of human beings” (Drury).[29]
It directs wit, exaggeration, and self-deprecating humour toward what it identifies as folly, rather than evil. Horatian satire's sympathetic tone is common in modern society.[30]
A Horatian satirist’s goal is to heal the situation with smiles, rather than by anger. A Horatian satirist makes fun of general human folly rather than pointing to any specific follier. Shamekia Thomas suggests, “In a work using Horatian satire, readers often laugh at the characters in the story who are the subject of mockery as well as themselves and society for behaving in those ways.” Alexander Pope has been established as an author whose satire “heals with morals what it hurts with wit” (Green).[31] Alexander Pope—and Horatian satire—attempt to teach.

Examples:

Juvenalian

Juvenalian satire, named after the Roman satirist Juvenal (late 1st century – early 2nd century AD), is more contemptuous and abrasive than the Horatian. Juvenal disagreed with the opinions of the public figures and institutions of the Republic and actively attacked them through his literature. “He utilized the satirical tools of exaggeration and parody to make his targets appear monstrous and incompetent” (Podzemny).[32] Juvenal satire follows this same pattern of abrasively ridiculing societal structures.
Juvenalian satire addresses social evil through scorn, outrage, and savage ridicule. This form is often pessimistic, characterized by irony, sarcasm, moral indignation and personal invective, with less emphasis on humor. Strongly polarized political satire is often Juvenalian. Also see: Satires of Juvenal.
A Juvenal satirist’s goal is to provoke some sort of change because he sees his opponent as evil or harmful. A Juvenal satirist mocks “societal structure, power, and civilization” (Thomas).[33] He will do this by exaggerating the words or position of his opponent in order to jeopardize his opponent’s reputation and/or power. Jonathan Swift has been established as an author who “borrowed heavily from Juvenal’s techniques in [his critique] of contemporary English society” (Podzemny).[32] Jonathan Swift—and Juvenalian satire—attempt to punish.

Examples:

Satire versus teasing

In the history of theatre there has always been a conflict between engagement and disengagement on politics and relevant issue, between satire and grotesque on one side, and jest with teasing on the other.[34] Max Eastman defined the spectrum of satire in terms of "degrees of biting", as ranging from satire proper at the hot-end, and "kidding" at the violet-end; Eastman adopted the term kidding to denote what is just satirical in form, but is not really firing at the target.[35] Nobel laureate satirical playwright Dario Fo pointed out the difference between satire and teasing (sfottò).[36] Teasing is the reactionary side of the comic, it limits itself to a shallow parody of physical appearance; the side-effect of teasing is that it humanizes and draws sympathy for the powerful individual towards which it is directed. Satire instead uses the comic to go against power and its oppressions, has a subversive character, and a moral dimension which draws judgement against its targets.[37][38][39][40] Fo formulated an operational criteria to tell real satire from sfottò, saying that real satire arouses an outraged and violent reaction, and that the more they try to stop you, the better is the job you are doing.[41] Fo contends that, historically, people in positions of power have welcomed and encouraged good-humoured buffoonery, while modern day people in positions of power have tried to censor, ostracize and repress satire.[34][37]

Teasing (sfottò) is an ancient form of simple buffoonery, a form of comedy without satire's subversive edge. Teasing includes light and affectionate parody, good-humoured mockery, simple one-dimensional poking fun, benign spoofs. Teasing typically consists in an impersonation of someone monkeying around with his exterior attributes, tics, physical blemishes, voice and mannerisms, quirks, way of dressing and walking, the phrases he typically repeats. By contrast, teasing never touches on the core issue, never makes a serious criticism judging the target with irony; it never harms the target's conduct, ideology and position of power; it never undermines the perception of his morality and cultural dimension.[37][39] Sfottò directed towards a powerful individual, makes him appear more human and draws sympathy towards him.[42] Hermann Göring propagated jests and jokes against himself, with the aim of humanizing his image.[43][44]

Classifications by topics

Types of satire can also be classified according to the topics it deals with. From the earliest times, at least since the plays of Aristophanes, the primary topics of literary satire have been politics, religion and sex.[45][46][47][48] This is partly because these are the most pressing problems that affect anybody living in a society, and partly because these topics are usually taboo.[45][49] Among these, politics in the broader sense is considered the pre-eminent topic of satire.[49] Satire which targets the clergy is a type of political satire, while religious satire is that which targets religious beliefs.[50] Satire on sex may overlap with blue comedy, off-color humor and dick jokes.

Scatology has a long literary association with satire,[45][51][52] as it is a classical mode of the grotesque, the grotesque body and the satiric grotesque.[45][53] Shit plays a fundamental role in satire because it symbolizes death, the turd being "the ultimate dead object."[51][52] The satirical comparison of individuals or institutions with human excrement, exposes their "inherent inertness, corruption and dead-likeness."[51][54][55] The ritual clowns of clown societies, like among the Pueblo Indians, have ceremonies with filth-eating.[56][57] In other cultures, sin-eating is an apotropaic rite in which the sin-eater (also called filth-eater),[58][59] by ingesting the food provided, takes "upon himself the sins of the departed."[60] Satire about death overlaps with black humor, gallows humor.

Another classification by topics, is the distinction between political satire, religious satire and satire of manners.[61] Political satire is sometimes called topical satire, satire of manners is sometimes called satire of everyday life, and religious satire is sometimes called philosophical satire. Comedy of manners, sometimes also called satire of manners, criticizes mode of life of common people; political satire aims at behavior, manners of politicians, and vices of political systems; philosophical satire has as its object global vices inherent to mankind. Historically, Comedy of manners, which first appeared in British theater in 1620, has uncritically accepted the social code of the upper classes.[62] Comedy in general accepts the rules of the social game, while satire subverts them.[63]

Another analysis of satire is the spectrum of his possible tones: wit, ridicule, irony, sarcasm, cynicism, the sardonic and invective.[64][65]

Classifications by medium

Satire is found not only in written literary forms. In preliterate cultures it manifests itselfs in ritual and folk forms, as well as in trickster tales and oral poetry.[21]

It appears also in graphic arts, music, sculpture, dance, cartoon strips, graffiti. Examples are Dada sculptures, Pop Art works, music of Gilbert and Sullivan and Erik Satie, punk and rock music.[21] In modern media culture, stand-up comedy is an enclave in which satire can be introduced into mass media, challenging mainstream discourse.[21] Comedy roasts, mock festivals, and stand-up comedians in nightclubs and concerts, are the modern forms of ancient satiric rituals.[21]

Development

Ancient Egypt

The Satirical papyrus at the British museum
Satirical Ostraca showing a Cat guarding geese c1120 BC, Egypt.
Figured Ostracon Showing a Cat Waiting on a Mouse, Egypt

One of the earliest examples of what we might call satire, The Satire of the Trades,[66] is in Egyptian writing from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The text's apparent readers are students, tired of studying. It argues that their lot as scribes is useful, and their lot far superior to that of the ordinary man. Scholars such as Helck[67] think that the context was meant to be serious.

The Papyrus Anastasi I[68] (late 2nd millennium BC) contains a satirical letter which first praises the virtues of its recipient, but then mocks the reader's meagre knowledge and achievements.

Ancient Greece

The Greeks had no word for what later would be called "satire", although the terms cynicism and parody were used. Modern critics call the Greek playwright Aristophanes one of the best known early satirists: his plays are known for their critical political and societal commentary,[69] particularly for the political satire by which he criticized the powerful Cleon (as in The Knights). He is also notable for the persecution he underwent.[69][70][71][72] Aristophanes' plays turned upon images of filth and disease.[73] His bawdy style was adopted by Greek dramatist-comedian Menander. His early play Drunkenness contains an attack on the politician Callimedon.

The oldest form of satire still in use is the Menippean satire by Menippus of Gadara. His own writings are lost. Examples from his admirers and imitators mix seriousness and mockery in dialogues and present parodies before a background of diatribe. The reader is meant to question approved truths to reform knowledge. As in the case of Aristophanes plays, menippean satire turned upon images of filth and disease.[73]

Roman world

The first Roman to discuss satire critically was Quintilian, who invented the term to describe the writings of Lucilius. The two most prominent and influential ancient Roman satirists are Horace and Juvenal, who wrote during the early days of the Roman Empire. Other important satirists in ancient Latin are Lucilius and Persius. Satire in their work 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. When Horace criticized Augustus, he used veiled ironic terms. In contrast, Pliny reports that the 6th century BC poet Hipponax wrote satirae that were so cruel that the offended hanged themselves.[74]

Medieval Islamic world

Main articles: Arabic satire and Persian satire

Medieval Arabic poetry included the satiric genre hija. Satire was introduced into Arabic prose literature by the Afro-Arab author Al-Jahiz in the 9th century. While dealing with serious topics in what are now known as anthropology, sociology and psychology, he introduced a satirical approach, "based on the premise that, however serious the subject under review, it could be made more interesting and thus achieve greater effect, if only one leavened the lump of solemnity by the insertion of a few amusing anecdotes or by the throwing out of some witty or paradoxical observations. He was well aware that, in treating of new themes in his prose works, he would have to employ a vocabulary of a nature more familiar in hija, satirical poetry."[75] For example, in one of his zoological works, he satirized the preference for longer human penis size, writing: "If the length of the penis were a sign of honor, then the mule would belong to the (honorable tribe of) Quraysh". Another satirical story based on this preference was an Arabian Nights tale called "Ali with the Large Member".[76]

In the 10th century, the writer Tha'alibi recorded satirical poetry written by the Arabic poets As-Salami and Abu Dulaf, with As-Salami praising Abu Dulaf's wide breadth of knowledge and then mocking his ability in all these subjects, and with Abu Dulaf responding back and satirizing As-Salami in return.[77] An example of Arabic political satire included another 10th-century poet Jarir satirizing Farazdaq as "a transgressor of the Sharia" and later Arabic poets in turn using the term "Farazdaq-like" as a form of political satire.[78]

The terms "comedy" and "satire" became synonymous after Aristotle's Poetics was translated into Arabic in the medieval Islamic world, where it was elaborated upon by Islamic philosophers and writers, such as Abu Bischr, his pupil Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes. Due to cultural differences, they disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as hija (satirical poetry). They viewed comedy as simply the "art of reprehension", and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or troubled beginnings and happy endings, associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century, the term "comedy" thus gained a new semantic meaning in Medieval literature.[79]

Ubayd Zakani introduced satire in Persian literature during the 14th century. His work is noted for its satire and obscene verses, often political or bawdy, and often cited in debates involving homosexual practices. He wrote the Resaleh-ye Delgosha, as well as Akhlaq al-Ashraf ("Ethics of the Aristocracy") and the famous humorous fable Masnavi Mush-O-Gorbeh (Mouse and Cat), which was a political satire. His non-satirical serious classical verses have also been regarded as very well written, in league with the other great works of Persian literature. Between 1905 and 1911, Bibi Khatoon Astarabadi and other Iranian writers wrote notable satires.

Medieval Europe

In the Early Middle Ages, examples of satire were the 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 misbehaviour in Christian terms. Examples are Livre des Manières by Étienne de Fougères (~1178), and 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.

Two major satirists of Europe in the Renaissance were Giovanni Boccaccio and François Rabelais. Other examples of Renaissance satire include Till Eulenspiegel, Reynard the Fox, Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff (1494), Erasmus' Moriae Encomium (1509) and Thomas More's Utopia (1516).

Early modern western satire

Pieter Bruegel's 1568 satirical painting The Blind Leading the Blind.

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).

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 straightforward abuse than subtle irony. The French Huguenot Isaac Casaubon pointed out in 1605 that satire in the Roman fashion was something altogether more civilised. Casaubon discovered and published Quintilian's writing and presented the original meaning of the term (satira, not satyr), and the sense of wittiness (reflecting the "dishfull of fruits") became more important again. 17th-century English satire once again aimed at the "amendment of vices" (Dryden).

In the 1590s a new wave of verse satire broke with the publication of Hall's Virgidemiarum, six books of verse satires targeting everything from literary fads to corrupt noblemen. Although Donne had already circulated satires in manuscript, Hall's was the first real attempt in English at verse satire on the Juvenalian model.[80] The success of his work combined with a national mood of disillusion in the last years of Elizabeth's reign triggered an avalanche of satire – much of it less conscious of classical models than Hall's — until the fashion was brought to an abrupt stop by censorship.[lower-alpha 1]

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment, an intellectual movement in the 17th and 18th century advocating rationality, produced a great revival of satire in Britain. This was fuelled by the rise of partisan politics, with the formalisation of the Tory and Whig parties — and also, in 1714, by the formation of the Scriblerus Club, which included Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, John Gay, John Arbuthnot, Robert Harley, Thomas Parnell, and Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. This club included several of the notable satirists of early 18th century Britain. They focused their attention on Martinus Scriblerus, "an invented learned fool... whose work they attributed all that was tedious, narrow-minded, and pedantic in contemporary scholarship".[82] In their hands astute and biting satire of institutions and individuals became a popular weapon. The turn to the 18th century was characterized by a switch from Horatian, soft, pseudo-satire, to biting "juvenal" satire.[83]

Jonathan Swift was one of the greatest of Anglo-Irish satirists, and one of the first to practise modern journalistic satire. For instance, In his A Modest Proposal Swift suggests that Irish peasants be encouraged to sell their own children as food for the rich, as a solution to the "problem" of poverty. His purpose is of course to attack indifference to the plight of the desperately poor. In his book Gulliver's Travels he writes about the flaws in human society in general and English society in particular. John Dryden wrote an influential essay entitled "A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire" [84] that helped fix the definition of satire in the literary world. His satirical Mac Flecknoe was written in response to a rivalry with Thomas Shadwell and eventually inspired Alexander Pope to write his satirical The Rape of the Lock. Other satirical works by Pope include the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot.

Daniel Defoe pursued a more journalistic type of satire, being famous for his The True-Born Englishman which mocks xenophobic patriotism, and The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters - advocating religious toleration by means of an ironical exaggeration of the highly intolerant attitudes of his time.

Ebenezer Cooke (1665-1732), author of "The Sot-Weed Factor" (1708), was among the first American colonialists to write literary satire. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and others followed, using satire to shape an emerging nation's culture through its sense of the ridiculous.

Satire in Victorian England

Several satiric papers competed for the public's attention in the Victorian era (1837-1901) and Edwardian period, such as Punch (1841) and Fun (1861).

Perhaps the most enduring examples of Victorian satire, however, are to be found in the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and 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:

"I can set a braggart quailing with a quip,
The upstart I can wither with a whim;
He may wear a merry laugh upon his lip,
But his laughter has an echo that is grim!"

Novelists such as Charles Dickens often used passages of satiric writing in their treatment of social issues.

In the same period, in the United States, Mark Twain (1835-1910) was a great American satirist: his novel Huckleberry Finn (1884) 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 goodhearted 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 (1842-1913) gained notoriety as a cynic, pessimist and black humorist 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 (1906), in which the definitions mock cant, hypocrisy and received wisdom.

20th century satire

Karl Kraus is considered the first major European satirist since Jonathan Swift.[19] In 20th century literature, satire was used by authors such as Aldous Huxley (1930s) and George Orwell (1940s), which under the inspiration of Zamyatin's Russian 1921 novel We, made serious and even frightening commentaries on the dangers of the sweeping social changes taking place throughout Europe. Many social critics of this same time in the United States, 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. Novelist Sinclair Lewis was known for his satirical stories such as Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Elmer Gantry (1927; dedicated by Lewis to H.L. Menchen), and It Can't Happen Here (1935), and his books often explored and satirized contemporary American values. The film The Great Dictator (1940) by Charlie Chaplin is itself a parody of Adolf Hitler; Chaplin later declared that he would have not made the film if he had known about the concentration camps.[85]

Benzino Napaloni and Adenoid Hynkel in The Great Dictator (1940). Chaplin later declared that he would have not made the film if he had known about the concentration camps.[85]

In the United States 1950s, satire was introduced into American stand-up comedy most prominently by Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl.[21] As they challenged the taboos and conventional wisdom of the time, were ostracized by the mass media establishment as sick comedians. In the same period, Paul Krassner's magazine The Realist began publication, to become immensely popular during the 1960s and early 1970s among people in the counterculture; it had articles and cartoons that were savage, biting satires of politicians such as Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and the War on Drugs. Prominent satiric stand-up comedian George Carlin acknowledged the influence The Realist had in his 1970s conversion to a satiric comedian.[86][87]

Peter Sellers in famous satire Dr. Strangelove (1964).

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, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore, whose stage show Beyond the Fringe was a hit not only in Britain, but also in the United States. Other significant influences in 1960s British satire include David Frost, Eleanor Bron and the television program That Was The Week That Was.[88]

Joseph Heller's most famous work, Catch-22 (1961), satirizes bureaucracy and the military, and is frequently cited as one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century.[89] The film Dr. Strangelove from 1964 was a popular satire on the Cold War.

Contemporary satire

Contemporary popular usage of the term "satire" is often very imprecise. While satire often uses caricature and parody, by no means are all uses of these or other humorous devices, satiric. Refer to the careful definition of satire that heads this article.

Satire is used on many UK television programmes, particularly popular panel shows and quiz shows such as Mock the Week (2005) and Have I Got News for You (1990-ongoing). Similarly it is found on radio quiz shows such as The News Quiz (1977-ongoing) and The Now Show (1998-ongoing). One of the most-watched UK television shows of the 1980s and early 1990s, the puppet show Spitting Image was a satire of the royal family, politics, entertainment, sport and British culture of the era.[90]

The television program South Park (1997-ongoing) relies almost exclusively on satire to address issues in American culture, with episodes addressing anti-Semitism, militant atheism, homophobia, environmentalism, corporate culture, political correctness and anti-Catholicism, among many other issues.

Australian Chris Lilley produces comedy art in the style of mockumentaries (We Can Be Heroes, Summer Heights High, Angry Boys) and his work is often described as complex social satire.

American culture is extremely welcoming of satire, with many citizens supporting popular television programs and social outlets.

Stephen Colbert satirically impersonated an opinionated and self-righteous television commentator on his Comedy Central program in the United States.

Stephen Colbert’s television program, The Colbert Report (2005-2014), is instructive in the methods of contemporary American 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 a number of logical fallacies. In doing so, he demonstrates the principle of modern American political 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 perceived hypocrisy or absurdity. 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 Dog[91] and Brian Miner.[92]

In the United Kingdom, a popular modern satirist is Sir Terry Pratchett, author of the internationally best-selling Discworld book series. One of the most well-known and controversial British satirists is Sir Chris Morris, co-writer and director of Four Lions.

In Canada, satire has become an important part of the comedy scene. Stephen Leacock was one of the best known early Canadian satirists, and in the early 20th century, he achieved fame by targeting the attitudes of small town life. In more recent years, Canada has had several prominent satirical television series and radio shows. Some, including CODCO, The Royal Canadian Air Farce, This Is That, and This Hour Has 22 Minutes deal directly with current news stories and political figures, while others, like History Bites present contemporary social satire in the context of events and figures in history. The Canadian organization Canada News Network provides commentary on contemporary news events that are primarily Canadian in nature. Canadian songwriter Nancy White uses music as the vehicle for her satire, and her comic folk songs are regularly played on CBC Radio.

Cartoonists often use satire as well as straight humour. Al Capp's satirical comic strip Li'l Abner was censored in September 1947. The controversy, as reported in Time, centred on Capp's portrayal of the US Senate. Said Edward Leech of Scripps-Howard, "We don't think it is good editing or sound citizenship to picture the Senate as an assemblage of freaks and crooks... boobs and undesirables." [93] Walt Kelly's Pogo was likewise censored in 1952 over his overt satire of Senator Joe McCarthy, caricatured in his comic strip as "Simple J. Malarky". Garry Trudeau, whose comic strip Doonesbury focuses on satire of the political system, and provides a trademark cynical view on national events. Trudeau exemplifies humour mixed with criticism. For example, the character Mark Slackmeyer 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.

Political satire by Ranan Lurie

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.

Fake News is also a very popular form of contemporary satire, appearing in as wide an array of formats as the news media itself: print (e.g. The Onion, Canada News Network, Private Eye), "Not Your Homepage,[94]" radio (e.g. On the Hour), television (e.g. The Day Today, The Daily Show, Brass Eye) and the web (e.g. Mindry.in, The Fruit Dish, Scunt News,[95] Faking News, El Koshary Today, The Giant Napkin,[96] Unconfirmed Sources[97] and The Onion's website). Other satires are on the list of satirists and satires. Another internet-driven form of satire is to lampoon bad internet performers. An example of this is the Internet meme character Miranda Sings.[98][99]

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.' Those are rather extreme examples, but if it affects somebody personally, they tend to be more sensitive about it."[100]

Zhou Libo, a comedian from Shanghai, is the most popular satirist in China. His humour has interests middle-class people and has sold out shows ever since his rise to fame. Primarily a theater performer, Zhou said his work is never scripted, allowing him to improvise jokes about recent events. He often mocks political figures he supports.

Techniques

Literary satire is usually written out of earlier satiric works, reprising previous conventions, commonplaces, stance, situations and tones of voice.[101] Exaggeration is one of the most common satirical techniques.[3]

Legal status

For its nature and social role, satire has enjoyed in many societies a special freedom license to mock prominent individuals and institutions.[20] In Germany,[102] and Italy[17][103] satire is protected by the constitution.

Since satire belongs to the realm of art and artistic expression, it benefits from broader lawfulness limits than mere freedom of information of journalistic kind.[103] In some countries a specific "right to satire" is recognized and its limits go beyond the "right to report" of journalism and even the "right to criticize."[103] Satire benefits not only of the protection to freedom of speech, but also to that to culture, and that to scientific and artistic production.[17][103]

Censorship and criticism of satire

Descriptions of satire's biting effect on its target include 'venomous', 'cutting', 'stinging',[104] vitriol. Because satire often combines anger and humor, as well as the fact that it addresses and calls into question many controversial issues, it can be profoundly disturbing.

Typical arguments

Because it is essentially ironic or sarcastic, satire is often misunderstood. A typical misunderstanding is to confuse the satirist with his persona.[105]

Bad taste

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.

Targeting the victim

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 concerns attacked in Huckleberry Finn).[106][107] This same misconception was suffered by the main character of the 1960s British television comedy satire Till Death Us Do Part. The character of Alf Garnett (played by Warren Mitchell) was created to poke fun at the kind of narrow-minded, racist, little Englander that Garnett represented. Instead, his character became a sort of anti-hero to people who actually agreed with his views. The same thing happened in regard to the main character in the American TV Show All in the Family, Archie Bunker.

The Australian satirical television comedy show The Chaser's War on Everything has suffered repeated attacks based on various perceived interpretations of the "target" of its attacks. The "Make a Realistic Wish Foundation" sketch (June 2009), which attacked in classical satiric fashion the heartlessness of people who are reluctant to donate to charities, was widely interpreted as an attack on the Make a Wish Foundation, or even the terminally ill children helped by that organisation. Prime Minister of the time Kevin Rudd stated that The Chaser team "should hang their heads in shame". He went on to say that "I didn't see that but it's been described to me. ...But having a go at kids with a terminal illness is really beyond the pale, absolutely beyond the pale."[108] Television station management suspended the show for two weeks and reduced the third season to eight episodes.

Romantic prejudice

The romantic prejudice against satire is the belief spread by the romantic movement that satire is something unworthy of serious attention; this prejudice has held considerable influence to this day.[109] Such prejudice extends to humor and everything that arouses laughter, which are often underestimated as frivolous and unworthy of serious study.[110] For instance, humor is generally neglected as a topic of anthropological research and teaching.[111]

History of opposition toward notable satires

Satire on internet culture

Because satire criticises in an ironic, essentially indirect way, it frequently escapes censorship in a way more direct criticism might not. Periodically, however, it runs into serious opposition, and people in power who perceive themselves as attacked attempt to censor it or prosecute its practitioners. In a classic example, Aristophanes was persecuted by the demagogue Cleon.

1599 book ban

In 1599, the Archbishop of Canterbury John Whitgift and the Bishop of London Richard Bancroft, whose offices had the function of licensing books for publication in England, issued a decree banning verse satire. The decree, now known as the Bishops' Ban of 1599, 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.[112]

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.

21st century polemics

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; 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 an Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoons Contest.

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 (despite the fact that Baron Cohen 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.

In 2008, popular South African cartoonist and satirist Jonathan Shapiro (who is published under the pen name Zapiro) came under fire for depicting then-president of the ANC Jacob Zuma in the act of undressing in preparation for the implied rape of 'Lady Justice' which is held down by Zuma loyalists.[113] The cartoon was drawn in response to Zuma's efforts to duck corruption charges, and the controversy was heightened by the fact that Zuma was himself acquitted of rape in May 2006. In February 2009, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, viewed by some opposition parties as the mouthpiece of the governing ANC,[114] shelved a satirical TV show created by Shapiro,[115] and in May 2009 the broadcaster pulled a documentary about political satire (featuring Shapiro among others) for the second time, hours before scheduled broadcast.[116] Apartheid South Africa also had a long history of censorship.

On December 29, 2009, Samsung sued Mike Breen, and the Korea Times for $1 million, claiming criminal defamation over a satirical column published on Christmas Day, 2009.[117][118]

Satirical prophecy

Satire is occasionally prophetic: the jokes precede actual events.[119][120] Among the eminent examples are:

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, the censors of the press, issued Orders to the Stationers' Company on June 1 and 4, 1599, prohibiting the further printing of satires — the so-called 'Bishop's Ban'.[81]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Elliott 2004.
  2. ↑ Frye, Northrop, quote[1] (literary critic).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Claridge, Claudia (2010) Hyperbole in English: A Corpus-based Study of Exaggeration p.257
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Kharpertian, Theodore D, "Thomas Pynchon and Postmodern American Satire", in Kharpertian, A hand to turn the time: the Menippean satires of Thomas Pynchon, pp. 25–7
  5. ↑ Branham 1997, p. xxiv.
  6. ↑ Ullman, BL (1913), "Satura and Satire", Classical Philology 8 (2), The Renaissance confusion of the two origins encouraged a satire more aggressive than that of its Roman forebearers
  7. ↑ Antonia Szabari (2009) Less Rightly Said: Scandals and Readers in Sixteenth-Century France p.2
  8. ↑ Corum 2002, p. 175.
  9. ↑ "Ig", Improbable
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Rosenberg, Harold (1960), "Community, Values, Comedy", Commentary (The American Jewish Committee) 30: 155, the oldest form of social study is comedy... If the comedian, from Aristophanes to Joyce, does not solve sociology's problem of "the participant observer", he does demonstrate his objectivity by capturing behavior in its most intimate aspects yet in its widest typicality. Comic irony sets whole cultures side by side in a multiple exposure (e.g., Don Quixote, Ulysses), causing valuation to spring out of the recital of facts alone, in contrast to the hidden editorializing of tongue-in-cheek ideologists.
  11. ↑ Deloria, Vine (1969), "Indian humor", Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto, p. 146, Irony and satire provide much keener insights into a group's collective psyche and values than do years of [conventional] research as quoted in Ryan, Allan J, The trickster shift: humour and irony in contemporary native art, p. 9
  12. ↑ Nash, Roderick Frazier (1970), "21. The New Humor", The Call of the Wild: 1900–1916, p. 203, Humor is one of the best indicators of popular thought. To ask what strikes a period as funny is to probe its deepest values and tastes.
  13. ↑ Babcock, Barbara A (1984), "Arrange Me Into Disorder: Fragments and Reflections on Ritual Clowning", in MacAloon, Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle. Also collected as Babcock, Barbara A Grimes (1996), Ronald, L, ed., Readings in ritual studies, p. 5, Harold Rosenberg has asserted that sociology needs to bring comedy into the foreground, including "an awareness of the comedy of sociology with its disguises", and, like Burke and Duncan, he has argued that comedy provides "the radical effect of self- knowledge which the anthropological bias excludes.
  14. ↑ Coppola, Jo (1958), The Realist (1), Good comedy is social criticism—although you might find that hard to believe if all you ever saw were some of the so-called clowns of videoland.... Comedy is dying today because criticism is on its deathbed... because telecasters, frightened by the threats and pressure of sponsors, blacklists and viewers, helped introduce conformity to this age... In such a climate, comedy cannot flourish. For comedy is, after all, a look at ourselves, not as we pretend to be when we look in the mirror of our imagination, but as we really are. Look at the comedy of any age and you will know volumes about that period and its people which neither historian nor anthropologist can tell you. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ↑ Willi, Andreas (2003), The Languages of Aristophanes: Aspects of Linguistic Variation in Classical Attic Greek, Oxford University Press, pp. 1–2
  16. ↑ Ehrenberg, Victor (1962), The people of Aristophanes: a sociology of old Attic comedy, p. 39
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Bevere, Antonio and Cerri, Augusto (2006) Il Diritto di informazione e i diritti della persona pp.265-6 quotation:
    nella storia della nostra cultura, la satira ha realizzato il bisogno popolare di irridere e dissacrare il gotha politico ed economico, le cui reazioni punitive non sono certo state condizionate da critiche estetiche, ma dalla tolleranza o intolleranza caratterizzanti in quel momento storico la società e i suoi governanti. (...) la reale esistenza della satira in una società deriva, (...) dal margine di tolleranza espresso dai poteri punitivi dello Stato.
  18. ↑ Amy Wiese Forbes (2010) The Satiric Decade: Satire and the Rise of Republicanism in France, 1830-1840 p.xv, quotation:
    a critical public discourse (...) Satire rose the daunting question of what role public opinion would play in government. (...) satirists criticized government activities, exposed ambiguities, and forced administrators to clarify or establish policies. Not surprisingly, heated public controversy surrounded satiric commentary, resulting in an outright ban on political satire in 1835 (...) Government officials cracked down on their humorous public criticism that challenged state authority through both its form and content. Satire had been a political resource in France for a long time, but the anxious political context of the July Monarchy had unlocked its political power. Satire also taught lessons in democracy. It fit into the July Monarchy's tense political context as a voice in favor of public political debate. Satiric expression took place in the public sphere and spoke from a position of public opinion-that is, from a position of the nations expressing a political voice and making claims on its government representatives and leadership. Beyond mere entertainment, satire's humor appealed to and exercised public opinion, drawing audiences into new practices of representative government.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Knight, Charles A. (2004) Literature of Satire p.254
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Test (1991) p.9 quotation:
    A surprising variety of societies have allowed certain persons the freedom to mock other individuals and social institutions in rituals. From the earliest times the same freedom has been claimed by and granted to social groups at certain times of the year, as can be seen in such festivals as the Saturnalia, the Feast of Fools, Carnival, and similar folk festivals in India, nineteenth-century Newfoundland, and the ancient Mediterranean world.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 Test (1991) pp.8-9
  22. ↑ Cazeneuve (1957) p.244-5 quotation:
    Ils constituent donc pour la tribu un moyen de donner une satisfaction symbolique aux tendances anti-sociales. Les Zunis, précisément parce qu'ils sont un peuple apollinien [où la règle prédomine], avaient besoin de cette soupape de sûreté. Les Koyemshis représentent ce que M. Caillois nomme le « Sacré de transgression ».
  23. ↑ Durand (1984) p.106 quotation:
    Déjà Cazeneuve (2) [Les dieux dansent à Cibola] avait mis auparavant en relief, dans la Société « apollinienne » des Zuñi, l'institution et le symbolisme saturnal des clowns Koyemshis, véritable soupape de sûreté « dionysienne ».
  24. ↑ Yatsko, V, Russian folk funny stories
  25. ↑ Corum (2002) p.163
  26. ↑ David Worcester (1968) The Art of Satire p.16
  27. ↑ Müller, Rolf Arnold (1973). Komik und Satire (in German). Zürich: Juris-Verlag. p. 92. ISBN 978-3-260-03570-8.
  28. ↑ "What Is Horatian Satire?". wiseGEEK.
  29. ↑ "Satire Terms". nku.edu.
  30. ↑ Sharma, Raja, "Comedy" in New Ligt-Literary Studies
  31. ↑ http://www.uh.edu/honors/Programs-Minors/honors-and-the-schools/houston-teachers-institute/curriculum-units/pdfs/2008/comedy/green-08-comedy.pdf
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 "What Is Juvenalian Satire?". wiseGEEK.
  33. ↑ "Satire in Literature: Definition, Types & Examples". Education Portal.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Fo (1990) p.9 quotation:
    Nella storia del teatro si ritrova sempre questo conflitto in cui si scontrano impegno e disimpegno ... grottesco, satirico e lazzo con sfottò. E spesso vince lo sfotto. tanto amato dal potere. Quando si dice che il potere ama la satira
  35. ↑ Eastman, Max (1936), "IV. Degrees of Biting", Enjoyment of Laughter, pp. 236–43
  36. ↑ Fo, Dario; Lorch, Jennifer, Dario Fo, p. 128, In other writings Fo makes an important distinction between sfottò and satire.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 Fo (1990) pp.2-3
    ... Una caricatura che, è ovvio, risulta del tutto bonaria, del tutto epidermica, che indica, come dicevo prima, soltanto la parte più esteriore del loro carattere, i tic la cui messa in risalto non lede assolutamente l'operato, l'ideologia, la morale e la dimensione culturale di questi personaggi. ... ricordando che i politici provano un enorme piacere nel sentirsi presi in giro; è quasi un premio che si elargisce loro, nel momento stesso in cui li si sceglie per essere sottoposti alla caricatura, a quella caricatura. ... Di fatto questa è una forma di comicità che non si può chiamare satira, ma solo sfottò. ... Pensa quanti pretesti satirici si offrirebbero se solo quei comici del "Biberon" volessero prendere in esame il modo in cui questi personaggi gestiscono il potere e lo mantengono, o si decidessero a gettare l'occhio sulle vere magagne di questa gente, le loro violenze più o meno mascherate, le loro arroganze e soprattutto le loro ipocrisie. ...un teatro cabaret capostipite: il Bagaglino, un teatro romano che, già vent'anni fa, si metteva in una bella chiave politica dichiaratamente di estrema destra, destra spudoratamente reazionaria, scopertamente fascista. Nelle pieghe del gruppo del Bagaglino e del suo lavoro c'era sempre la caricatura feroce dell'operaio, del sindacalista, del comunista, dell'uomo di sinistra, e una caricatura bonacciona invece, e ammiccante, accattivante, degli uomini e della cultura al potere
  38. ↑ Fo (1990) quotation:
    L'ironia fatta sui tic, sulla caricatura dei connotati più o meno grotteschi dei politici presi di mira, dei loro eventuali difetti fisici, della loro particolare pronuncia, dei loro vezzi, del loro modo di vestire, del loro modo di camminare, delle frasi tipiche che vanno ripetendo. ...[lo sfottò è] una chiave buffonesca molto antica, che viene di lontano, quella di giocherellare con gli attributi esteriori e non toccare mai il problema di fondo di una critica seria che è l'analisi messa in grottesco del comportamento, la valutazione ironica della posizione, dell'ideologia del personaggio.
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Arroyo, José Luís Blas; Casanova, Mónica Velando, Discurso y sociedad: contribuciones al estudio de la lengua en... 1, pp. 303–4
  40. ↑ Morson, Gary Saul (1988), Boundaries of Genre, p. 114, second, that parodies can be, as Bakhtin observes, "shallow" as well as "deep" (Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics, 160), which is to say, directed at superficial as well as fundamental faults of the original. [...] the distinction between shallow and deep [...] [is] helpful in understanding the complex ways in which parodies are used. For instance, shallow parody is sometimes used to pay an author an indirect compliment. The opposite of damning with faint praise, this parody with faint criticism may be designed to show that no more fundamental criticism could be made.
  41. ↑ Luttazzi, Daniele (2005), Matrix, IT, archived from the original on December 25, 2005, Dario Fo disse a Satyricon: —La satira vera si vede dalla reazione che suscita.
  42. ↑ Luttazzi, Daniele (October 2003), Fracassi, Federica; Guerriero, Jacopo, eds., "State a casa a fare i compiti" (INTERVIEW), Nazione Indiana (in Italian), Lo sfottò è reazionario. Non cambia le carte in tavola, anzi, rende simpatica la persona presa di mira. La Russa, oggi, è quel personaggio simpatico, con la voce cavernosa, il doppiatore dei Simpson di cui Fiorello fa l’imitazione. Nessuno ricorda più il La Russa picchiatore fascista. Nessuno ricorda gli atti fascisti e reazionari di questo governo in televisione.
  43. ↑ Kremer, S Lillian (2003), Holocaust Literature: Agosín to Lentin, p. 100
  44. ↑ Lipman, Stephen ‘Steve’ (1991), Laughter in hell: the use of humour during the Holocaust, Northvale, NJ: J Aronson, p. 40
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 45.2 45.3 Clark (1991) pp.116-8 quotation:
    ...religion, politics, and sexuality are the primary stuff of literary satire. Among these sacret targets, matters costive and defecatory play an important part. ... from the earliest times, satirists have utilized scatological and bathroom humor. Aristophanes, always livid and nearly scandalous in his religious, political, and sexual references...
  46. ↑ Clark, John R; Motto, Anna Lydia (1973), Satire–that blasted art, p. 20
  47. ↑ Clark, John R; Motto, Anna Lydia (1980), "Menippeans & Their Satire: Concerning Monstrous Leamed Old Dogs and Hippocentaurs", Scholia satyrica 6 (3/4): 45, [Chapple's book Soviet satire of the twenties]... classifying the very topics his satirists satirized: housing, food, and fuel supplies, poverty, inflation, "hooliganism", public services, religion, stereotypes of nationals (the Englishman, German, &c), &c. Yet the truth of the matter is that no satirist worth his salt (Petronius, Chaucer, Rabelais, Swift, Leskov, Grass) ever avoids man's habits and living standards, or scants those delicate desiderata: religion, politics, and sex.
  48. ↑ Ferdie Addis (2012) Qual è il tuo "tallone da killer"? p.20
  49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 Hodgart (2009) ch 2 The topics of satire: politics p.33
    The most pressing of the problems that face us when we close the book or leave the theatre are ultimately political ones; and so politics is the pre-eminent topic of satire. ...to some defree public affairs vex every man, if he pays taxes, does military service or even objects to the way his neighbour is behaving. There is no escape from politics where more than a dozen people are living together.
    There is an essential connection between satire and politics in the widest sense: satire is not only the commonest form of political literature, but, insofar as it tries to influence public behavious, it is the most political part of all literature.
  50. ↑ Hodgart (2009) p.39
  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 51.2 Wilson (2002) pp. 14–5, 20 and notes 25 (p. 308), 32 (p. 309)
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    The turd is the ultimate dead object.
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  54. ↑ Klein, Cecelia F. (1993) Teocuitlatl, 'Divine Excrement': The Significance of 'Holy Shit' in Ancient Mexico, in Art Journal (CAA), Vol.52, n.3, Fall 1993, pp.20-7
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    Le corps grotesque est una realite populaire detournee au profit d'une representation du corps a but politique, plaquege du corps scatologique sur le corps de ceux qu'il covient de denoncer. Denonciation scatologique projetee sur le corps aristocratique pour lui signifier sa degenerescence.
  56. ↑ Parsons, Elsie Clews; Ralph L. Beals (October–December 1934). "The Sacred Clowns of the Pueblo and Mayo-Yaqui Indians". American Anthropologist 36 (4): 491–514. doi:10.1525/aa.1934.36.4.02a00020. JSTOR 661824.
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  58. ↑ Donald Alexander Mackenzie (1923) Myths of Pre-Columbian America p.229
  59. ↑ Patrick Marnham (2000) Dreaming with His Eyes Open: A Life of Diego Rivera p.297
  60. ↑ Hilda Ellis Davidson (1993) Boundaries & Thresholds p.85 quotation:
    It is this fear of what the dead in their uncontrollable power might cause which has brought forth apotropaic rites, protective rites against the dead. (...) One of these popular rites was the funeral rite of sin-eating, performed by a sin-eater, a man or woman. Through accepting the food and drink provided, he took upon himself the sins of the departed.
  61. ↑ Bloom, Edward Alan; Bloom, Lillian D (1979), Satire's persuasive voice.
  62. ↑ Nicoll, Allardyce (1951), British drama: an historical survey from the beginnings to the present time, p. 179
  63. ↑ Hodgart (2009) p.189
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  65. ↑ Clark, Arthur Melville (1946), "The Art of Satire and the Satiric Spectrum", Studies in literary modes, p. 32
  66. ↑ Lichtheim, M (1973), Ancient Egyptian Literature I, pp. 184–93
  67. ↑ Helck, W (1970), Die Lehre des DwA-xtjj, Wiesbaden
  68. ↑ Gardiner, Alan H (1911), Egyptian Hieratic Texts, I: Literary Texts of the New Kingdom I, Leipzig
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  74. ↑ Cuddon (1998), "Satire", Dictionary of Literary Terms, Oxford
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  80. ↑ Hall 1969: ‘Hall's Virgidemiae was a new departure in that the true Juvenalian mode of satire was being attempted for the first time, and successfully, in English.’
  81. ↑ Davenport 1969.
  82. ↑ The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century 3, p. 435
  83. ↑ Weinbrot, Howard D. (2007) Eighteenth-Century Satire: Essays on Text and Context from Dryden to Peter... p.136
  84. ↑ Dryden, John, Lynch, Jack, ed., Discourse (2), Rutgers
  85. ↑ 85.0 85.1 Chaplin (1964) My Autobiography, p.392, quotation:
    Had I known of the actual horrors of the German concentration camps, I could not have made The Great Dictator, I could not have made fun of the homicidal insanity of the Nazis.
  86. ↑ Sullivan, James (2010) Seven Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin p.94
  87. ↑ George Carlin (2002) Introduction to Murder At the Conspiracy Convention
  88. ↑ "David Frost's Q&A on how to be a satirist". The Guardian (London). Retrieved February 2, 2015
  89. ↑ "What is Catch-22? And why does the book matter?". BBC. March 12, 2002.
  90. ↑ Van Norris (2014). British Television Animation 1997-2010: Drawing Comic Tradition". p. 153. Palgrave Macmillan,
  91. ↑ Molly the Dog, 2008
  92. ↑ Brian Miner, 2008
  93. ↑ "Tain't Funny - ''Time''". Time.com. September 29, 1947. Retrieved August 29, 2009.
  94. ↑ "Not Your Homepage - Check Your Morals At The Door, Come See the Internet Lore!". notyourhomepage.com.
  95. ↑ "FRONT PAGE - Satirical News, Review, Comment & Analysis". Scunt.co.uk. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  96. ↑ "The Giant Napkin". Thegiantnapkin.com. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  97. ↑ "Unconfirmedsources.com". Unconfirmedsources.com. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  98. ↑ Ng, David (May 11, 2009), "YouTube sensation Miranda seduces Broadway", Los Angeles Times
  99. ↑ "This Week", San Francisco Chronicle, October 4, 2009
  100. ↑ An interview with The Onion, David Shankbone, Wikinews, November 25, 2007.
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  102. ↑ Geisler, Michael E. (2005) National Symbols, Fractured Identities: Contesting the National Narrative p.73
  103. ↑ 103.0 103.1 103.2 103.3 Pezzella, Vincenzo (2009) La diffamazione: responsabilità penale e civile pp.566-7 quotation:
    Il diritto di satira trova il suo fondamento negli artt. 21 e 33 della Costituzione che tutelano, rispettivamente, la libertà di manifestazione del pensiero e quella di elaborazione artistica e scientifica. (...) la satira, in quanto operante nell'ambito di ciò che è arte, non è strettamente correlata ad esigenze informative, dal che deriva che i suoi limiti di liveità siano ben più ammpi di quelli propri del diritto di cronaca
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  105. ↑ Test (1991) p.10
  106. ↑ Leonard, James S; Tenney, Thomas A; Davis, Thadious M (December 1992). Satire or Evasion?: Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. Duke University Press. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-8223-1174-4.
  107. ↑ Fishin, Shelley Fisher (1997), Lighting out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture, New York: Oxford University Press
  108. ↑ "'Hang your heads' Rudd tells Chaser boys". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. June 4, 2009. Retrieved June 5, 2009.
  109. ↑ Sutherland, James (1958), English Satire
  110. ↑ Martin, Rod A (2007), The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach, pp. 27–8
  111. ↑ Apte, Mahadev L (1985), "Introduction", Humor and laughter: an anthropological approach, p. 23, The general neglect of humor as a topic of anthropological research is reflected in teaching practice. Most introductory textbooks do not even list humor as a significant characteristic of cultural systems together with kinship, social roles, behavioral patterns, religion, language, economic transactions, political institutions, values, and material culture.
  112. ↑ Arber, Edward, ed. (1875–94), A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554–1640 III, London, p. 677
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  114. ↑ "Democratic Alliance spokesperson Helen Zille" (INTERVIEW). Mail and Guardian. ZA. Retrieved August 2005.
  115. ↑ "ZNews: Zapiro's puppet show". Dispatch. ZA.
  116. ↑ "SABC pulls Zapiro doccie, again". Mail and Guardian. ZA. September 26, 2009.
  117. ↑ "Samsung Sues Satirist, Claiming Criminal Defamation, Over Satirical Column Poking Fun At Samsung". Techdirt. May 11, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  118. ↑ Glionna, John M (May 10, 2010). "Samsung doesn't find satirical spoof amusing". Los Angeles Times.
  119. ↑ Krassner, Paul (August 26, 2003), "Terminal velocity television is here", New York Press 16 (35)
  120. ↑ 120.0 120.1 Luttazzi, Daniele (2007), Lepidezze postribolari (in Italian), Feltrinelli, p. 275
  121. ↑ Franklin, Benjamin (April 26, 1784). "Aux auteurs du Journal". Journal de Paris (in French) (117). Wrote anonymously. Its first publication was in the journal's "Économie" section. An Economical Project (revised English version ed.), retrieved May 26, 2007 has a title that is not Franklin's; see A.O. Aldridge (1956). "Franklin's essay on daylight saving". American Literature (American Literature) 28 (1): 23–29. doi:10.2307/2922719. JSTOR 2922719.
  122. ↑ "Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'". The Onion. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  123. ↑ "Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades". The Onion. Retrieved June 9, 2012.

Bibliography

Further reading

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Theories/critical approaches to satire as a genre
The plot of satire

External links