Elements of Satire

Elements of Satire Objective: To recognize and analyze the elements of satire by taking notes on definitions and recording examples from video clips

Satire • Is a literary genre that uses irony, sarcasm, hyperbole, litotes, ridicule, and invective to expose humanity’s vices and foibles in hopes of change. • The message has to point out humanity’s faults so that there is a change. • The message is often stated in a way to say the opposite of what the author really wants to happen to point out how ridiculous the audience’s beliefs or actions are

Irony • Irony: literary device that exploits reader’s expectations; irony occurs when what is expected turns out to be quite different from what actually happens • Bo

Verbal Irony and Sarcasm • Verbal irony • occurs when a speaker or narrator says one thing while meaning the opposite • verbal irony

Hyperbole • Deliberate exaggeration to achieve an effect; overstatement • hyperbole in songs

Litotes • A form of understatement that involves making an affirmative point of denying its opposite • Litotes • They aren't the happiest couple around. • He's not the ugliest fellow around! • She's not the brightest girl in the class. • The food is not bad. • It is no ordinary city. • That sword was not useless to the warrior now. • She is not as young as she was. • You are not wrong. • Einstein is not a bad mathematician. • Heat waves are not rare in the summer.

Ridicule • Words intended to belittle a person or idea and arouse contemptuous laughter. The goal is to condemn or criticize by making the thing, idea, or person seem laughable and ridiculous. • This is important when thinking about the audience and the social change the satire desires

Invective • Speech or writing that abuses, denounces, or attacks. It can be directed against a person, cause, idea, or system. It employs a heavy use of negative emotive language. • Examples: • “I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth” Swift, Gulliver’s Travels • "A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; (William Shakespeare's King Lear, II.2)

Parody • The parodist exploits the peculiarities of an author's expression or style • It may look like an actual broadcast • It may look like an actual proposition or law • It may look like a formal business letter • Uses the same diction, tone, favorite words… • the onion

Connection • How is this an example of Satire? • What is the message? • What is literally being suggested? • What is really meant?

Elements of Satire