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Satire Unit English IV
What is satire? • An art form (literary, dramatic, visual) that uses humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, and/or society itself into improvement or reform. • What does this mean? Put it in your own words. • What is a vice? What is a folly? • Although satire is usually humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon and as a tool to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society. • Tina Fey as Sarah Palin—as you watch, consider what it is that Tina Fey is satirizing. • Teenage Affluenza—as you watch, consider what it is that is being satirized.
Satire and the Law • The relations of satirists to the law have always been delicate and complex. • In the United States, satirists attack individuals only at the risk of severe financial loss to himself and his publisher. • In totalitarian countries he risks imprisonment or death. • Under extreme conditions satire against the reigning order is out of the question. • Such was the case in the Soviet Union and most other communist countries. For example, a poet was sent to a concentration camp and his death for composing a satirical poem on Stalin. • Why would the law care about satire?
Main types of satire • Juvenalian: any bitter and ironic criticism with personal attacks, angry and moral indignation, and pessimism • Horatian: meant to delight and humor using laughter and ridicule in a non-accusatory manner to highlight vice and folly
Satirical Techniques • Exaggeration/hyperbole • Distortion/reversal • Understatement • Invective/diatribe • Pun/malapropism • Incongruity • Parody/allegory • Sarcasm
Exaggeration/hyperbole • Exaggeration is a statement that represents something as better or worse than it really is. • Hyperbole is exaggeration to a degree of being impossible. South Park Clip
Distortion/reversal • Distortion changes the perspective of a condition or event by isolation or by stressing some aspects and deemphasizing others. Bush Clip • Reversal – to present the opposite of normal order. Ex. A baby makes the decision in the family. Ex. The Affluenza clip
Understatement • The opposite of exaggeration. Something is given far less concern, weight, or importance than is required/expected. • Jonathan Swift: "Last Week I saw a Woman flay'd, and you will hardly believe, how much it altered her Person for the worse“ Monty Python Example
Invective/Diatribe • A direct, angry attack in the hope of eliminating what the satirist regards as undesirable conditions, attitudes, and behavior
Pun • Pun – a word employed in two or more senses, or a word used in a context that suggests a second term sounding like it.
Malapropism • Malapropism – a deliberate mispronunciation of a term with the intent of poking fun. • "The police are not here to create disorder, they're here to preserve disorder." - Richard Daley, former mayor of Chicago • "He was a man of great statue." - Thomas Menino, mayor of Boston • "Texas has a lot of electrical votes." (electoral votes) - Yogi Berra • "Well, that was a cliff-dweller." (cliff-hanger) - Wes Westrum • "Be sure and put some of those neutrons on it." (croutons) - Mike Smith • "It's got lots of installation." (insulation) - Mike Smith speaking about a new coat • "Create a little dysentery among the ranks." (dissension) - Christopher Moltisanti from "The Sopranos" • "This is unparalyzed in the state's history." (unparelled) - Gib Lewis, Texas Speaker of the House
Incongruity • To present things that are out of place or absurd in relation to its surroundings. Ex. The incongruity in Shrek is that a donkey named Donkey lived with an ogre. This is incongruity because ogres are typically gruesome and mean and the donkey thinks he's a friend
Parody/allegory • To imitate the techniques and/or style of some person, place, or thing in order to ridicule the original. For parody/allegory to be successful, the reader must know the original text that is being ridiculed. This is Spinal Tap Clip
Sarcasm • The use of irony to mock or convey contempt Ex. The South Park Clip