Satire as a Mirror Jonathan Swift once said that satire is a sort of mirror where beholders generally discover everybody’s face but their own. The idea is: when you write satire, you have a specific target, and you go after it fiercely. But the person you’re targeting may look at it and say, “Yeah, those other people are terrible,” never realizing the satire is aimed at them. Still, satire remains a powerful form of argument.

Mentor Texts and Today’s Focus While Tana Huzi Coates’ “Protests Have Never Been Popular” has been our mentor text in this series, it isn’t satire. Instead, we will examine three examples of satire: one from The Onion, one from McSweeney’s, and one clip from Saturday Night Live. Note: While these specific texts are suitable for school, not all content on those platforms is appropriate for all audiences.

What is Satire?

Satire is mocking someone, a group, or a concept to make a point. You might not convince the target, but you can entertain your audience. Satire has existed for 2,500 years and employs several key techniques:

• Parody: Imitating something to create humor.
• Exaggeration and Understatement: Making something seem bigger or smaller than it really is.
• Irony: Outcomes contrary to what is expected, often through sarcasm.

Rule 1: Know Your Target All good satire identifies its target clearly. The Onion published a parody about Congress criminalizing whatever Black people are doing at the moment. The specific target was Rep. Steve King, seen by many as a white supremacist. Even if the reader doesn’t know who he is, the satire generalizes the criticism.

Corollaries to Rule1

1. Don’t be too specific—make sure readers can grasp your target.
2. Never punch down—satire should mock those in power, not the powerless.

Rule 2: Know Your Audience

This is illustrated in the McSweeney’s piece titled I’m Color Blind—I Don’t See Black People…. To understand it, you need to grasp the mindset of McSweeney’s readers: educated, progressive, often white. The satire is written for them, mocking those who claim they’re not racist but reinforce racist structures.

Corollaries to Rule 2

1. Choose your techniques wisely: The Onion exaggerates, while McSweeney’s uses understatement.
2. Make sure your audience understands the joke—connect all the dots for them.

Rule3: Be Subtle at First

Consider the SNL trailer parodying reactions to Beyoncé’s “Formation”. It builds slowly—the satire isn’t obvious until 45 seconds in. This mirrors Swift’s A Modest Proposal, which starts seriously before suggesting that poor Irish families sell their children as food.

Corollaries to Rule 3

1. Use a plausible hook to draw readers in.
2. Save the punchline for the end.

When to Use Satire Use satire when the topic allows for it—not every issue does. For example, the death penalty isn’t suitable for satire, but climate change debates filled with denial can be satirized.

Satirical Techniques Recap

• Parody
• Exaggeration and Understatement
• Irony

Satirical Rules Recap

1. Know your target—don’t punch down.
2. Know your audience—help them get the joke.
3. Start subtle—then build to the punchline.

There’s one more episode in the series on logical fallacies. See you then.

Author: Jay Bullock is a 20-year veteran English teacher in Milwaukee, a professional writer.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlCjmWckYtw

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Media Academy of Satireology specializes in teaching the curriculum of satirical media and journalism. It includes academic articles and satirical pieces, providing opportunities for training in its strategies and tools."