SATIRE
(PARODY)
Who is able to produce:
Professional – Amateur – Anyone.
Although great humour and satire often feel effortless to the reader, for the writer it takes effort and practice and requires care and revision, especially as satire is said to be one of the most challenging types of humour to write. Typically, in order to take a serious subject and make a serious comment on it in a way that comes across with a note of humour, the author has to succeed in a couple of areas: he or she must be intelligent, well-read and informed, and relevant.
Level of deception:
Low – Average – High – Very high.
Satire should not be deceptive – when creating a satire piece, one seeks to make it, so the reader understands that this is satire. However, there have been numerous cases when even governments, politicians, mainstream media, or news outlets are fooled by satire and represent it as credible news.
Satire: the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticise people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Parody is a form of satire that exaggerates the notable features of a public figure, artist, or genre, intentionally copies the style of someone famous or copies a particular situation, making the characteristics or qualities of the original more noticeable in a humorous way.
Satiric comedy ridicules policies or philosophical doctrines or else attacks deviations from the social order by making ridiculous the violators of its standards of morals or manners.
Irony describes situations that are strange or funny because things happen in a way that seems to be the opposite of what you expected (the difference between what is said or done, and what is meant).
Working principle (what and how does it do):
Satire is a powerful art form which can point out the deficiencies in certain human behaviours and the social issues which result from them in such a way that they become absurd, even hilarious, which is therefore entertaining and reaches a broad audience. Satire also can protect its creator from culpability for criticism because it is implied rather than overtly stated; in this way, it becomes a powerful tool for dissenters in difficult or oppressive political and social periods.
Satire has endured as a storytelling technique for centuries because it offers a brilliant mix of comedic relief and social critique. It combines entertainment with a purpose.
Source: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1065&context=srhonorsprog.
Tools of satire:
- Exaggeration: hyperbole or understatement. To enlarge, increase, or represent something beyond normal bounds so that it becomes ridiculous and its faults can be seen.
- Irony: To present things that are out of place or are absurd in relation to the surroundings.
- Reversal: To present the opposite of the regular order (e.g. the order of events, hierarchical order).
- Parody: To imitate the techniques or style of some person, place, or thing.
- Cynicism: The ability to look with suspicion at something, or someone and offer an opinion contrary to the status quo is an excellent tool for satire
- Double entendre: saying one thing and (clearly) meaning another.
Example:
Checking method:
Most satire has the following characteristics in common:
- Satire relies on humour to bring about social change.
- Satire is most often implied. The reader has to pick up on the humour, or he/she will miss the satirical nature of the writing.
- Satire, most often, does not go over individual people. Instead, satire is directed at society as a whole, or types of people in a society-the politician, the adulterer, the prideful, etc.
- The wit and irony of the satire are exaggerated – it is in the exaggeration that people are made aware of their foolishness.
Other disinformation types:
Advertising
Trolls, bots and fake or puppet accounts
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