Social Satire: A Compilation of Satire Essays Written by High School Seniors

The television program South Park —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. Stephen Colbert 's television program, The Colbert Report —14 , 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 American sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live is also known for its satirical impressions and parodies of prominent persons and politicians, among some of the most notable, their parodies of U. 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 [] and Brian Miner.

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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 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.

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 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 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.

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. News satire is also a very popular form of contemporary satire, appearing in as wide an array of formats as the news media itself: On the Hour , television e. 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. In an interview with Wikinews , Sean Mills, President of The Onion , said angry letters about their news parody always carried the same message. Zhou Libo , a comedian from Shanghai , is the most popular satirist in China. His humour has interested middle-class people and has sold out shows ever since his rise to fame. Literary satire is usually written out of earlier satiric works, reprising previous conventions, commonplaces, stance, situations and tones of voice.

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. In September The Juice Media received an e-mail from the Australian National Symbols Officer requesting that the use of a satirical logo, called the "Coat of Harms" based on the Australian Coat of Arms , no longer be used as they had received complaints from the members of the public.

Descriptions of satire's biting effect on its target include 'venomous', 'cutting', 'stinging', [] 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. Because it is essentially ironic or sarcastic, satire is often misunderstood. A typical misunderstanding is to confuse the satirist with his persona. Common uncomprehending responses to satire include revulsion accusations of poor taste , or that "it's just not funny" for instance and 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. 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. 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 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 , 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. 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. 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. In , 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 , 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. 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. In , 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 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.

Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan , a " mockumentary " that satirized everyone, from high society to frat boys. The film was criticized by many. Although Baron Cohen is Jewish, some complained that it was antisemitic , and the government of Kazakhstan boycotted the film. The film itself had been a reaction to a longer quarrel between the government and the comedian.

In , 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. In February , the South African Broadcasting Corporation , viewed by some opposition parties as the mouthpiece of the governing ANC, [] shelved a satirical TV show created by Shapiro, [] and in May the broadcaster pulled a documentary about political satire featuring Shapiro among others for the second time, hours before scheduled broadcast.

Satire is occasionally prophetic: Satire rose the daunting question of what role public opinion would play in government. Not surprisingly, heated public controversy surrounded satiric commentary, resulting in an outright ban on political satire in 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.

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It fit into the July Monarchy's tense political context as a voice in favor of public political debate. Beyond mere entertainment, satire's humor appealed to and exercised public opinion, drawing audiences into new practices of representative government. 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. Ils constituent donc pour la tribu un moyen de donner une satisfaction symbolique aux tendances anti-sociales. Nella storia del teatro si ritrova sempre questo conflitto in cui si scontrano impegno e disimpegno E spesso vince lo sfotto. Quando si dice che il potere ama la satira.

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. Among these sacret targets, matters costive and defecatory play an important part. Aristophanes, always livid and nearly scandalous in his religious, political, and sexual references 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.

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: 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.

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. 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.

Il diritto di satira trova il suo fondamento negli artt. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Not to be confused with satyr or Saltire. For other uses, see Satires disambiguation. Arabic satire and Persian satire. A Corpus-based Study of Exaggeration p. Scandals and Readers in Sixteenth-Century France p.

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. An Indian Manifesto , p.

Satire Essay Topics List (Funn & Easy) for school: Examples, Ideas, Prompts

To ask what strikes a period as funny is to probe its deepest values and tastes. Comedy is dying today because criticism is on its deathbed 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.

Satire and the Rise of Republicanism in France, — p. Komik und Satire in German. Degrees of Biting", Enjoyment of Laughter , pp. 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. Non cambia le carte in tavola, anzi, rende simpatica la persona presa di mira.

Satire Essay Topics

Nessuno ricorda gli atti fascisti e reazionari di questo governo in televisione. 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: Wyndham Lewis and the Uses of Disgust. As quoted in Wilson The turd is the ultimate dead object. The Spirituality of Comedy: A Life of Diego Rivera p. Tones", Satire , p. The War of the Generations , New York, p. The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia.

University of Pennsylvania Press. The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century , 3 , p. Essays on Text and Context from Dryden to Peter Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. Caricatures from the Revolution' Jonathan Cape p. The Life and Crimes of George Carlin p. And why does the book matter? British Television Animation — Archived from the original on 25 November Retrieved August 29, Archived from the original on April 21, Retrieved August 17, A Critical Reintroduction p.

Contesting the National Narrative p. The Censorship of Satiric Comedy on the Eighteenth Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. Retrieved June 5, An Integrative Approach , pp. 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. Check date values in: Archived from the original on March 26, Retrieved June 9, Journal de Paris in French An Economical Project revised English version ed.

Retrieved January 1, Retrieved February 5, Alternate history Backstory Dystopia Fictional location city country universe Utopia. Irony Leitmotif Metaphor Moral Motif. Linear narrative Nonlinear narrative films television series Types of fiction with multiple endings. First-person Multiple narrators Stream of consciousness Stream of unconsciousness Unreliable. American British French Italian. Asch conformity experiments Milgram experiment Stanford prison experiment. Retrieved from " https: Views Read Edit View history.

In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote. This page was last edited on 17 December , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Women's Lives in the English-Speaking Caribbean Senior's most recent non-fiction book, Dying To Better Themselves: West Indians and the Building of the Panama Canal , was published in September — years after the opening of the Panama Canal , 15 August Senior's work often addresses questions of Caribbean identity in terms of gender and ethnicity.

In that process, I've had to determine who I am. I do not think you can be all things to all people. As part of that process, I decided I was a Jamaican. I represent many different races and I'm not rejecting any of them to please anybody. I'm just who I am and you have to accept me or not.

An Anthology of World Writing in English ed. Her work is taught in schools and universities internationally, with Summer Lightning and Gardening in the Tropics in particular being used as educational textbooks. Marie Luyten , Netherlands: Interviews in the Jamaica Gleaner:. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately , especially if potentially libelous or harmful.