Understanding Satire

Satire is the art of making someone or something look ridiculous, raising laughter in order to embarrass, humble, or discredit its targets.

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Satire

1. Exaggeration

2. Incongruity

3. Reversal

4. Parody

5. Irony

6. Anachronism

7. Malapropism

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​Ways to Create Satire

Caricature is the exaggeration of physical characteristics. For example, if you describe someone as tall, you might compare them to a tree or a building.

Cariacature

These techniques either increase or decrease a person, object or idea's size or significance. Understating the effects of something can show a character's deception while overstating can highlight a person's desires in relation to reality.

​​Overstatement and Understatement

Incongruity is an often absurd method of satire where you present something unexpected into an otherwise normal scene or story. Comic writers commonly use this style where the actions of characters in a scene might seem normal, but the caption displays incongruity.

Incongruity

Reversal is a type of satire that switches the positions of two things or people. This can be effective to highlight absurdities in human actions or behaviors. For example, a story of a life-size dog walking a human on a leash is a reversal. Reversal often exposes problematic qualities in situations or characteristics that we view as normal.

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​Reversal

Parody in satire is the act of imitating either a person or an original work. In writing, you might mimic the chapter structure, setting or main characters in a particular work but alter other elements. If your reader recognizes the original work in your writing, the parody you employ might be more effective.

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​Parody

Say one thing but mean the opposite, can include sarcasm.

Verbal

​When the audience knows more than the character(s).

Dramatic

​When the exact opposite happens from what is expected.

Situational

​A person pretends to be ignorant for personal gain.

Socratic

Anachronism is a type of satire that places people or objects in other periods of time. For example, including cars in a story about dinosaurs is an example of anachronism.

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​Anachronism

​Malapropism

​Malapropism is the intentional mispronunciation or misuse of a word by a writer. For example, a character might say that the class should rent a "liberty book." Liberty almost sounds like library, so the reader knows the intent. This creates entertaining content and can often reflect real mispronunciations made by public figures.