The Truth Behind Satire: More Than Just to Crack a Smile
Satirical "Cliff Selfie" cartoon, window pane 1 of 6. Created by: Hanson Yuan, 2019.
What is Satire?
Satire is a lighthearted take on a serious situation. Usually satire reveals unforeseen issues within a conflict by using humor to exaggerate the problems. This means using different satirical devices to reveal hidden details, making the audience think twice about a certain conflict. In a sense, satire is providing another perspective on an issue that may be inflated or deflated by media bias or ignorance. The key theme of satire is that humor is involved. Readers may not necessarily need to burst out laughing, but when satirizing an issue, the author must ensure that readers are understanding the punchline. To do this, authors need to include who the satire's target is, what is the satire's purpose, who the intended audience is and under what context the satire is referring to.
Why is Satire an Important Device?
Satire is an important device because of its popular modern day uses. Rhetorically, satire is meant to provide another perspective on an issue. Satire convinces people to deepen analytical thinking and to consider multiple perspectives. This means that people are not as easily convinced by media bias and are able to see the big picture. Literarily, satire is important because we need to consider the legitimacy of the content we read. Because satire encourages multi-perspective analytical thinking, we train our ability to see the opposite side of an argument or debate. Since information is impeded by inert bias, we as readers should be willing to see all sides of an issue. This way we can harness the information we read clearer and deepen our understanding of text and the world around us.
How can You Develop Something Satirical?
Developing satire can be difficult. Typically, any ideas an author may initially think of is probably already done by someone else before. Realistically, one probably cannot think of an idea that someone else hasn’t considered already. The true way of creating satire is through careful analysis of the context of a situation. Because creating context creates the foundation for satirical devices to be added, building satire from an issue that many people understand is important. Furthermore, choosing the right satirical devices for the right context is important. These then need to be accurately represented in the satire and readers should be able to understand the devices’ purpose.
How can You Identify Satire in a Cartoon or Text?
Satire can be tricky to decode. Typically, satire appears in news sites and cartoons, but texts and stories are common, too. The main way of finding satire is by looking for the devices. Unfortunately, this does mean that solid background knowledge on satire and devices are recommended to fully understand satire unless the satire is obvious. This means that satire should not be taken at face value and given more in depth thinking to truly understand the author's purpose. Readers should look for humor, exaggeration and sarcasm. These are the three most common traits of satire.
The Perfect Selfie Concept
My cartoon satirizes a man who makes extremely poor decisions. The first frame helps set the context of the situation: a beautiful landscape with mountains and incredible scenery attracting tourists to visit. Then the stick man runs through a group of tourists to take a selfie at the edge. The reader can understand the stick man’s intentions because they would most likely be willing to take a picture of the scenery, too. However, the stick man stands too close to the edge, and despite warnings from the throng of tourists, he inevitably falls to his death. The satire ends with a news article that gives a backstory to the stick man and showcases some of his other stupid actions. I target people who make stupid decisions that end them off worse and I did this through the use of diminution and irony in a grotesque context.
"Cliff Selfie". Created by Hanson Yuan, 2019.
