Do you know what satire is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on satire, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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December 9, 2021
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Common Questions
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What is satire?
According to Your Dictionary, there are many different types of satire including Horatian satire, Menippean satire, Juvenalian satire, political satire, and more. All forms of satire and satirists use comedy, parody, humor, sarcasm, and absurdity to ridicule something or make a social commentary. This genre often includes exaggeration created for amusement. Satire is a literary device that ridicules a certain topic such as a folly or vice. This genre uses tones of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation towards a flawed subject with the hope of creating awareness and subsequent change. Many common forms of media, art, and entertainment such as movies, magazines, newspapers, novels, poetry, short fiction, drama, and visual art reflect satire. Often satire criticizes human frailty. Try seeing if you can read a piece of satire in order to find out what it is supposed to be a commentary on!
Many different languages also contain words that mean satire. You may notice that some of these translations of satire look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of satire is provided by Word Sense.
- Armenian: երգիծանք
- Danish: satire (common)
- Georgian: სატირა
- Norwegian: satire (masc.)
- Arabic: الأسلوب الساخر (masc.), الساخر
- Polish: satyra (fem.)
- Romanian: satiră (fem.)
- Mandarin: 諷刺, 讽刺 (fèngcì)
- Portuguese: sátira (fem.)
- Turkish: yergi
- French: satire (fem.)
- Scottish Gaelic: aoir (fem.)
- Irish: aoir (fem.)
- Swedish: satir
- German: Satire (fem.)
- Korean: 풍자 (風刺, pungja)
- Japanese: 風刺 (ふうし, fūshi)
- Ukrainian: сати́ра (fem.)
- Belarusian: саты́ра (fem.)
- Afrikaans: satire
- Ossetian: сатирӕ
- Italian: satira (fem.)
- Finnish: satiiri
- Russian: сати́ра (fem.)
- Greek: σάτιρα
- Haitian Creole: satir
- Azeri: satira
- Spanish: sátira (fem.)
- Albanian: satirë (fem.)
- Czech: satira (fem.)
What are examples of satire?
The common types of satire can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or literary technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of satire from Your Dictionary and Literary Devices that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use.
- Twitter’s @dasharez0ne
- Joseph Heller’s Catch-22
- Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
- Shrek–movie that satirizes fairy tales
- Scream–movie satirizing horror genre
- Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke and Fight Club
- Shakespeare’s comedies satirized the politics and philosophy of his day, including Twelfth Night.
- Aristophanes and Plautus satirized ancient Greek culture and Roman politics in their plays, and Catullus mixed vicious satire with his love poetry.
- A Modest Proposal (For Preventing The Children Of Poor People From Being A Burthen To Their Parents Or Country, And For Making Them Beneficial To The Publick)–essay by Jonathan Swift satirizing 18th Century England’s legal and economic exploitation of Ireland
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
- The Office
- Fountain–famous urinal artwork by Marcel Duchamp satirizing American avant-garde art
- Mark Twain’s Life on the MIssissippi, and Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
- South Park
- Mr. Robinson–character played by Eddie Murphy satirizing Mister Rogers and his children’s television program
- 2BR02B–short story by Kurt Vonnegut satirizing meaning of life, death, and individuality
- American Dad
- Alice in Wonderland–novel by Lewis Carroll that satirizes corrupt political and judicial system of Victorian England
- Black Mirror from Charlie Brooker
- Twitter’s @dril
- Terry Pratchett
- Family Guy–animated series that satirizes American middle class society and conventions
- Married with Children
- Monty Python’s Flying Circus
- Saturday Night Live
- Epic Rap Battles of History
- The Colbert Report–comedy television series that satirized news and late-night talk show programs
- Charles Dickens’ novels
- Political cartoons, ranging from the 19th century work of Thomas Nast and Punch to modern work in The New Yorker and XKCD
- Douglas Adams
- The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd–poem by Sir Walter Raleigh satirizing pastoral tradition of Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love”
- Stand-up comedians, from Will Rogers in the 1930s and Lenny Bruce in the ‘60s to John Mulaney and Hasan Minhaj today
- Dr. Strangelove
- Creepypasta
- Get Out
- Deadpool–movie that satirizes super hero genre
- Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal.
- The Simpsons
- The Importance of Being Earnest–dramatic satire by Oscar Wilde of love and marriage cultural norms during Victorian Age
- Suicidemouse
- The Soup
- BEN Drowned
- The Onion–American digital media and newspaper company that satirizes everyday news on an international, national, and local level
- George Orwell’s Animal Farm
- Mad Magazine–satirized pop culture and politics
- Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show
- Birdman
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these devices because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of literary devices from Reedsy and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.
- Euphemism
- Litotes
- Zoomorphism
- Metonymy
- Exposition
- Chiasmus
- Tone
- Tmesis
- In Medias Res
- Isocolon
- Point of view
- Onomatopoeia
- Anastrophe
- Irony
- Tragicomedy
- Cumulative sentence
- Paradox
- Archetype
- Polysyndeton
- Motif
- Frame story
- Aphorism
- Repetition
- Oxymoron
- Flashback
- Malapropism
- Allegory
- Hypophora
- Dramatic irony
- Simile
- Imagery
- Foreshadowing
- Anthropomorphism
- Metaphor
- Personification
- Anachronism
- Symbolism
- Soliloquy
- Tautology
- Synecdoche
- Juxtaposition
- Satire
- Anaphora
- Colloquialism
- Allusion
Overall, satire is
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