Satire: preparing for the test

What is satire?

• It's when you criticize or comment on real people, events or beliefs.

• A genre in which the author criticizes or comments on real people, events or beliefs.

• A genre in which the author criticizes or comments on real people, events or beliefs using allegory, exaggeration, irony, and absurdity.

• A genre in which the author criticizes or comments on real people, events or beliefs using comedy.

Are satires always funny?

• No — a lot of them are funny, but not all of them are.

• Yes! If it's not funny, it can't be satire, even if it's commenting or criticizing real stuff.

• No, satires are never funny because the authors want their commentary or criticism to be taken seriously.

• Anything that is funny is a satire, because satire = comedy

What devices can an author use to comment on or criticize stuff?

• Absurdity, exaggeration, irony, personification, allegory.

• Absurdity, humor, details, descriptions, animals.

• Absurdity, humor, details, descriptions, personification.

• Absurdity, exaggeration, humor, dialogue, descriptions.

Is this a satire?
"Why did the chicken cross the road?

To get to the other side!"

• Yes!

• No!

Something satirical is anything that acts like a satire.
Could you say that Humpty-Dumpty is satirical?
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

• If Humpty, his fall, the king, and his attempt to put him back together all represent real stuff, and if this is used to criticize or comment on that stuff, then yes.

• No — even if Humpty, his fall, the king, and his attempt to put him back together all represent real stuff, it's not satirical because it's not funny and it doesn't talk about communism.

"A Modest Proposal", by Jonathan Swift, is a satirical essay.

• True. It criticized people's inhumane attitudes towards poverty using absurdity, irony and exaggeration.

• True. It criticized people's inhumane attitudes towards poverty without using any devices like absurdity, irony and exaggeration.

• True. It criticized people's inhumane attitudes towards poverty using personification, jokes and a story.

• True. It criticized people's inhumane attitudes towards poverty using skibidi.

In the episode "Chickens", from the show Bojack Horseman, what are the writers trying to say? (in other words, what is their underlying commentary?)

• Factory farming is terrible and free-range farming is a great alternative

• CEOs do care about their product and how it affects society

• The police do a good job

• Factory farming is terrible, and free-range farming is not that much better