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Satire
What is Satire?
Satire is the use of exaggeration, understatement, irony, or saracasm
as a means of criticism.
It's not...
Only humor or only ridicule, as it typically has an underlying purpose to expose a situation or change a perspective.
It also is not ...
Mockery for mockery's sake. So, making fun of the president's hair is not satire. It should have other underlying purposes and persuasions.
Irony and Sarcasm
Two chief techniques of satire are the use of irony and sarcasm, Irony is an expression that runs contrary to the usual state of affairs (such as an ambulance arriving to help someone in an accident and running them over). Sarcasm is the use of verbal irony, or saying the opposite of what is true in order to show contempt (ike saying "smooth move" when someone trips over something).
Hyperbole and Understatement
Two other tools of Satire are Hyperbole and Understatement. Hyperbole is exaggerating for effect ("Within 10 minutes of the WiFi going down, riots broke out across campus"). Understatement is, of course the opposite, where something major is presented in a subtle or slight way.
Hyperbole and Understatement
Criticism and the Ideal
So, satire might contain irony, sarcasm, hyperbole, and/or understatement as devices, but it also has two other important elements. It uses these devices to enact what is usually an implicit or unstated criticism of the topic, issue, event, or person. It also works from a specific societal ideal. What should we strive for? What would be better? So, a satirical newsite or satirist creates a distortion of reality as a way to magnify the problems or flaws.
An Example of Satire
A clip featuring Stephen Colbert