Blog 3 1/2: Modern Satire

“a joke is a very serious thing.”
-Winston Churchill

Many say that humor is the way to a nation’s heart, by making people laugh you spark interest and good feelings. Satire, is a perfect example of how humor can turn even the most stomach churning controversies into something humorous and easily talked about.

Satire is a form of persuasion, through out history it has been used to ridicule and shame individuals, society or government into change or viewing matters. However, Satire uses a lighter air and does not attack with venom but humor making the writer more likeable and agreeable and even adds logic to their demeanor. By using humor in a inventive and useful way satire has proven to be a great tool in literature.

Satire today is still in motion, and modern satire is used in a variety of ways and purposes. A perfect example includes, comedy shows such as Saturday night live and the Colbert show err whatever it’s called, also animations like family guy, south park and American dad. This is very important satire because as these shows are funny and entertaining they also bring about important issues and follies in major things such as politics. This is great because these shows have millions of viewers and these satire ‘skits’ and jokes actually inform people about what’s going on.

Coming about satire and recognizing it’s presence in modern shows, writing and visuals. It is very easy to spot satire, usually it is making fun of a well known people, place or event/idea. Satire uses irony, parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, and analogy. It is so effective because it is funny but also very logical. Satire only just a joke if there is no logic behind what is being said, no call to action or wronged to right.

**(distracting side note: there is a band called Modern Day Satire, check em out they’re not bad at all, actually quite good(: haha they are meant to be one of those funny-good bands like on get him to the greek)

Here is an effective use of modern satire:

Zero-Tolerance for Sober Driving

If you are depressed, and no medicines are working for you, alcohol just might be the way out. If you need something to do, getting drunk just might be the solution. Bored? I heard being drunk makes everything just a little more flashy. How about a challenge? The way alcohol really blurs your vision when driving can really spice up your driving life. If at first you don’t succeed –try, try, and try again. After all, practice makes perfect! Recently, more and more drivers have discovered the joys of drunk driving. However, research indicates that consumption of alcohol while driving can lead to the victimization of these innocent drivers. Sober drivers who can think clearly and make logical decisions are the leading cause of death for America’s drunk drivers. Thus, sober driving should be made illegal and drunk driving mandatory.

One of the leading causes of concern for moms today is teen car crashes. Everyday, the news is filled with drunken teens that are killed in vicious encounters with sober drivers, light posts and even trees! However, there are groups of people who are apparently trying to convince people that it was the drunk drivers who were at fault! But let’s take a look at the facts: approximately 40% of all motor-vehicle fatalities are alcohol-related. This means 60% of motor-vehicle fatalities are sober-related! As if this is not enough, about 1/3 of the drunkards hospitalized are repeat victims (the feds call them offenders). Clearly, if more of those sober idiots were under the influence, maybe so many innocent drunk drivers would not be killed.

Sober driving is not only a critical blow to families of the innocent; it also costs the public $114.3 billion a year in damages. That means the taxpayers have to provide the very money that is used to build poles and plant trees in various traps to ensnare drunk drivers! Obviously, we need to raise public awareness about the dangers of the sober driver. Almost nothing is being currently done to inform teens of the bonuses of drinking and driving. The dangers of sober driving will deter any of them from taking unnecessary risks that could compromise not only their own lives, but also of the drunk drivers they might hit. After all, today’s teenagers are very mature and responsible. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I value my life so I’m making sure I don’t leave home without a six-pack –just in case


I lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvve this essay! It is a PERFECT example of good satire. It’s sooo funny! And it uses facts data and research to prove a totally ridiculous point! And makes the clause look so stupid it’s genius. And personally satire is so much more fun to read then just plain old persuasion.

Satire is timeless. When we read Swift’s “Modern Proposal,” in class the other day it cracked me up, and that was written in the 1800’s! The idea of eating children is simply too much haha but it he has very good facts figures and logical explanations for everything. I really do think satire is my all time favorite form of writing, it is so fun to read and not so painful to write.

We also looked into a more modern piece in class, I believe it was a response to a letter a land-owner got for ‘construction’ on state property without permit, which ironically enough was beavers. The author of this letter was very comical indeed, addressing the letter with the upmost false seriousness ever. Referring to everything as ‘dam’ haha it’s funny because it was about a beaver dam(: The best part was definitely at the end when he mentioned that the real problem was those ‘dam’ bears that are leaving their ‘waste’ in the forest therefore littering. Haha it was priceless. The was probably very effective because A) the whole point of citation was dumb in the first place and the response CLEARLY shows that and B) it was so dam funny!

Blog 3: Modest Proposal Reflection

Ireland was suffering a great depression in the 1700s, and catholics across the country were not being fed nor clothed. Children were said to grow up as stealers, beggars and prostitutes. Jonathan Swift choose to write a piece on this issue labeled, "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick." Swift uses satire on the ironic proposal of eating children to test what Ireland will do to not help the poor and feed the already rich.

Well perhaps Swift was on to something, eating children would in fact lessen the chance for more future stealers, beggars and prostitutes. Also, there would go problems with feeding and clothing the creatures. Hey, we could even eat adults as well, unemployed ones of no spectacular value of course. Men could eat their wives if needed, that would solve the issues of divorce for the catholics! Eating people, Cannibalism, is taken too seriously, when people are starving there are plenty of people to eat, they would die anyways, this way we could save ourselves the cost of funerals and burial expense, grandma's  about to die? Eat her up while she's still fresh! This would also help the modern over-population crisis in countries like China. 

Eating people? NO. Swift's "proposal" to fatten up these undernourished children and feed them to Ireland's rich land-owners. Children of the poor could be sold into a meat market at the age of one, he argues, thus combating overpopulation and unemployment, sparing families the expense of child-bearing while providing them with a little extra income, improving the culinary experience of the wealthy, and contributing to the overall economic well-being of the country is simply barbaric. He actively uses satire to enforce the ludicrous of the situation. People wouldn't REALLY want to eat children! Especially today when children are loved, cherished and spoiled. To eat or kill something so innocent and cute is crazy. This however an effective way to go about persuading an audience on Swift's particular issue.

Satire, as I find it, is a good way to bring in an argument or POV on controversial topics with a lighter air. Humor, especially in America, is a way to get into the hearts of the masses, if a person is funny, they are likeable, there for their views and opinions are that much more easier to accept.

Although, it is very interesting how something so crazily inane as eating children can be funny, but Swift  offers a good persuasion when using humor to aid his theme. He conjures up facts and data and statistics, well somewhat considering it was the 1700s, to support his proposal which makes the whole essay even more ridiculous. Real figures for his fake proposal just adds more humor to the situation.

He suggests some recipes for preparing this delicious new meat, and he feels sure that innovative cooks will be quick to generate more. He also anticipates that the practice of selling and eating children will have positive effects on family morality: husbands will treat their wives with more respect, and parents will value their children in ways hitherto unknown. His conclusion is that the implementation of this project will do more to solve Ireland's complex social, political, and economic problems than any other measure that has been proposed.

”I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled ...”

This is just too much! haha. Ohh and I like how he 'gets the idea' from an American. I think that adds to it as well seeing as it is an essay written in Europe. 

Swift captures his readers with the explanation and re-telling of the famine and depression in Ireland, he shows a compassionate side and the whole intro is completely serious. And then all of a sudden BOOM! Let's eat children. The fact that it's so unexpected is funny. The proposal draws attention to the self-degradation of the nation as a whole by illustrating it in shockingly literal ways. The idea of fattening up a starving population in order to feed the rich casts a grim judgment on the nature of social relations in Ireland.