Satire: Definition, How It Works & Examples In Writing

Learning about literary devices can help add depth to your writing.

Anyone who struggles to find things to write about will appreciate looking at language from a different perspective.

Satire, in particular, can help you take a unique approach to an issue and put a silly spin on the subject matter.

What Is Satire?

Satire is a humorous way to poke fun at harsh reality.

It uses exaggeration to inspire readers to look at a serious subject or public figure in a funny way.

Satire typically spotlights the absurdities in life and human nature.

In satirical writing, the characters often symbolize real people, and the work intends to reach a lesson or inspire critique of real-life situations.

Also Known As:

• Exaggeration
• Humorous Critique
• Parody

Simple Definition: How To Explain Satire to a Child

Satire is a way to present an issue to your audience while inspiring their amusement.

Understanding satire helps you learn how to write a blog post using this literary device.

The humor can be light-hearted enough to engage your readers and inspire them to comment and interact with your content.

Why Is Satire Used?

Exaggeration helps satire call attention to issues people might otherwise overlook.

The humorous approach to the problem engages the audience and presents the flaws and harsh reality differently.

In many cases, satire can inspire people to take action against injustice or unfair practices.

Other types of content have many layers to reach their intended audience.

Types of Satire

The definition of satire is broad, so you might want more specific information about it.

Three major types of satire focus on particular styles and themes.

Each has a different way of spotlighting an issue and ensuring the audience sees the truth.

• Horatian Satire: This satire is most commonly used to ridicule a public figure or current event. It also includes parody and is light-hearted.
• Juvenalian Satire: This type is darker than Horatian satire. While it still works to poke fun at serious issues, it comes from a place of frustration and can be controversial.
• Menippean Satire: This satire broadens its scope to critique entire cultures or belief systems instead of individuals. As the literary device attempts to cover more ground, it often needs a whole television series or novel to reach its goal.

How Do You Identify Satire?

You can tell if the content is satire if it seems too funny and honest to be a real news piece.

Any accompanying images usually display exaggerated features, or the caption doesn’t correctly identify what’s happening in the picture.

How Do You Use Satire in a Sentence?

The word satire is a noun.

An example of satire in a sentence is, “This book isn’t a true biography of the former president, but rather a satire that mocks his approach to leadership.”

What Is the Most Popular Example of Satire?

Political cartoons are the most popular examples of satire.

These images appear in respectable newspapers and magazines to provide commentary.

The panels often exaggerate the appearance and intelligence of political figures.

The humor is present in the visual imagery and the written dialogue, highlighting the foolishness.

Other Famous Examples of Satire

There are many famous instances of satire, especially in the current culture where memes and humor are the best way to demand attention.

The Onion

This online newspaper creates silly headlines and articles mocking current events and the state of the world.

It also often humorously addresses human nature, inspiring people to look at their foolish behavior honestly.

The publication is especially noteworthy as many real headlines now read like satire, blurring the line between satire and reality.

The Simpsons

This animated TV series has satirically tackled issues like education, politics, gun control, and family expectations since 1989.

Much of the show is incredibly silly, but it’s always rooted in real life, almost a more ridiculous parallel universe of where we live.

Scary Movie

This movie and its sequels exaggerated the common tropes of horror films.

The screenwriters and directors took the stereotypical cliches like girls running upstairs and Black characters dying first and added ridiculousness to the concept, which showcases the silliness of the original films.

Other Modern Examples of Satire

The instances above are only a few examples of satire.

The following sections include representations of satire in other areas of pop culture.

Examples of Satire for Kids

Using humor to poke fun at real-life issues might seem too advanced for children, but satire is a perfect way to engage with kids.

These examples help you understand how kids experience satire in different ways.

• Shrek: This popular animated movie uses light Horatian satire to mock classic fairy tales. There are also role reversals where the princesses are smarter and stronger than the knights, adding a layer of humor.
• The Lego Movie: This movie uses satire to poke fun at Legos for how they’re made and critique how many people live their life striving for a perfect society and not realizing what they’re missing.
• Mrs. Doubtfire: This movie is slightly darker when you inspect its satirical core. A father doesn’t see his children enough, so he dresses as an elderly nanny to spend time with them. It pokes fun at custody issues while depending on an extreme solution.

Examples of Satire in Television Shows

Television shows have ideal opportunities to use satire because they have more time.

Throughout the season, they have dozens of episodes that can focus on specific issues and develop deep satirical storylines.

Over the scope of a series, they can address many problems.

• Saturday Night Live: This sketch comedy show uses Horatian satire to poke fun at current events that people understand and find relatable.
• The Colbert Report: Comedian Stephen Colbert created a parody of a news show to cover politics from a satirical angle. He uses humor to expose the sad truth of many real issues.
• South Park: The show uses Menippean satire to humorously critique racism, homophobia, classism, and other cultural issues. Since it’s a long-running series, it’s more likely to tackle a theme per show and take time to explore the nuances.

Examples of Satire in Movies

Movies are a popular vehicle for satire because the audience can relate to the initial premise.

They’re drawn in, and then the screenwriters and directors turn the subject upside down with satire.

• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb: This Stanley Kubrick movie uses Horatian satire to expose the absurdity of Cold War politics.
• 1984: This film, based on a George Orwell novel, critiques totalitarian government by exposing its flaws from a place of anger.
• A Clockwork Orange: This movie uses black humor to expose the youth violence growing more prominent in culture. It uses dystopian elements to prove a point.

Notable Writers Who Used Satire

Many writer types use literary devices to help get their point across.

The following three authors are well-known for their use of satire.

Jonathan Swift

In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift suggested that Irish people who are too poor to afford groceries eat their babies instead.

The piece was a commentary on population control and shocked many people who took it seriously.

In Gulliver’s Travels, Swift ridicules science, education, and human nature by exaggerating the characters.

Mark Twain

Mark Twain used satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to show hypocrisy in the adult characters.

He also wrote about the stupidity of certain cultures and the tourism industry in The Innocents Abroad.

Twain’s works invite readers to peel back the layers and inspect the ridiculousness of human nature and the world.

George Orwell

George Orwell used satire in Animal Farm and 1984 to comment on human nature and the potential downfalls of political power.

These novels presented reality but spotlighted problem areas such as the attempt to make things look better than they are and the natural inequality in the world.

What Is the Opposite of Satire?

The opposite of satire is irony.

Irony is when you expect one thing to happen, and the result is completely unexpected.

Sometimes, people explain irony as bad luck, but that’s not the case.

Instead, it simply doesn’t deliver the intended outcome.

A fire station burning down is an example of situational irony because firefighters know how to solve that problem.

Satire vs. Irony

The biggest difference between satire and irony is that irony shows the opposite of an expected outcome, feeling, or response.

Satire uses humor to criticize people, lifestyles, and events.

Satire is a literary device and also a genre, while irony is only a literary technique.

Other Related Literary Devices To Know

Seeking out tips for writing will help you improve your craft.

For example, satire is an effective literary device for many writers.

The following five devices can also help you elevate your writing from words on a page to an immersive experience for the reader.

• Humor: Humor is an entertaining literary device that makes your reader laugh.
• Imagery: Imagery immerses the audience in the story by describing what the characters see, feel, smell, and taste so the reader can vividly imagine the situation.
• Repetition: Repetition of a word or phrase helps it stand out to the reader and adds emphasis on a certain concept or can showcase the character’s obsessive state of mind.
• Mood: Mood relies on words and descriptions to set the tone of the work, so the audience feels certain emotions while reading.
• Suspense: Suspense is an unsettling feeling readers experience when they worry that something bad is about to happen, based on subtle clues the writer leaves behind.

Writing Tools To Help You Out

Writing can be a lonely job, but it doesn’t have to be hard.

The best writing tools will help streamline your process.

Tools help you brainstorm ideas and find the best keywords to bring organic traffic to your site.

You can generate content and polish the finished product to have a professional, engaging blog.

• Writing Helpers: People struggling with regularly creating content or developing new ideas can benefit from using writing helpers to simplify the task. Use them to organize your posts or come up with innovative topics.
• AI Writing Software: Even writers with exciting ideas can get bogged down in the writing process. AI-powered writing software allows you to enter keywords and get automatically-generated content with the click of a mouse.
• Grammar Checkers: The most engaging content can still turn away readers if it’s riddled with errors. The best grammar checkers on the market polish your content before it goes live. The program highlights errors and helps you make your work easy to read.
• Content Creators: Tools like content creators help you brainstorm topics and keywords. You’ll understand how to write or record the information to share with your audience.

Frequently Asked Questions

You’ve learned about satire, how to use it in your work, and how other writing tools can help you.

If you need more information, check out these frequently asked questions.

Wrapping Up

Satire is an excellent device to use in your writing because it uses humor to present a serious issue to your audience.

You can tackle tough subjects with a hint of amusement.

Satire inspires people to comment and engage with your content, too, so consider using it in your next blog post.