Potato is yum

I love satire. I am probably one of the biggest fans of satire on this planet. I find the stuff hilarious. I find the stuff effective. Nothing quite hits as well as showing the absurdity of something stupid. And it’s funny how some people wouldn’t get that it is satire and would actually believe something like eating babies. Like seriously. What kind of person reads A Modest Proposal and goes “HELL YEAH! LET’S EAT BABIES AND SPICE EM REAL GOOD!” Apparently some readers did since letters complimenting the great proposal exist.

The thing is, satire requires some kind of prior information on the topic to recognize that something is indeed satire. This is difficult because it’s hard to guarantee that everyone knows a fact when many people are simple uninformed about the world these days. Sites like The Onion are able to bypass this because they have a reputation of being satirical with every article being satire. However, other papers like the New York Times, The Wallstreet Journal, and The Washington Post often produce satirical articles. Most of these do hit correctly because they are written by professional writers. However, there are many examples of satire not hitting. Like many satirical food reviews or movie reviews end poorly. The reason? People take it seriously.

The hardest part of satire is signaling to the reader that what their reading is satire. The way satire used to do this was to show something utterly ridiculous or something completely unacceptable. However, it’s beginning to be hard to tell the difference between someone with radical views and someone who is trying to be satirical. A great example of this is the current US president Donald Trump. It’s often very difficult to tell when Trump says something in a satirical manner and when he actually means to make some kind of statement. It sure doesn’t help that he has a high position of authority adding significant weight behind his words.

This is often why satire must be done from down low to punch up. Not because satire punching sideways doesn’t work but because satire punching sideways is not called satire, it’s called shit talking. And satire that punches down? That’s called shitting on someone. Both aren’t really a good look. But so what? Well, it’s hard for satire to go anywhere unless it’s from someone big. And if someone is big, they can’t exactly punch up without risking what they have built up. Especially with the way defamation works these days.

I feel like satire is dying. In some way, every piece of media I read now is somewhat satirical. Every dystopia depicts a dumb world that nobody would want. I still think this is unfortunate. Masterpieces like A Modest Proposal are harder to find now days. And yes, I know that most satire now days is a different kind of satire and that there are many many different kinds of satire but I’m really just ranting because I’m sad the kind of short form satire I enjoy seems to be disappearing. I liked those satirical comics in the newspaper snippets. That was what kept me laughing through my school years.

I’ve tried writing satire before. I can’t. I’m just not good enough to signal the ridiculousness. So I end up with a crazy story with a strange message. But like it’s alright I guess. Dystopias are fun.

Aight. Post plan:

• Media Review
• Book Ad
• Wings Of Liberty Is A Masterpiece pt2 (delayed)