What Is Satire?

Satire is a kind of writing that seeks to put everyday things into an absurd context for the purpose of pointing out the inherent absurdity of that thing.  Most satire is directed at political figures, but can also be directed at celebrities, businessmen, athletes, as well as typical ordinary citizens.  Satire is most often used to make some sort of statement that the writer feels is being ignored by most of society.  Satire can be a way to put an issue in a context that is more understandable for the audience.

An example of satire is the Monty Python sketch "The Ministry of Silly Walks".  "The Ministry of Silly Walks", as performed by John Cleese and Michael Palin, is meant to point out the many, various, and often useless departments in the British federal government.  The concept of a department of the government giving grants to people developing "silly walks" is of an absurd nature, while also being a slight exaggeration of things that were being funded by the British government.

Many other sketch comedy troupes utilize satire in their acts.  Examples of this include "It's Illegal To Say" by The Whitest Kids U'Know, the CCCP-1 Episode of SCTV, and the Communism sketch by The Kids In The Hall.

Although often presented as such, a satirical piece of work is not necessarily comedic.  As example of a non-comedic satirical work is Arthur Miller's The Crucible.  First performed in 1953, The Crucible takes many of the elements of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which people attacked as a witch hunt, and applied it to an actual witch hunt.

Other examples of non-comedic satire include George Orwell's 1984, Animal Farm, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and Warren Miller’s The Siege of Harlem.