COMEDY, IRONY AND SATIRE:Definitions

Sarcasm or Satire?• Sarcasm is praise which is really an insult; sarcasm generally

involves malice, the desire to put someone down,

e.g., "This is my brilliant son, who failed out of college."• Satire is the exposure of the vices or follies of an individual, a

group, an institution, an idea, a society, etc. , usually with a view to correcting it. Satirists frequently use irony.• Styles of Satire:

• Direct: Stated by the author• Indirect: Implied through characters in a situation

• Types of Satire:• Horatian: light-hearted, intended for fun• Juvenalian: bitter, angry, attacking

Irony: A Way to Create Satire• Irony: presenting one idea, and meaning another

• Irony speaks words of praise to imply blame; words of blame to imply praise. Often, irony is the difference between appearance and reality.

• Types of Irony:• Socratic Irony: Socrates pretended ignorance of a subject in order to

draw knowledge out of his students by a question and answer; feigning ignorance to achieve some advantage over an opponent.

• Verbal Irony: saying one thing, and meaning another• Dramatic Irony: when the words and actions of the characters of a work

of literature have a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters• The result of the reader having a greater knowledge than the characters

• Situational Irony: a contradiction between what is expected and what occurs• A practical joke that backfires is situational irony.

Examples of Irony:• The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon

Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later they were both eaten by a killer whale.

• Criminal Kay Rahnjet didn' t pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits.

Hyperbole• An exaggeration of the truth for comedic effect.

• Examples:• I’ve been waiting here for eternity. • I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse.

Understatement (Litotes) • An ironic expression in which something of importance is

emphasized by being spoken of as thought it were not important.

• Examples: • He was sort of dead . . . I think.• The project was not bad. (The speaker intends to say that the

project was excellent.)

Comic Metaphor or Simile• A comparison that is comedic.

• “One woman was in labor for 39 hours before they finally decided to do a C-section. That would be like running a marathon and then finding out you could have used a golf cart.”

• “I was madder than a legless Ethiopian watching a donut roll down a hill.”

Travesty, Burlesque, and Parody• Travesty: presents a serious (often religious) subject frivolously it

reduces everything to its lowest level.  “Trans”=over, across  “vestire”=to clothe or dress  Presenting a subject in a dress intended for another type of subject.

• Burlesque: ridiculous exaggeration achieved through a variety of ways.  For example, the sublime may be absurd, honest emotions may be turned to sentimentality.  STYLE is the essential quality in burlesque  A style ordinarily dignified may be used for nonsensical matters etc.

• Parody: a composition imitating or burlesquing another, usually serious, piece of work.  Designed to ridicule in nonsensical fashion an original piece of work.  Parody is in literature what the caricature and cartoon are in art.

• **NOTE—TRAVESTY, BURLESQUE & PARODY are similar, but travesty always makes  a mockery of a serious subject, whereas burlesque and parody may do the reverse.

Farce and Malapropism:• Farce: exciting laughter through exaggerated, improbable

situations.  This usually contains low comedy:  quarreling, fighting, coarse with, horseplay, noisy singing, boisterous conduct, trickery, clownishness, drunkenness, slap-stick.

• Malapropism: a deliberate mispronunciation of a name or term with the intent of poking fun.

Knaves and Fools • Knaves & Fools: in comedy there are no villains and no

innocent victims.  Instead, there are rogues (knaves) and suckers (fools).  The knave exploits someone “asking for it”.  When these two interact, comic satire results.  When knaves and fools meet, they expose each other.