How to Write Satire

1. How to Write Satire A return to Subtle sophisticated Prose

2. Frustrated Inner-City Students Running Out Of Ideas To Motivate TeachersNEWS WITH VIDEO • News • ISSUE 49•04 • Jan 24, 2013 CHICAGO—A frustrated group of students at Dunne High School on Chicago’s South Side told reporters Thursday that they are running out of ideas to motivate their underperforming teachers, who they claim have apparently given up on education despite the pupils’ concerted efforts. “We’ve tried everything to reach out to our teachers in hopes of making a connection, but it’s just so hard to get through to them,” said 10th-grader Christopher Fenton, who confirmed that most of his instructors live in low-income households and lack the basic language skills to communicate effectively.

3. “It’s difficult to walk in the classroom each morning and see them sitting listlessly at their desks, convinced that nothing they do at school matters. And, unfortunately, it creates a vicious cycle: They think they’re going nowhere, and so that’s how they behave.” While Fenton stated that the school’s inadequate facilities and out-of-date teaching materials were partly to blame for educators’ dismal performance, he also acknowledged the problem has been exacerbated by the perceptible substance abuse issues that afflict many of his teachers, a number of whom have already developed lifelong dependencies on drugs and alcohol.

4. Useful Techniques • Hyperbole – exaggerated truth • Irony - discrepancy between - what is said + what is meant - what is said + what is done - what is expected or intended and what happens - what is meant or said + what others understand - or 2+ incongruous objects, actions, persons juxtaposed.

5. Irony Example A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe, leaving her mentally retarded.

6. Understatement Australian Olympian Janine Shepherd appeared on TED talks she spoke about how her life changed after being hit by a truck during a bike ride, after cataloguing her injuries, including her spine being broken in six places she concludes: "I was having a really bad day."

7. Parody Killer Rabbit - any monster far more dangerous than it looks. Maybe it's strong for its size, poisonous on a massive level, has hidden flesh-rending pointy bits, or can just turn into something far more dangerous. Either way, it can make a person wary of picking on small, defenseless animals…

8. http://www.oxymoronlist.com Oxymoron Oxymoron often has humorous effect. Referring to a non-oxymoron as an oxymoron creates this effect. Example: “military intelligence” is common and not funny, but if it is interpreted as an oxymoron, the humor becomes clear. The writer can insinuate that the military never has intelligence by referring to the phrase as an oxymoron, for comedic effect. This also works with other phrases such as “honest politician” and “government organization.”

9. Sample Oxymora • "A joke is a very serious thing." - Winston Churchill"I love humanity, but I hate people." - Edna St. Vincent Millay • "I can resist anything, except temptation." - Oscar Wilde

10. Pun Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.

11. Malapropisms Mrs. Malaprop, from 1775 Restoration comedy, The Rivals- Richard Sheridan The name is derived from the French mal à propos, which means ’inappropriate.’ The self-educated Mrs. Malaprop was always substituting a similar-sounding word for the word that she actually intended. Mrs. John Drew playing Mrs. Malaprop 1880 production of The Rivals

12. Sample Malapropisms The song titles, A Hard Day's Night and Tomorrow Never Knows, by The Beatles All originated as "Ringoisms"--malapropisms uttered by Ringo Starr. • Flying saucers are just an optical conclusion. • A rolling stone gathers no moths. • Their father was some kind of civil serpent. • You can lead a horse to manure but you can't make him drink. • The flood damage was so bad they had to evaporate the city.

13. In the end…to create satire, you need to: Stand next to the mirror and encourage the audience to look at their reflection. Ask them, “Is that who WEare? Are we OK with that? Is that who we want to be? Is that what we want to do?”

14. Evan Thomas Newsweek veteran Cover Story 2013 On MSNBC in 2009 "In a way, Obama's standing above the country, above -- above the world. He's sort of God. He's going to bring all different sides together."

15. Sample Satiric Paragraph In true disciple fashion, Evan Thomas, veteran journalist for Newsweek magazine, spawns a religious fervor with his revelation that President Barak Obama is, indeed, Jesus Christ. He even manages to convince normally cynical and jaded Hollywood, like famed actor Jaime Foxx, who, at the 2013 Soul Train awards, shouted in apparent awe at the audience, “"It's like church over here. It's like church in here. First of all, give an honor to God and our Lord and Savior Barack Obama."Of course, the wise and all-knowing news media has known that God walks among us all along, with the president of the AP, Dean Singleton, praising Obama in 2012 as he “led a government reorganization of two of the big three auto manufacturers to save them from oblivion.” Clearly a miracle worker, the president further had the "courage, and the guts, and the coolness" in ordering the assassination of terrorist Osama bin Laden. “It was enormously, enormously courageous," gushed Barbara Walters, as she described the bravery the president exhibited as he intoned, “Make it so, Number One,” from his control room. But, it’s Ezra Klein, from American Progress, who captures the reality of the president’s transcendence, “Obama’s finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don’t even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it. He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair. ” If Jesus has returned, can the Apocalypse be far behind? Stay tuned, as tomorrow, the Lord identifies those sinners who will not be attending his crowning ceremony.

16. Women at War! The military last week sent all female battalions to the front lines of the war in Afghanistan in a move designed to demoralize enemy Taliban fighters. The move signals yet another step in the promised transformation of America – this time, the roles of men and women have been truly reversed. Men can now send their women to war while they take the minivan to soccer practice and keep the home fires burning. When women have the right to die agonizing deaths right alongside male soldiers, we can be confident that we are truly a modern, civilization. As we refuse to protect our women from the terrors and anguish of combat, we instead can subject them to the same horrors of gangrenous leg wounds and POW torture as the men they now replace, with the added probability of violent sexual assault. Hints from sources on Capitol Hill have suggested that politicians are considering incorporating a youth brigade so that teens can also sacrifice their lives for their country on the front lines.

17. Supporters say that it will save millions of tax dollars in the long run. A recent study from Think Progress found that if 5,000 teens and women die every five years as war casualties, the country will save $2.5 trillion dollars in SSI payments and Medicare costs over a 20 year span. But, opponents argue that sending teens and women to fight wars weakens our army because women especially are not as strong as men and have the added disadvantage of more dramatic body changes over time, thus shortening their active duty service. “The military and the American people must embrace change for the greater good,” offers the president. “Opponents can argue that women weaken our fighting force all day long and it won’t change the facts. Women represent over 50% of our population. How can we deny them the right to defend their children? How can we deny them the same rights we give every man in this country? How can we deny them the freedom to be heroes?”