Satire

Satire: any work of literature or art whose objective is ridicule. It is more easily recognized than defined. From ancient times satirists have shared a common aim: to expose foolishness in all its guises—vanity, hypocrisy, pedantry, idolatry, bigotry, sentimentality—and to effect reform through such exposure. (from the online Columbia Encyclopedia)

Satire.

Can you stand it? Do you enjoy it? I find a surprising number of TBF members just don't receive satire on their radar.

Aristophanes, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Moliere, most of the Restoration dramatists, Dickens, Oscar Wilde . . . but in the twentieth century, satire became stand-up comedy, at least for most people.

Recent satires I love:

The Daily Show and Colbert Report, just in general.

The Onion, which actually is a little tired and repetitive now but had a good run.

The League of Gentleman (the gross-out UK tv series)

This is Spinal Tap

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin



I find that written satire is misunderstood nowadays by most people, even in England, crucible of modern satire. Stephen King wrote a satirical piece for the UK Times about how hard it was to be a writer living in New England with a load of bestsellers. My MIL handed it to me and said, "There's an interesting piece by one of your writers. It sounds a very hard life." Two sentences in, about how he was forced to wear plaid flannel shirts, and I was guffawing.

I'm a big fan of satire. When done right, it is a powerful thing.
Daily Show & Colbert - Nightly rituals.
The onion is podcasting now, about a minute a day and usually pretty good.

Another great source for religious satire (yes it exists and yes it can be pretty funny) is The Door Magazine

I like satire too. Dr. Strangelove is one of my all-time favorite movies (even though, as a black comedy, it fulfills the requirement that everything goes to pot at the end).

I absolutely love satire. Blot on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe was hilarious, both book and TV adaptation. Had some very good actors David Suchet, Geraldine James and quite a few others whose names elude me.

soxfan said:

I like satire too. Dr. Strangelove is one of my all-time favorite movies (even though, as a black comedy, it fulfills the requirement that everything goes to pot at the end).

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I enjoy satire but also believe that many do not recognize satire when they see it.

Now, a little off topic to soxfan.......I agree with your signature. "Out of left field" as he sure cannot field. I sure wish we had a baseball topic to discuss the sport and teams and players.

Poppy1 said:

I absolutely love satire. Blot on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe was hilarious, both book and TV adaptation. Had some very good actors David Suchet, Geraldine James and quite a few others whose names elude me.

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I've never heard of that. I shall look it up!

I don't have as much time to answer as I'd like as I'm off to the wintery climes of Sergograd again, but whilst I'm here:

Blot on the Landscape

in a similar vein 'The Ascent of Rum Doodle'

a modern day take on Gullivers travels, 'The Roaches have no King'

There are some good satirists amongst the new Russian writers:

'The Fur Hat' 'Moscow 2042' and the wonderful Ivan Chonkin' by Vladimir Vionovich (he's a wind-up mercent in interviews too)

'Oman Ra' and 'Babylon' by Victor Pelevin (he's not quite the genius that Russian Generation Xers would have you believe, but a very good writer none the less).

'Death and the Penguin' by Andrey Kurkov

regards,

K-S

Ooh, I love a good satire. Of course, it's necessary first to understand what's being satirised, which is probably why I didn't like Kurkov's Death and the Penguin cited by Kenny above.

What about George Saunders?

Armando Iannucci has been a great modern satirist on British TV and radio, from satirising news presentation (On the Hour, The Day Today), talk show formats (Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge), politics discussion (The Friday/Saturday Night Armistice) and politics itself (The Thick of It).

Does something like The Office count (or if you prefer, The Office: An American Workplace, though I haven't seen that version)? Or is that just ironic, rather than strictly satirical?

Shade: Of the Russians I mentioned, Voinovich wrote about the communist system he lived under, whereas Pelevin and Kurkov are concerned with the kind of ‘anything goes if you’ve got enough money’ hyper-capitalism that sprung up in urban areas of the former USSR following the collapse of communism. Pelevin does so in a more overt way, Kurkov has a subtler approach.
To take ‘Death and the Penguin’ as an example, you could interpret ‘Misha’ the penguin as representing the older generation of Russians, raised in a different system, almost a different world. Left with a, perhaps ironic, feeling that they are now without a voice, forced to exist with the hope that others around them who are better equipped to cope with the new realities will care enough to help them survive.
On the other hand of course, it might just be a pet penguin; I guess you can read it either way.

Novella: The Armando Iannucci suggestion is a good one, particularly when he works with Chris Morris on stuff like “The Day Today” & “Brass Eye”.

written v. performance

I love The Office—the UK version, which I think is infinitely funnier. It's, IMO, a parody—a distinct and favorite form of satire. Is there anyone who hasn't worked in an environment depressingly close to The Office?

I don't know Armando Ianucci, but I'll look him up. Alan Partridge is a laugh.

But where are the satirical writers? Edward St. Aubyn can be read as satire to a point, but there's a little too much pathos for that. Augusten Burroughs has a load of irony but no satire. Wodehouse and Perleman fit the bill, but are from another generation. Stephen Fry is pretty good, but better in person than on paper, IMO. A good case where written satire can seem a little hamfisted.

I guess Martin Amis might fit the bill, but I haven't found a work by him that I could stomach. I think modern written satire seems tired when it just rips the old social stereotypes. The beauty of The Office and People Like Us (is that the name of the fake-umentary series?) is that they have ordinary pomposity, pseudospeak, and ineptitude in their sights.

Does (did) Absolutely Fabulous qualify? Back when I had a TV, I watched as many of those as I could. Otherwise, I guess I'll just button up and read this thread.

I think I may be completely out of my element here.

StillILearn said:

Does (did) Absolutely Fabulous qualify? Back when I had a TV, I watched as many of those as I could. Otherwise, I guess I'll just button up and read this thread.

I think I may be completely out of my element here.

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Oh yeah, Ab Fab qualifies in spades. Another brilliant UK parody. Why is it that American remakes of these things always suck? They are neither barbed enough nor ugly enough. The Simpsons is about as good as it gets. The fact that it's a cartoon helps--no vain actors are worried about looking unattractive on TV.

novella said:

Oh yeah, Ab Fab qualifies in spades. Another brilliant UK parody. Why is it that American remakes of these things always suck? They are neither barbed enough nor ugly enough. The Simpsons is about as good as it gets. The fact that it's a cartoon helps--no vain actors are worried about looking unattractive on TV.

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Oh, good! This would seem to indicate that I have a vestigial sense of the meaning. I'll continue to read in hope of adding to my education.

Kenny Shovel said:

To take ‘Death and the Penguin’ as an example, you could interpret ‘Misha’ the penguin as representing the older generation of Russians, raised in a different system, almost a different world. Left with a, perhaps ironic, feeling that they are now without a voice, forced to exist with the hope that others around them who are better equipped to cope with the new realities will care enough to help them survive.

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See, I didn't get any of that when I read it...

Interesting that you mention People Like Us, novella, which wasn't even that well watched by people in the UK (er, like me, for example, though I keep meaning to get acquainted with it), let alone the US.

I'll see your Wodehouse and raise you a Waugh, though I often feel he was rather too comfortable with the society he was describing to satirise it thoroughly. Rather as I feel today about Jay McInerney and Bret Easton Ellis, both of whom I like with reservations.

Shade said:

See, I didn't get any of that when I read it...

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Well I've visted the Ukraine a few times to see friends, and the head of the family I know over there is an old school communist, so I'm aware of the 'things were better the way they were' feeling that runs through many of the older soviet generation. If you know that, you read the book slightly differently.
BTW his other stuff was fairly disapointing though...