kMO 3/4

"In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with an intent to bring about improvement." (Brittanica Encyclopedia)

In my opinion I feel that satire is regarded as being a defense mechanism. More times than not the author who uses this "form of attack" is simply expressing their dislike of a certain concept, writing, movie, comment etc. Sarcasm is a defining characteristic of satire which sometimes sheds negative light on the original. However in general, satire provides the perfect balance of humor (it's not too derogatory yet not too soft.) Saturday Night Live is the perfect example of satire in the media. Jokes attacking the president, pop culture and political candidates are twisted in hilarious ways without creating too much of a disturbance. Online I found a website that provided numerous examples of satire. The writer talked about how Weird Al Yankovich took the popular song "Like a Virgin" (Madonna) and made it into a funny song called, "Like a Surgeon."

After the execution of Saddam Hussein SNL ran a skit (which has recently been removed from the internet) which attempted to shed light on the "sticky situation." However, in many peoples minds it did quite the opposite. A lot of Americans questioned the "political correctness" of the satire. A part of the commercial advertised children's toys as rocks, showed Cheeny talking about renaming Iraq East Dakota, President Bush as a primate and Osama and Saddam shape shifting. The problem we need to consider when dealing with satire is that there are lines that cannot be crossed. Certain topics need to be omitted and TIMING IS ALWAYS A FACTOR! It is not appropriate to run a satire on Heath Ledger 24 hours after he is found dead in his apartment. People need time to heal before it is ok to make light of a situation (much like a breakup). It is also not appropriate to run a satire or parody that addresses an offensive topic (the NIN/Startrek mashup, implying Kirk and Spok are gay.) Clearly, we as a culture still have a lot to learn about decency in the media...