Satire is a mode of challenging accepted notions by making them seem ridiculous. It usually occurs only in an age of crisis, when there exists no absolute uniformity but rather two sets of beliefs. Of the two sets of beliefs, one holds sufficient power to suppress open attacks on the established order, but not enough to suppress a veiled attack.

Further, satire is intimately connected with urbanity and cosmopolitanism, and assumes a civilized opponent who is sufficiently sensitive to feel the barbs of wit leveled at him. To hold something up to ridicule presupposes a certain respect for reason, on both sides, to which one can appeal. An Age of Reason, in which everyone accepts the notion that conduct must be reasonable, is, therefore, a general prerequisite for satire.

--Jacob Bronowski & Bruce Mazlish, The Western Intellectual Tradition From Leonardo to Hegel

This weekend I did a Satire show on Mango for April Fool's. Now, I am not the most comedic of people. I have a rather urbane and dry sense of humor. I'm a straight man and I admit it. My humor is generally reduced to snappy, blithe one liners that often get filtered out between my brain and my mouth so as not to get myself into terrible trouble.

More than anything in my show, I was Satirising myself, something that I don't think many people caught. I held up what i thought was the opposite of me to illustrate a point. What the point was, ranged from one extreme to another. I made the personality perky and rather extreme; two things, I am most definately not. There are only a few subjects I find myself taken to extremes on, but, I don't try to press my views on those subjects onto others.

As with all extreme satire and opinion, people seemed to either take extreme offense to it or really enjoy it. I'm not trying to say that my humor is ahead of my time, because it's not. It was rather base and, well, offensive. Yes, I was trying to be offensive because it is something I try not to be.

You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it.

-Art Buchwald

I should say that I do actually know people much like the personality I portrayed on air. I didn't pull the personality directly out of my asss, but rather out of the world around me. It was a mish-mash of people who I know are taken to extremes and, to be frank, they scare me. I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I am fairly certain they scare me because of the extremes they take things to. It is not the issue they take extremes with, but rather the extremity itself. I've never been one for it. I try very hard to look at all side of an issue and deliberate on it for a time before coming to an opinion. I am well aware a good many people won't agree with me, and that's okay. That is why I call it an opinion and not a thought. Also, I do believe that opinions are capable of change. Beliefs are harder to sway.

I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can't generate. Life becomes stagnant.

-Rufus, Dogma

Anyway, I guess the point is, I'm not going to apologize for my show on Saturday. Yes, it was an April Fool's gag. Yes, it was satire. No, it was not meant to be serious. Yes, it was a joke. Did it enflame you? Did it make you think? Did it fill you with rage? Did it fill you with anything at all? Well, maybe it's not me you should be haranging, but rather you should take a step back and think about why it caused emotion to well within you. More than anything, satire is there to provoke thought. Unfortunately, many people don't want to think, so they react on pure emotions instead. So, take a step back and think about it, then you can take your hate out on me.

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.

- Jonathan Swift

Want to listen to the show? Great, check it out below.

Satire is my Song: 01-Apr-2006

Posted by Utopia at April 3, 2006 07:22 AM

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Posted by: WebKittyn at April 3, 2006 11:22 PM

Posted by: Utopia at April 4, 2006 06:21 AM

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