It usually has different objectives, be it moralizing, playful, or simply mocking someone or something
Satire is a literary or written subgenre in which someone or something is ridiculed, through sharp, spicy, ironic sayings and also through a caricature that is made about the objectives. Literary subgenre that aims to ridicule situations or people through ironic and scathing sayings or presentations
It can be written both in prose as in verse , or failing that, present a mix between these two forms.
Main features and applications
The satire, then, will be taken mainly from the collective or individual defects or vices, of madness, abuse, among others and will show them through the ridicule, farce, irony, among the most used and popular methods.
Although satire is intended to entertain, this is not its primary objective at all, but on the contrary, the motivation will be to attack that reality that bothers and disapproves of the author of the satire.
In satire, we usually find a bit of everything, a bit of sarcasm, a bit of irony, parody, mockery, exaggeration, almost always on the basis of reality. Humor and wit are the allies that satire always has.
The origin of this literary genre is identified in Greece firstly, being used to criticize people and events from a moral point of view, although its full development was carried out later in Rome.
Although the resources can be very varied and there is no universality in this regard, some of the most frequent are usually: reductionism of something or question in order to highlight its defects, the exaggeration of something to the point of making it ridiculous, the cartoon, for example, uses this resource a lot, the comparison of absolutely opposite questions how old age can be with youth and parody, in such a way that something or someone certainly looks ridiculous.
The cartoon one of the most popular resources of satire
The resource of the cartoon is undoubtedly one of the most popular and exploited by satire.
It consists of a drawing with satirical tints that aims to portray a model deforming his features and ridiculing some salient aspect.
In other words, it is a distorted portrait that will exaggerate features and create a resemblance that can be easily recognized with a distinctly humorous tone.
Normally it focuses on facial features, manners, behaviors, ways of dressing, and generate from them a grotesque that makes it visible to the eyes of the viewer.
The graphic media, magazines, newspapers, and now also new technologies such as the internet use caricatures a lot as a tool of political humor, putting it at the service of this field but also that of others, such as extraordinary situations of public impact that occur in the shots. social, religious, among others.
Among the advantages that we can recognize from the cartoon as a resource to satirize people or situations, we can mention the visual impact it generates, the effectiveness when it comes to removing the veil from certain characters and when it comes to interpreting realities. In addition, since it is a drawing, it is easy to interpret by any intellectual level.
Use in political humor
The political humor of yesterday, today and always uses satire as its main ally when expressing its disagreement with the reality that exists in a certain place.
Many times it is more bearable and less hurtful to say or transmit things through a satire full of humor, since it allows a few more licenses than it would allow in case of formally reporting or commenting on it in the news of a television newscast.
At present, general journalism and also investigative journalism are cultists of satire, they have found in it a more lax way to present some topics that could be heavy for readers, listeners or viewers if that quota is not printed. irony or scathing criticism that just allows satire.
They also use it because in addition to making some hard information more bearable, it entertains and amuses, and then, in that search for entertainment, the public tends to get hooked on what is presented in a funny way, although they are certainly outrageous cases such as those of corruption or political negligence.
