political satire examples essay

256 Satirical Essay Topics & Satire Essay Examples [2024]

A satire essay is a creative writing assignment where you use irony and humor to criticize people’s vices or follies. It’s especially prevalent in the context of current political and social events. A satirical essay contains facts on a particular topic but presents it in a comical way.

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This task may be intimidating. Don’t worry: even the greatest masters of satire didn’t always succeed in their early efforts! Our custom writing experts are here to help you. In this article, you will find:

• helpful info about satirical essays;
• a list of 256 essay topics;
• examples of satirical essays.

🔝 Top 10 Satire Essay Topics

• 😆 Satire Essay Definition
• ✍️ Writing Tips
• 😜 Essay Topics
• 💡 Writing Prompts

📚 Satire Essay Examples

🔗 references.

• The joy of scambaiting.
• Who teaches politicians to lie?
• How to build a cult successfully.
• Reasons why the sky should be green.
• How to fail your exams using Facebook.
• How not to get bored at family dinners.
• Let’s build walls around all countries.
• How to eat a lot without gaining weight.
• Ways to escape visits to the dentist.
• What do soccer and impact factors have in common?

😆 What Is a Satirical Essay?

A satirical essay is a composition written about a particular subject using irony or sarcasm. Usually, the topics are related to politics, society, or money. The primary goal of any satire is to use humor creatively to make fun of foolish human behavior and criticize topical issues.

You can find examples of satire in numerous books, poems, and movies. If you enjoy dry humor based on exaggerations, you’ll surely have fun writing your satire essay.

✍️ How to Write a Satire Essay

Does the task of writing a satirical essay look daunting? No worries! Check out our expert advice:

• First off, sit down and relax. Do something inspiring. For example, get in a fight (preferably a literal one.) Satire needs to be written at the boiling point; that’s exactly where the best essay ideas come from.
• Get inspiration from classic satire examples. Scan through the works of famous satirists when looking for ideas. It can be helpful to draw parallels with the situation in the modern world.
• Another great way to get satirical essay ideas is life itself. This is where every masterpiece comes from. Ideas for a satire may pop into your head at any time. Maybe you got into a fight with a lady in the supermarket or argued about clothes with your sibling. Whatever noteworthy event happened to you recently, write it down!
• The best satire paper ideas are those that reflect reality. If your readers can draw parallels with their life, then you’ve succeeded. Completely made-up stories are harder to pull off: you can end up not convincing your readers.
• Think about your audience. Should you choose a formal or casual tone for your satirical piece? If a professor is going to read it, the first option is preferable.
• Set your goals. Good satire only makes your readers laugh but also demonstrates to them your way of thinking. Use your satirical essay to show your attitude towards serious issues.
• Add a personal touch to your satirical writing. Narrate in first-person perspective or make yourself the protagonist. Adding a unique spin and an interesting perspective will help your essay stand out. It’s also good to use hyperboles and metaphors to make your point.

If you’re struggling with picking good satire topics, check out the ideas below.

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😜 Satire Essay Topics List

Topics for a satirical essay on social media & technology.

Many of us have a complicated relationship with social media. Despite their convenience, they use a lot of our time as well as storage space. A satirical discussion can sharpen a critical perspective on these topics.

• Like, repost, and get married. It’s difficult to determine someone’s real intentions on the Internet. How does this impact people’s dating behavior?
• How cute animals became the main driving force of Instagram advertising. Emotions play a significant role in marketing . Adorable cats and dogs wield much power in this regard. What do you think is their secret?
• “I will just check a few posts and stories… Whoops, there goes my day.” If that sounds familiar to you, write about it in your satire essay on social media !
• “I’m going to filter this anyway.” However unflattering your photo looks, Instagram’s got your back. Discuss how you can use this power to your advantage.
• Let’s Zoom! Online classes are not everybody’s cup of tea. Will they become the new standard model of learning? Or will they disappear to where they came from?
• Twitter, Instagram, Facebook : can you use all of them without losing your grip on reality?
• The rise of knock-off products: will the Asian competition sweep Apple and others away?
• What if your phone is hacked?
• Providing a constant flow of content as a modern virtue.
• Exchanging gossip as a currency on social media.
• English will become an endangered language thanks to emojis.
• The worst social media virus: “Have you seen this TikTok ?”
• Step-by-step instructions on how to use hashtags to Twitter .
• Tagging in Facebook posts as an invasion of personal space.
• How to ruin your life with the help of only one social media account.
• Equality on the media: why are we discriminating against positive news?
• If you don’t watch my stories back, you don’t love me.
• Is your life as perfect as the one you display on your Instagram ?
• Viral challenges are getting overly complicated.
• Caution: fact-checking Tweets may cause severe fires on social media.
• What if you were paid to scroll social media feeds?
• Understanding the cloud : how did my files get all the way up in the sky?
• Warning: downloading these apps may shorten your life.
• Tweets are short for a good reason: an average person’s attention span is getting shorter.
• Dumb ways to die: or, why you should never google how to save your life.
• Imagine the Internet disappears tomorrow.
• Can you make your coffee without a coffee machine?
• What do hackers look like in real life?
• An updated set of rules on how not to embarrass yourself on the Internet .
• Modern life: did you get the newest human update?
• TikTok should be banned in schools.
• FOMO: does it make you have nightmares ?
• There is nothing bad about having a date with someone from social media .
• Social media jargon that we will never understand.
• How to unsee all the disgusting stuff you have seen on social media.
• A quick test to find out whether you’re smarter than your smartphone .
• Hiding your flaws on social media for dummies.
• Spotting an authentic lifestyle on Instagram is not that easy.
• Learning how to make a relevant and adequate comment on social media.
• Things from the Internet that could’ve been funny if they weren’t so real.
• Feeling good about your body doesn’t mean you should post nudes.
• How to stay at home forever: Let your parents see your photos from last night’s party on social media .
• How to gain more followers on your Twitter .
• Should we expect an apocalypse if social media shuts down?
• Is social media the best way to make new friends ?
• Do your Instagram followers really care what you had for breakfast?
• It’s impossible to avoid Internet addiction.
• Should robots have human rights ?
• 10 reasons not to use Google for your exam prep .
• Should robots replace humans?
• Why should everyone have Internet access?
• Technology is not what devastated human communication .
• Why are smartphones more important than desktop PCs?
• 10 reasons for taking online classes only.
• How do modern technologies affect the way we learn?

Satire Essay on School: Topic Ideas

In a satirical essay, you can criticize the social issues that concern you using irony and funny punchlines. You can express your ideas and worries about education with a little bit of humor. It sounds like a dream essay, doesn’t it? Writing about your problems in a satirical way might help you to look at them from a more optimistic perspective!

• What is the point of a school uniform? Even office workers rarely have to follow strict dress code rules. All in all, your brain won’t solve calculus tasks better if you wear a uniform.
• Why is studying online more productive than going to school? You don’t have to go anywhere to become more intelligent. All the existing knowledge is available on the Internet, and most of it is free.
• Teachers enjoy giving a lot of homework to their students. Many students suspect that. Do you think there might be some truth behind it?
• How can you defend yourself from older kids at school? Taking up boxing or karate ? Becoming a bully ? Or maybe you just need to be a good runner? Try to think about the most creative and outlandish options.
• Reasons why you should write essays in the last minute. Nothing motivates a student more than an approaching deadline. Try to remember the time you finished your assignment the night before the due date. What was it like?
• What’s wrong with the educational system in America? Find the flaws in your program or describe the problems that your peers face. For example, think about tuition fees in colleges, overcrowding, or lack of attention to students.
• How social media help students in their studies. The educational content on social media can be helpful for your studies. Wouldn’t it be more interesting if your teachers interacted with you via TikTok or YouTube?
• How do you survive your senior year at high school? Applying to college, preparing for SAT or ACT, and keeping up with deadlines seem like a lot of multitasking . Describe all the difficulties students have to face and offer your solutions.
• Do we even need to go to school ? At first, think about why you like and dislike school . Why do you think school helped you, and when was it useless? Provide your reasons why you keep going to school and what you aim to achieve.

Topics for a Satire Essay on Obesity

Healthy lifestyles keep gaining popularity. There are plenty of low-fat and vegan options in supermarkets, cafes, and restaurants. However, obesity is still a big problem for people’s health and self-esteem. Satirical topics below will help you look at it from a new perspective; just make sure to be respectful.

• Are overweight people happier than the rest of us? Many fat people keep positive and simply don’t care about the way others see them. They can enjoy their favorite foods and don’t feel the need to work out after that.
• Do overweight people want to lose weight ? Some of them surely do. Others are happy the way they are and still face the constant pressure of the people surrounding them. Explain why it’s not necessary to lose weight just to fit the standards.
• How to stop eating at night. Nothing seems like a better idea than grabbing a snack at 2 a.m. The following day you cannot even realize why your brain persuaded you to do it. Explain why this habit can be harmful and what possible solutions can help to get rid of it.
• Crazy solutions for losing weight . You can find thousands of diets and fat-burning workouts on the Internet, but none of them work as well as promised. Find the funniest weight loss tips and describe them in your essay.
• How to persuade children to choose healthy foods . When you force somebody to do something, it doesn’t work well. Maybe we should show kids educational cartoons on nutrition? Or perhaps we need to learn how to cook delicious and healthy foods ?
• How do some skinny people eat so much and don’t gain weight? Probably everyone knows a person who eats all the time and is not even close to getting fat. It might be fast metabolism , an active lifestyle , or black magic.
• What should you eat to lose weight? Everybody knows that you need to consume fewer calories than you burn. But people still want to find a perfect diet to reduce body fat . Can you come up with one?
• Signs that you need to lose some weight . Maybe your favorite jeans became too tight, or you can’t walk up the stairs as quickly as you used to. Think of the indicators showing that you’ve gained some extra weight.
• How does smoking affect weight loss? Many people believe that smoking reduces the feeling of hunger and makes you eat less. Ex-smokers also tend to gain weight when they give up smoking. Explore this issue in a satirical essay.

Environment & Global Warming Satire Essay Topics

Environmental issues are a big part of today’s debates. Satire can make your essay more prominent and draw more attention to the issues you discuss. Satirizing the current situation can be a powerful tool in motivating people to go green. If you’re looking for good satirical topics concerning the environment, this is your section.

• Behold: anyone is now able to walk on water. You can do it, too—thanks to giant garbage islands. What other “wonders” has pollution made possible?
• Our dependency on the environment is one-sided. Speculate what would happen if nature strikes back. Who will have the upper hand?
• No one likes to wade through garbage. Yet, many people just throw their trash on the ground. What’s going on in their minds?
• New technology: guilty until proven innocent. Can humans sustain technological progress at the cost of the environment?
• We are ready to cut down the tree if we need a toothpick. Is this acceptable or outrageous? Ponder on it in your essay.
• What if you could stop climate change ? Imagine that you can control everything in the world. What would you do to stop global warming ? Offer your solutions to climate change having this kind of power.
• Climate change is fake news . With this essay, you can satirize the point of view of climate change deniers. Winter is as cold as it used to be. Maybe global warming is a trick politicians use to deflect our attention from real problems.
• Dirty water vs. polluted air : the irony of rich nations looking down on developing societies.
• Is sustainability in big companies merely a fashionable way to make a profit?
• How can we live comfortably without degrading the environment ?
• Natural disasters vs. climate change denial: is there a correlation?
• Can humans live in a symbiotic relationship with nature, as plants do?
• Stop brushing your teeth if you have heard of global warming .
• Why we should stop hating public transport .
• Overpopulated cemeteries: an underrated issue.
• Who cares about the environment when we need more housing ?
• I hate recycling , so here is what I do instead of helping the environment.
• Riding horses instead of driving cars can be fun!
• Let’s be honest: do we really need that much ozone ?
• The best solution for global warming : using hover boards instead of cars.
• Trashy waste disposal ways: can we do better?
• If you’re convinced “there is plenty of fish in the sea,” think twice.
• Humans sacrifice dozens of species to save one: themselves.
• The latest research shows that people don’t care about the environment .
• Should we consider reusable toilet paper to save our planet?
• Can’t people just plant more trees to save the forests?
• How to reduce pollution without recycling.
• What’s wrong with the zero waste ideology?
• How not making your bed can stop global warming .
• Why should humanity move to Mars ?
• 10 reasons why deforestation makes our planet cleaner.
• Are gasoline cars better than electric ones?

Satirical Essay on Social Issues: Topics & Questions

In this section, you’ll find satirical writing ideas about society, culture, and other related things.

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• “I want to speak to the manager !” If you’re dying of shame every time someone says this sentence, welcome to the Karen phenomenon. What can you do to avoid becoming such a person?
• Multinational corporations are masters of disguise. The variety of choices on grocery store shelves is deceiving. Almost all goods there belong to one of few transnational corporations .
• You can achieve anything you set your mind to—unless you’re poor. Think of examples that support this statement, such as education not being accessible for everyone.
• Hungry Google. How can promising tech start-ups prevent being devoured by a giant? The greediness of a big corporation such as Google is a great satirical topic to write about.
• The dark side of the fashion industry. What’s your opinion on beautiful designs made by the hands of Asian children?
• Trends, bans, and censorship: is free speech only for the elite?
• How to keep up with slang as you get older.
• Will Apple’s planned obsolescence ever backfire?
• “I can paint like this”: the appeal of abstract art .
• Spartans knew how to deal with overpopulation .
• Who really deserves the title of the Greatest Generation?
• ”Let’s make it simple!”: the dullness of modern pop culture.
• Is it time to create a new currency in the US?
• What should you answer to a time-traveler from the past asking about the worst event in the 21st century?
• What if pharmaceutical companies merely want to keep us sick?
• 10 reasons why breastfeeding in public should be illegal.
• 7 reasons why women should not get pregnant .
• Why should you avoid getting vaccinated?
• Life hacks on how to get a cold in summer.
• What’s so good about plastic surgery ?
• What adverse effects can sports have on your life?

Other Satirical Essay Topics

Below you’ll find humorous topics related to politics and family life. You’re welcome to use them for your satirical writing assignment.

Satire Topics on Politics

It’s hard to face reality without a bit of humor. With everything that’s happening in the world, politics is perfect joke material. This is especially relevant for Juvenalian satire. To help you limit your choices, here are some prompts:

• Do men in power actually plan to destroy the world one day? Or is hoarding atomic weapons the politicians’ version of collecting stamps?
• “The internet is new territory for all of us.” At least it was, according to the German chancellor Angela Merkel in 2013. Sounds accurate? Unpack this quote in your essay.
• Democracies have one big problem: everyone is allowed to vote. Should democratic governments introduce some kind of an IQ test before authorizing people to participate in voting ?
• Is Donald Trump a lizard person? How would this comical theory fit with his politics? Discuss this satire topic in your essay.
• North Korea’s role in the global playing field. Is the country a serious threat or a minor disturbance?
• How much influence do celebrities have in international politics ?
• Politicians in Hungary and Poland use excessive anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. What are they afraid of?
• Are rich people and Twitter enthusiasts such as Elon Musk secretly governing the world?
• Manufacturing conspiracy theories for fun and profit.
• Would life in Russia be any different if Putin crowned himself tsar?
• Why would shopping malls make perfect prisons ?
• Analyze the dictionary meaning of the word “trump.”
• Romantic relationship between Hillary Clinton and the media.
• Do all presidents just follow their basic primitive instincts?
• If someone believes politicians , they might as well believe in aliens.
• 13 reasons why teenagers should create laws.
• The most effective method to treat your post-election stress.
• Every year’s slogan: Let’s make politics work again!
• A team of professionals working on upgrading Donald Trump’s lies.
• A practical dictionary to help you translate the Trump language.
• How would the deep state save us from the climate catastrophe?
• Winning as the ultimate goal of all elections for political figures.
• Why do presidents always appear to be right?
• Following the success of Germany , we have to unite the US, too!
• If you have these symptoms, you should see a doctor to treat your Political Correctness Syndrome immediately!
• Donald Trump’s best solution for wildfires, or “Rake, people, rake!”
• Family planning gone wrong: Alabama’s law on abortion .
• What do Canadians say about America’s struggles with immigrants ?
• Making parallels between Humpty Dumpty and the issues with the US wall .
• Why everyone should own a gun .
• Why doesn’t freedom of speech make you free?
• Beware: the new virus of civil disobedience is coming.
• Why do we keep thanking the wrong heroes?
• A white American man: the most terrorized person in the world nowadays.
• Shouldn’t we treat China as America’s best friend?
• Communism is capitalism’s evil twin.
• Why didn’t the government invoke the 25 th amendment during Trump’s presidency ?
• How to build hype: tips from the man who told everyone to drink bleach.
• Donald Trump as the next candidate for winning a Nobel Prize in medicine.
• Sending hippie-like peace text messages to the terrorists .

• Why won’t anyone believe what politicians say?
• What makes Donald Trump so unique?
• Trust me, the Great Wall of China will still stand after the alien invasion.
• Let’s see if Captain America would make a good president.
• Can we use ideas from comic books to confront terrorists ?
• 10 reasons why you should watch CNN news twice a day before a meal.
• The gun control issue couldn’t be more overrated.
• People are dying: legalize marijuana to save lives!
• A collection of Donald Trump’s best advice.
• 10 reasons why Tony Stark should become the next president of the United States.
• Is Russia America’s top enemy?
• Should the Communist party be the world’s leading social organization ?
• 15 reasons why all countries should liberalize visa regimes.
• How much should countries spend on military expenses?
• Why is political satire important?

Satirical Essay Topics: Marriage and Family

Family life can be a blessing as well as a challenge. Humor is a big help. Looking through this section, you’ll definitely find a relatable satire essay topic. Be sure to have a witty solution for the next time!

• You’re a cat person; your partner loves dogs . And your child begs you to buy a snake. What’s the best way to choose a pet for the whole family? Explore this funny satire topic in your essay!
• “I have a great business idea . ” Have you come to fear hearing these words? Write about how to discourage your loved ones from investing in bad ideas.
• Just married! And the routine already sets in. How can a couple keep the spark?
• Marrying is easy; it is difficult to be married . If this hits close to home, consider it as the topic for your essay.
• Grandma Online. Many people underestimate their grandparents’ abilities to use the Internet. How can said grandparents use this to their advantage?
• What’s the best way to deal with ex-partners after marrying someone else?
• Marrying a Catholic priest: how to handle celibacy.
• “Blood is thicker than water”: when is this statement not valid?
• Love at first sight: truth or myth?
• Cool parents for all Millennials : a practical guidebook.
• Why do people who have failed relationships keep advising others?
• What are your grandpa’s best retirement ideas for young people?
• Paying back: what can you ask your grandparents at the end of the day?
• Family discussions are like puzzles that one has to piece together.
• Why does nobody tell you how overrated a married life is?
• The turning point of my life: before and after marriage .
• What if same-sex marriage becomes legal everywhere?
• Why some men don’t wear engagement rings.
• Why would anyone save for their kids’ college or wedding?
• The secret behind high divorce rates in the US.
• Don’t rush to say “I do,” check these things first.
• Living in communities as a substitute for marriage in the future.
• The reasons why my kids won’t get married in a church .
• If love is blind, why are we still so self-conscious?
• The most misused pickup line of the decade.
• Guidebook of the year: places where you can find love .
• When being yourself on a date doesn’t help, just be weird.
• The real struggle behind “ happily ever after .”
• The most obvious signs you have a nosy partner.
• How can paternity leave save the whole world?
• Top useful tricks on how to win a fight with your partner.
• Things you should do on the first date if you need to escape.
• At what age should teens enter romantic relationships?
• Social media comes to rescue you: why is it the best way to break up ?
• Breaking up for introverts: how to do it without words.
• Not awkward, not cute: conversation starters for the first date.
• How to find out what your partner actually thinks about that dress.
• Get ready: questions your partner will definitely ask you at some point.
• How many times do I have to say “I love you” before my partner believes me?
• Family getaway planning on a budget (spoiler: stay home!)
• More money spent on weddings equals a higher chance of divorce .
• Being a housewife and a mom is so much easier than working! Right?
• Make your husband clean after himself: a step-by-step guide.
• Learning to love your parents who tag you in every post on Facebook.
• Who needs a babysitter when you have a tablet and a TV?
• Dressing your toddler: are there only pink and blue clothes?
• Enjoy your time as a kid of a divorced couple ; you live in two places!
• The top 10 passive-aggressive comments to make to your “favorite” relative.
• How do you detect a typical mansplaining answer from a woman?
• The middle child : why do people often seem to forget about them?
• The reasons why your mother-in-law is not the greatest evil .
• Create a 100% stress-free family life by divorcing .
• How to make a bathroom your private space in 5 steps.
• Fixing racism issues by promoting interracial marriages.
• Your evolution into everything you hate about your parents.
• Are divorces more expensive than weddings?
• Why all fathers should be taking paternity leave .
• What to do on a date to never be asked out by that person again.
• How to lie to your spouse and get away with it.
• The most effective tricks never to have dishwashing duty.
• How to tell your partner that they’ve gained weight .
• How to please your mom without actually following her advice.
• 10 life hacks to break up with your partner without doing anything.
• Getting a haircut is the best method to deal with a breakup.
• 15 reasons why you should always be late for dates.

If you haven’t found a suitable topic, you can use our topic generator for inspiration.

💡 Prompts for a Satirical Essay: Examples

Need some additional inspiration? The following prompts will instantly provide you with writing ideas.

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Satirical Essay on Drugs: Writing Prompt

Illegal drug use is a grave problem in our society. You can draw attention to this issue by writing a satirical proposal. Here are some options:

• Try to imagine what would happen if illegal drugs were free. What adverse “benefits” would this solution have? To drive the point home, use facts and statistics to show how easily addictions form.
• You may use the same approach to write about smoking or alcohol abuse. It’s a great idea to draw inspiration from old advertisements and taglines glamorizing the “benefits” of these addictions.

Feminist Satire Essay: Writing Prompt

Describing female oppression ironically as something positive allows you to demonstrate the absurdity of sexism. Think about the following:

• Many antifeminists see equal rights as a threat to patriarchy. For your essay, think about the examples of traditional misogynistic values, such as reducing women’s roles to housework. Then, present them in an ironic way to show how absurd they are.
• Another point worth satirizing is the idea that women are tired of equal rights. Do they want to go back to doing simple tasks in the kitchen and being banned from having a fulfilling job?
• Finally, you may want to explore if feminism hurts men. Is it true, or do some men just miss being in the spotlight?

Satirical Essay on Drinking and Driving: Writing Prompt

Drunk driving is among the primary reasons for road accidents in the US. It’s also an interesting topic to explore in a satirical essay. You can research ways of reducing impaired driving and turn them upside down:

• What if we start encouraging drunk driving by making alcohol more accessible? Think what would happen if the government lowers alcohol prices or makes it legal to drink everywhere.
• You may also want to ponder the consequences of lowering the legal drinking age. What would happen if kids start thinking that drunk driving is acceptable or even cool?
• You can go even further and ironically suggest making sober driving illegal.

Satirical Essay on Texting: Writing Prompt

Texting is fun—but it also comes with plenty of downsides. Below are some points you can satirize in your essay:

• One of the major drawbacks of texting is the lack of nuance compared to real-life communication. But what if it was actually an advantage? Try to describe the “benefits” of not being able to convey irony via texting.
• You may take a more serious stance and write a satirical essay on texting and driving. Why should texting be more important than watching the road? Show why this activity is pointless and highly dangerous.

Now let’s have a look at an essay example before you start writing. You can use this sample as inspiration or help you set a tone for a satire essay. Feel free to download the PDF file below:

Sometimes I dread graduating from high school just because I won’t have to wear a uniform anymore. It’s so wonderful to me because everything else I wear is either “too short” or “too bright.” In my opinion, school uniform relieves pressure and reduces unnecessary creativity and freedom of choice.

Satire Essay Examples from World Literature

If you are used to serious writing, it’s time to give it a break. Satire essays are all about fun. Some people even consider it to be one of the most entertaining types of essays.

Not only does satire show us reality as it is: it also entertains us. Let’s look at some satire writing examples from literary masters.

• The Cop and the Anthem by O. Henry The irony is already noticeable from the very beginning of O. Henry’s short story. Whatever main character Soapy intends to do, it results in the opposite. O. Henry perfectly plays around with Soapy’s sophisticated language use: it shows that despite being homeless, the character tries to appear as if he is of high status.
• Advice to Youth by M. Twain This satirical essay by Mark Twain aims to give a piece of advice to younger readers. They would expect it to be thoughtful as it comes from a respectable author. Instead of passing down his ideas about morality and values, Twain teaches youth how to act nicely. Long story short, it’s a convenient guide on how to pretend to be well-behaved. Twain’s use of sarcastic humor flips the theme of morality upside down.
• At the Funeral by M. Twain After reading this masterpiece, most adults and parents probably wouldn’t find Mark Twain so respectable anymore. In this essay, he mocks a set of social norms related to funerals. You can see how the writer plays around with this seemingly depressing topic. However, this satirical piece comes out to be quite entertaining. The reader can’t even sense the depressing mood surrounding the funeral processions. Twain also avoids using any terms related to it. He underlines that there is no value in such a custom anymore. All in all, he conveys his ideas very naturally and humorously.
• When I Was a Witch by Charlotte Perkins Gilman This short story created by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is considered one of the best satirical writing examples. It’s a story about a woman who discovers that all her wishes come true. She starts wishing for her surroundings and society at large to change. Though her wishes might seem strange, they are related to Gilman’s real-life circumstances. Ironically, only her wishes that are caused by negative emotions come true.
• A Modest Proposal by J. Swift This satirical essay by an English writer Jonathan Swift is about Ireland’s social and political problems. At the time, there was a famine in the country. Unfortunately, the government didn’t seem to find a solution to that issue. Swift decided to make a suggestion. He proposes to breed humans like cattle, resolving overpopulation and hunger at the same time. Such a horrible suggestion is nothing but an impossible idea with a hint of sarcasm. The main point of this essay is to make fun of the Irish government’s incapability to deal with social issues.

These texts will surely inspire you to write an outstanding essay.

We wish you good luck and hope this article was helpful! Don’t hesitate to share it with your friends.

Further reading:

• 435 Literary Analysis Essay Topics and Prompts [Upd]
• 460 Excellent Political Topics to Write about in 2024
• 420 Funny Speech Topics (Informative & Persuasive) + Presentation Ideas
• Funny Persuasive Speech Topics: Best Ideas for 2024
• 150 Best Environmental Essay Topics & Questions

✏️ Satirical Essay FAQ

In the modern world, there are way too many serious issues. Sensational media portrayal doesn’t make dealing with them easier. Satire helps to digest some ideas more effectively. Essays and articles often use satirical writing.

If you already have a topic, analyze the issue. You should come up with a good list of ideas first. Then, choose the most relevant points. Describe these in a satirical style. Add an introduction and a conclusion.

Students often have tasks with exact topics for their satire essays. If you need to develop an idea yourself, think about a topical issue you’ve heard about recently. Your subject might be related to your community or society as a whole.

First, read some examples of how other authors start their essays. This might vary from a quote or an anecdote to a rhetorical question. Sometimes the best way is to create an outline for the essay before writing an introduction.

• Essay Structure: Elizabeth Abrams, for the Writing Center at Harvard University  
• What Is Satire? How to Use Satire in Literature, Pop Culture, and Politics: MasterClass  
• Choosing a Topic: Purdue Writing Lab  
• Satire Essays: Bartleby  
• Origin of the Roman Satire Genre: NS. Gill, ThoughtCo  
• Juvenalian Satire: Encyclopedia Britannica  
• The Power of Political Satire: The New Yorker  
• Political Satire: Huff Post  
• Political Issues of 2024: I Side With  
• Political Issues Students Care About in 2020: Best Colleges  
• These Satirical Nat Geo Headlines Aren’t Too Far Off: National Geographic  
• Laughing in the Face of Climate Change? Satire as a Device for Engaging Audiences in Public Debate: University of Colorado Boulder  
• Technology Addiction: How Should It Be Treated?: Medical News Today  
• Concerns Regarding Concerns Regarding Social Media and Health Issues in Adolescents and Young Adults: ACOG.org  
• Social/Family Issues: Medline Plus  
• Trump’s Biggest Accomplishments and Failures from His 1-Term Presidency: Business Insider
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How to Write a Satire Essay: Examples, Outline and Topics

Ever wondered how to craft those hilarious yet thought-provoking satire essays that leave readers chuckling and pondering? Well, you've come to the right place!

Have you ever found yourself chuckling at the absurdities of life and thought, 'Hmm, there's definitely an essay in that'? Ever pondered how humor could be used to shed light on societal quirks and injustices? If so, you're already on your way to mastering the art of satire writing.

In this guide, you'll learn the ins and outs of writing satire essay examples. We'll cover everything from choosing the perfect topic to mastering the satire techniques. So, grab your pen, and let's have some fun being funny together.

What is a Satire Essay

A satire essay blends humor with social commentary to critique societal issues, human behavior, or institutions. Unlike traditional essays, it aims to entertain while highlighting life's absurdities.

This genre of writing uses wit, irony, sarcasm, and exaggeration to expose flaws and contradictions in society, targeting politics, popular culture, social norms, and human nature. It also addresses serious topics humorously, sparking conversation, inspiring change, and drawing attention to important social issues.

Satire essays come in various forms, from biting political critique to playful social commentary. Whether it's through clever wordplay, absurd scenarios, or biting satire, the goal of you as an essay writer is to entertain, enlighten, and challenge readers to see the world in a new light.

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Types of a Satire Essay

Learning how to write a satire essay requires you to understand its different forms, each with its own unique style and approach to humorously critiquing society. Whether you ask us to write my essay or tackle it yourself, understanding its different types can help you choose the best format for conveying your message effectively. Here are some common types:

• Juvenalian Satire : This type of satire is harsh, bitter, and angry, focusing on exposing societal injustices, hypocrisy, and corruption.
• Horatian Satire : Named after the Roman poet Horace, this satire is lighthearted, playful, and witty, aiming to amuse while gently poking fun at human folly and societal absurdities.
• Menippean Satire : This satire is complex and unconventional, combining prose, verse, and various literary genres to critique society from multiple angles.
• Political Satire : Political satire humorously highlights the absurdities of politics, aiming to provoke thought and inspire change through parody and humor.
• Social Satire : Social satire critiques broader societal issues and cultural norms, such as relationships, consumerism, and technology, to prompt reflection on societal absurdities.
• Literary Satire : Literary satire uses literary conventions to critique traditions, genres, and authors, often through parody and metafiction.
• Visual Satire : Using images, cartoons, and caricatures, visual satire conveys satirical messages through humor and symbolism, often seen in political cartoons and memes.

25 Satirical Essay Topics

The topic you choose sets the stage for your humor and social commentary. From politics to pop culture, there's no shortage of informative essay topics that are also ripe for satirical critique. Here are 25 distinctive satirical essay ideas to inspire your satire:

• The Absurdity of Celebrity Culture : Explore the obsession with fame and the cult of celebrity.
• The Folly of Fashion Trends : Poke fun at the ever-changing world of fashion and beauty standards.
• The Myth of Perfect Parenting : Satirize the pressure to be a perfect parent in the age of social media.
• The Madness of Modern Technology : Lampoon our addiction to smartphones and social media.
• The Dystopia of Dating Apps : Examine the pitfalls of online dating and hookup culture.
• The Hilarity of Health Trends : Satirize the latest wellness fads and diet crazes.
• The Chaos of College Admissions : Explore the absurdities of the college application process.
• The Paradox of Political Correctness : Critique the complexities of navigating political correctness in today's society.
• The Irony of Environmental Activism : Satirize the contradictions inherent in environmental activism and green living.
• The Comedy of Corporate Culture : Examine the quirks and absurdities of office life and corporate culture.
• The Farce of Fashion Weeks : Lampoon the extravagance and pretentiousness of fashion weeks around the world.
• The Lunacy of Reality TV : Poke fun at the manufactured drama and shallowness of reality television.
• The Nonsense of Self-Help Books : Satirize the industry of self-help books and motivational seminars.
• The Ridiculousness of Social Justice Warriors : Critique the extremes of social justice activism and virtue signaling.
• The Comedy of Conspiracy Theories : Explore the bizarre world of conspiracy theories and their believers.
• The Absurdity of Gender Stereotypes : Satirize traditional gender roles and societal expectations.
• The Hypocrisy of Holistic Healing : Examine the contradictions of alternative medicine and holistic healing practices.
• The Parody of Political Campaigns : Poke fun at the theatrics and absurdities of political campaigns and election cycles.
• The Comedy of Class Reunions : Lampoon the nostalgia and awkwardness of high school reunions.
• The Folly of Fast Food Culture : Satirize the excesses and consequences of fast food consumption.
• The Madness of Memes : Explore the cultural significance and absurdity of internet memes.
• The Farce of Fashion Magazines : Critique the unrealistic beauty standards and consumerism promoted by fashion magazines.
• The Hilarity of Home Renovation Shows : Poke fun at the exaggerated transformations and drama of home renovation reality shows.
• The Paradox of Patriotism : Satirize the contradictions of nationalism and patriotic fervor.
• The Comedy of Cults and Communes : Examine the absurdities of fringe religious movements and utopian communities.

How to Write a Satire Essay: Outline Guide

Creating a solid satirical essay is like serving up a delicious dish of humor with a side of social commentary. But where do you start? How do you take your witty observations and turn them into a compelling satire essay? Fear not! In this section, we'll break down how to write a satire essay outline step by step, starting with crafting the perfect thesis statement.

Start with a Thesis Statement 

Writing a satire essay thesis statement is about encapsulating your satirical take on a particular issue or topic in a clear and concise manner. Your thesis statement should capture the essence of your satire – the target of your humor and the underlying message you're trying to convey.

For example, let's say you want to write a satire essay about the obsession with social media. Your thesis statement might be something like: 'In a world where likes and retweets reign supreme, social media becomes the ultimate stage for showcasing our most curated selves, blurring the lines between reality and virtual validation.'

This thesis statement sets the stage for your satire by highlighting the absurdity of our social media-driven culture and the disconnect between our online personas and real-life experiences. It presents a clear viewpoint that you'll then explore and dissect throughout your essay with humor and wit.

So, next time when crafting your thesis statement or asking us to write my thesis , remember to:

• Identify the specific issue or topic you want to satirize.
• Express your satirical take on the issue in a clear and concise manner.
• Ensure your thesis statement sets the tone for the rest of your essay and guides your readers toward your humorous critique.

Explain Your Idea in the First Body Paragraph

Now that you know how to start a satire essay and lay the foundation with your thesis statement, it's time to dive into the first body paragraph. Begin by expanding on the central idea introduced in your thesis statement. Keep the tone light and playful, but also ensure that your satire is rooted in truth and relevance.

Continuing with our example thesis statement about social media obsession, the first body paragraph might delve into the ways in which social media platforms have become integral parts of our daily lives. You could discuss the addictive nature of scrolling through feeds, the pressure to curate the perfect online persona, and the impact of social media on mental health and self-esteem.

Use descriptive language and vivid imagery to paint a picture of the absurdities inherent in the topic you're exploring. Highlight contradictions, hypocrisies, or ironies that underscore the satirical angle of your essay.

For instance, you might describe the lengths people go to for the perfect selfie or the absurdity of chasing virtual likes and validation. You could share personal anecdotes or humorous observations to bring the topic to life and engage your readers' imaginations.

Add More Layers in the Second Body Paragraph 

Building upon the groundwork laid in the first satire essay paragraph, this section allows you to explore additional facets of the topic and further develop your satirical critique. Start by identifying specific examples, scenarios, or observations that illustrate the absurdities or contradictions inherent in the topic you're satirizing.

Here, you might focus on the ways in which social media distorts our perceptions of reality and fuels a culture of comparison and envy. You could discuss the phenomenon of "FOMO" (fear of missing out) and the pressure to present a flawless image online, even if it's far from authentic.

You might also share stories of people going to extreme lengths to capture the perfect Instagram photo or the impact of cyberbullying and online harassment on mental health.

As you write the second body paragraph, strive to maintain a balance between humor and substance. Use humor to engage your readers and keep them entertained, but also provide meaningful commentary that prompts reflection and critical thinking.

Wrap Up with Impact 

As you wonder how to end a satire essay, remember to summarize the key points you've made about the topic at hand.

For example, in our satire essay about social media obsession, the conclusion might reiterate the pitfalls of seeking validation through likes and retweets, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and genuine human connection in a digital age.

Reflect on the broader implications of the topic you've explored and offer insights or suggestions for addressing the issues raised in your satire. This could involve proposing alternative approaches or solutions in a humorous manner, providing a sense of closure and hope amidst the laughter.

Finally, consider the overall impact of your satire essay and the emotions it evokes in your audience. Did you succeed in entertaining, enlightening, and provoking thought? Did you strike the right balance between humor and substance? Now that you know how to write a conclusion for an essay , reflect on your writing process and consider how you can continue to refine your skills as a satirist.

Handy Tips and Tricks

Before you begin making funny comments about society, let's talk about some easy tips to help you start. Writing a satire essay is all about being funny, using irony, and being a bit smart. If you need some assistance, you can ask us to help me do my essay . But for now, let's take a closer look at how you can improve your skills.

• Pick Your Focus : Satire works best when you make fun of something specific in society that you find funny or annoying.
• Try Different Things : Use different ways to be funny, like making jokes, using irony, or exaggerating things.
• Keep an Eye Out : Pay attention to what's happening around you for ideas. Satire often comes from real-life events or how people act.
• Look at Things Differently : Try writing from different viewpoints, like pretending to be a silly politician or a funny commentator.
• Have Fun : Remember, satire is all about having a good time and making people laugh. So, enjoy yourself and don't take it too seriously.

Satire Essay Examples

Through humor and wit, these satire essay examples offer insightful critiques of their respective subjects, demonstrating effective techniques for crafting satirical commentary.

4 Satire Essay Examples from World Literature

Satire is a popular tool in world literature, where famous writers use humor and irony to poke fun at society and human foolishness. Let's look at some well-known satire essay examples from literature and see how they work:

• 'Gulliver's Travels' by Jonathan Swift : Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels' is a political satire masterpiece. Through Lemuel Gulliver's wild adventures, Swift mocks 18th-century British society and human nature. One famous episode is Gulliver's visit to Lilliput, where tiny inhabitants squabble over silly things like how to crack an egg. Swift uses these absurdities to show the silliness of politics and people.
• 'Don Quixote' by Miguel de Cervantes : Cervantes' 'Don Quixote' pokes fun at chivalric romance. The main character, Don Quixote, is a delusional knight who goes on crazy quests to revive chivalry. Through his funny adventures, Cervantes criticizes the exaggerated ideals of honor and love. The book shows how fantasy can clash with reality in funny ways.
• 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell : Orwell's 'Animal Farm' is a powerful satire on totalitarianism. Animals rebel against humans on a farm, but soon, pigs take over and become dictators. Orwell uses the animals to represent political figures and ideas, showing the hypocrisy of authoritarian rule.
• 'Candide' by Voltaire : Voltaire's 'Candide' is a sharp satire on Enlightenment optimism. The main character, Candide, faces tragic and absurd situations but still believes everything is great. Through Candide's crazy adventures, Voltaire mocks the blind optimism of his time, revealing the harsh truths of human suffering and foolishness.

Final Words

Give yourself a pat on the back – you made it to the end of our writing adventure! With your sense of humor and a fresh understanding of life's funny quirks, you're all set to let your creativity loose on the page.

Just a friendly reminder: Satire isn't just about making jokes – it's a way to start conversations, question the status quo, and maybe even shake things up a bit. So, don't hold back! Try out different styles, go where your imagination takes you, and most importantly, be yourself.

Bored of the Same Old Essays?

Time to shake things up! Inject some humor into your academic life with our side-splitting satire essays.

How to Write a Satirical Essay?

What is a satirical essay, what is a good satire essay topic, related articles.

How To Write a Satire Essay?

20 February, 2021

13 minutes read

Author:  Richard Pircher

As a high school or college student, you definitely have your fair share of assignments. From carrying out backbreaking research on late historical figures to writing endless essays, school work can be a tad draining. However, one assignment that always seems to have students in a fix is the satire essay.

Writing an essay on satire is one of the hardest tasks you’d come across in high school or college. This kind of essay typically requires a vast knowledge of the subject matter and a great sense of humor. 

This leads us to the big question: how do you write a Nobel prize-worthy satirical essay? Let’s find out. 

What Is a Satire Essay? 

Satire is a literary device or genre employed by a significant number of professional authors. This genre is particularly aimed at criticizing a person or group of persons for their vices, wrongdoings or shortcomings. 

Usually, satire is used to shed more light on significant political or cultural issues within a society. A satire essay is a type of essay that employs devices such as sarcasm, humor and irony to mock a particular person, situation or ideology. Basically, it pokes fun at certain people or situations in an elite and sarcastic manner. 

How to Write a Satire Essay: Writing Tips

Wondering how to write a satire essay? Even though it may seem like a daunting task, writing a satire essay can be a seamless process once you apply the following tips: 

Choose an original and relevant topic

So you need to write a satire essay. The first step to take is to choose your topic. In some cases, your teacher or professor may assign a topic to you, but more often than not, you’d need to come up with a topic of your own. 

In this case, decide the area you want your essay to focus on. You could focus on a political or social situation, depending on what you want. 

However, it is advisable to choose a topic that you’re familiar with. This way, it will be easier to dig up facts and evidence to support your point of view. 

Consider your audience 

Your audience is the focal point of your essay. As such, it’s very important that you consider them at every stage of the writing process. Is your essay aimed at high school students or college professors? 

Would it be read by professionals or just your fellow students? Identifying and considering your audience will help to determine the appropriate tone for your essay. 

If your target audience is mostly made up of fellow students and friends, you can get away with using a casual tone. However, if you expect professionals to read your work, it’s advisable to go for a more formal tone in your essay. 

Add lots of humor 

What makes a satire essay so interesting? Is it the topic or the author’s writing style? Well, the major spice of any satire essay is the generous use of humor. You want to make your audience laugh at the ridiculousness of a particular person or situation. As such, the best way to achieve this aim is by applying devices like irony, sarcasm and hyperbole. 

When used tactfully, these devices can have the desired effect on readers. 

Stick to plain facts

Inasmuch as satirical essays employ devices like humor and exaggeration, it’s important to stick to plain facts when writing your essay. Adding incorrect theories or outright lies to your essay would only render it invalid in the court of public opinion. 

As such, it’s important to only state facts that can be backed up by strong evidence. For further credibility, cite your source after stating figures, theories or opinions. 

This would assure your audience that your essay is credible. If you can’t find facts or evidence to support a particular argument, then it is advisable to avoid including it in your essay. 

Use the ELP format

The ELP format is a great way to ensure that your satire essay is professional and of stellar quality. ELP is an acronym for ethos, logos and pathos. 

These three elements form a significant part of your essay and can either make or mar your work. But how and when do you employ them in your essay?

Ethos informs the readers about the issue at hand and their pre-existing beliefs. As such, this tool should be used in the introductory part of the essay to lay a foundation for the readers. 

Logos provides the audience with pure facts and figures, thereby adding credibility to your work. 

Pathos, just like the term implies, would evoke the appropriate feelings and emotions in your audience. Whether you’re trying to evoke sadness, sympathy or anger, using this tool the right way would help you achieve your aim. 

Be tolerant 

Even though a satire essay is often riddled with sarcasm and irony, it’s important that you use these devices without making any offensive statement. 

Your audience will definitely be made up of people from different walks of life. As such, you don’t want to make remarks that may be deemed to be discriminatory or offensive to a particular sect. 

Knowing the boundary between satire and being outrightly offensive is a delicate art that requires practice and a keen understanding of human psychology. However, to ensure that your essay is in no way offensive, you could ask for second opinions from your colleagues or teacher. 

How to Find Original Topics

With how difficult satire essays are, you’d think no one would be writing them. However, a quick Internet search would show you an abundance of already-written satire essay topics. In fact, choosing a topic that has not already been written by someone else can be a daunting task. 

If you’re trying to find original satire essay ideas or topics, here are a few tips that may help you: 

Find major political or cultural events

If you look around you, you’d definitely find a wide range of interesting political or cultural events that would make for a brilliant topic. Go through published articles, media publications and the news to find resources for your dream topic. 

Brainstorm interesting ideas

Once you’ve gone through the resources listed above, you can then go on to brainstorm any ideas you may have come up with. Ensure that your topic is interesting and witty enough to catch the attention of your readers. 

70 Satire Essay Topics 

Struggling to find original satire essay topics that would interest your audience? Well, here are some sample topics on different subject matters that would definitely inspire you:

• The royal family and Princess Diana: a mystery that never got solved
• What would today’s world look like if the Holocaust had never happened? 
• The best American presidents in history vs Donald Trump: a tale of two worlds 
• How World War II should have turned out
• What was so special about Attila the Hun anyway? 
• More than just his height: a review of Abraham Lincoln’s policies 
• The real truth behind Thanksgiving: why was it created? 
• Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust: a not so shocking tale of his prejudice 
• The never-ending cold war between Catholics and Protestants: how it all started
• Why slave trade should have been abolished before it even started
• Trump: analyzing why political leaders should steer clear of social media 
• Politicians and broken promises: a match made in heaven
• Is political correctness the perfect cure for all modern ailments? 
• The gun-slinging citizen: an analysis of the legalization of guns and fire-arms in the United States 
• Freedom of speech and what happens after you make your speech in today’s world
• How to deal with electoral loss: handy tips from the best losers
• Pro-life VS Pro-Choice: the never ending moral argument between conservatives and liberals 
• How to satisfy the United States’ healthcare needs
• Why the death penalty should have died many centuries ago

Marriage and Family 

• Being a cool parent in today’s world: everything you need to know
• Is married life really overrated? Asking for a single millennial
• The United States’ secret behind its high divorce and separation rates
• The perfect recipe for a peaceful divorce in today’s world 
• Should same-sex marriage be legal in every part of the world? 
• Saving for the kids’ college: the bane of every married couple 
• Big weddings or small weddings? The ultimate introvert-extrovert war
• Trying to have a tight family discussion: a how-to guide
• Should women walk on hot coals barefoot to please their fiancé’s parents? 
• Why the internet is the perfect place to seek relationship advice
• Why true love is as real as Santa Claus and Jack Frost
• All is fair in love and war: is it really? 
• What happens when you fall in love with two different people? 
• Why millenials should normalize leaving first dates immediately it becomes awkward 
• How to start a conversation on a first date without being awkward
• Cohabitation: ten lies you’d find on the internet in today’s world 
• Why dating sites should have existed in the 18th or 19th century 
• Finding love in the 21st century: are dating sites the modern version of arranged marriages? 
• How pickup lines determine the start of a strong modern relationship 
• Should there be an age limit on love between adults? 
• The slow yet sure eradication of chalkboards from modern classrooms
• Why dropping out of school is an under-rated decision for millenials 
• Are good grades a social construct created to frustrate students? 
• Why the social pyramid in high school exists and how to navigate it
• Dealing with bad grades: the ultimate guide to getting over a failed exam
• Should parents panic when their child drops out of school? 
• Why detention is a failed attempt at disciplining high school students 
• Online learning: has the pandemic done anything for school truants? 
• Why bullying and bullies should be eradicated from high school systems
• Should you be a wallflower or social butterfly in high school? 
• How television and social media slaughtered newspapers and buried them
• Does the media truly influence people’s lives and decisions in today’s world? 
• The Media and political leaders: who is a better liar? 
• Fake news: how to squash its occurrence in today’s media 
• Television vs social media: which one played a bigger role in COVID-19 sensitization? 
• Is Facebook a peeping Tom? How social media ruined everyone’s privacy
• Is the free press really free or is it being controlled by puppet strings? 
• Censorship vs free speech: what do millennials really need? 
• Scandals and brand wars: is there anything like bad publicity? 
• Why free publicity never works for brands and modern celebrities 
• How to become a millionaire without robbing a bank or grocery store
• Money can’t buy you happiness: the biggest lie ever told to mankind
• Why being broke can be the ultimate death sentence for anyone
• How to save money without literally starving to death in today’s world
• Why working hard does not necessarily translate to more money for you
• Should billionaires exist? Analyzing Jeff Bezos’ wealth and the plight of Amazon’s workers 
• Why financial books are a complete waste of money and valuable time
• The gender pay gap: how to close it in the 21st century
• Why does money have a therapeutic effect on most people? 
• Analyzing Robinhood’s lifestyle: is it okay to steal from the rich and give to the poor? 

Satire Essay Examples 

Still not sure how to write the perfect satire essay? Well, in this case, you can always refer to a well written satire essay example. Here are some satire essay examples that would definitely set you on the right track:

https://thecampanile.org/2019/10/23/satire-why-climate-change-is-fake/

https://manysmallvoices.wordpress.com/tag/satire/

Write a Satire Essay with HandMadeWriting

With these few tips and examples listed above, you can now go on to draft your very own satire essay. However, if you’d rather not go through the hassles of writing it yourself, you can hire HandMadeWriting essay writer services. 

With us, you are guaranteed a stellar, well-written satire essay that would definitely impress your teacher and audience. 

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Writing a Satire Essay: Guide and Examples

Satire has many forms that can be used to write works practically about any topic. Knowing where to start can be tricky if you have never encountered similar tasks at school before. But there’s no need to worry! Our team has developed this helpful guide for such an occasion. We will explain the basics of satirical essays and provide valuable tips on making them.

This article will also provide plenty of topic ideas on popular themes to make your work less stressful. You’ll also get to check out several satire essay examples that can serve as an inspiration for your work. Use our guide to make your paper come out great!

😁 The Basics of Satirical Essays

🔎 types of satire, 📝 writing a satire essay.

• 💡 Best Satirical Topics
• 🤩 Satire Essay Examples

📎 References

The American historian Barbara W. Tuchman states, “Satire is a wrapping of exaggeration around a core of reality.” This quote perfectly describes this exciting and controversial genre. But what is the definition of satire anyway? It’s the art of making something ridiculous, laughable, or discrediting. Satire is one of the oldest literary genres, dating back to Ancient Greece and the rhetorician Quintallian . It has different types, but their purpose is largely the same.

You can use satire to make fun of political ideologies, excessive militarism, or the pitfalls of modern society.

That’s precisely what many authors like George Orwell, Terry Pratchett, Joseph Heller, and Jaroslaw Hasek did in their works. They give a funhouse mirror look at real or fictional concepts and, sometimes, a mix of both.

Every essay type has an essential role, and this one is no exception. A satire essay serves the same purpose as its larger counterparts. It lets you poke fun or criticize things you find absurd. A paper can ridicule anything from the agony of bureaucratic procedures and nonsensical laws to the media climate and pop culture scene. It allows you to voice your opinion on these matters in a lighthearted and fun way.

Essentially, you can use three types of satire in your essays. Check them out before approaching a new piece of writing. This way, you’ll better select the most suitable for your subject and writing style .

Writing a satirical essay has much in common with other examples of this genre. You need an introduction, body paragraphs , and a conclusion. This section outlines the steps that will help you in this process. Read on to learn how to perfect your satire essay!

• Step 1 : Select a topic. Find a subject that’s preferably already ridiculous or ironic. Your goal is to make it look even more exaggerated. Political c artoons are an excellent place to find a suitable theme for your essay.
• Step 2 : Make your point through a hyperbole. Keep in mind that a hyperbolizing doesn’t necessarily mean lying. Instead, exaggerate the facts to highlight how absurd they are. For example, you can talk about how Norway’s economy is thriving thanks to the sheer amount of salmon they consume yearly.
• Step 3 : Present your ideas through irony . This literary device uses words and phrases to tell the opposite of what they mean. It allows you to show a disconnect between someone’s expectations and what happens in reality.
• Step 4 : Make it humorous. Keeping up a light tone can be challenging. But you should still do your best, as humor is a great way to get people to side with you and accept your position on an issue. It can win people over faster than weighted and meticulously explained opinions.

💡 Best Satirical Topics for an Essay

A satirical essay can be about any theme you like, from literary works to global events. To keep you from losing your head in this sea of possibilities, we’ve decided to present some of the funniest and most engaging topics for your writings.

But before we get started, here are some ideas on how you can come up with a cool satirical topic for your paper:

✅ Personal Experiences. Reflect on the moments from your life that struck you as odd or downright hilarious. Maybe it’s when you mistook a raccoon for your neighbor’s cat. Funny experiences often harbor unique insights that, when shared, can resonate with others due to their unexpected humor.

✅ Social Norms and Expectations . Explore instances when societal norms clash with reality. Let’s imagine your coworkers dressed in regular clothes to work while you and your friend dressed in Halloween outfits. By dissecting these contradictions, you can craft a story that entertains and subtly challenges societal norms.

✅ Current Events and Trends . Take a satirical lens to recent happenings, whether it’s an obsession with a new TikTok trend or an outfit from Rihanna or Doja Cat that other influencers are rushing to copy. Amplify the absurdity of these events to highlight their often-overlooked humorous side while satirizing the public’s reactions surrounding them.

✅ Everyday Life Observations . Delve into the nuances of daily life that typically go unnoticed. It could be the funny habits of your soulmate or people’s behavior on public transportation or elevators. By magnifying these quirks, you can reveal the hilarity and peculiarity of the routines we take for granted.

School and Education Satire Topics

• How to master Google search for your academic pursuits.
• The art of procrastination : How to avoid studying until the last minute.
• How to ace an exam without studying.
• The myth of a perfect student and how it wrecks the lives of collegegoers.
• A satirical look at the pitfalls of contemporary American education .
• College application essays: The most needless thing and how to ace it.
• Why you should spend years earning a degree you’ll never use.
• Group projects and how to survive them.
• Funny utopian school: Where homework is banned and recess is eternal.
• The unfair world of homework assignments.

Technology and Social Media Satire Topics

• The Me generation: How social media raises an army of narcissists .
• Informational addiction: Truth or even scarier truth?
• Why you should post everything online.
• Artificial Intelligence : Our doom or salvation?
• The virtues of being a social media star.
• Social media and its effect on your personal life.
• How to wreck your life with Facebook .
• TikTok and the modern media contagion.
• Top 10 apps that ruin your life.
• How to live one day without technology and stay sane.

Historical Satire Topics

• A satirical look at the rise and fall of the Roman Empire .
• The Third Reich’s WWII propaganda: A study in ridiculousness.
• Fighting for peace: A short look at the arms race.
• “Let them eat cake” and other phrases that changed history.
• Historical influence of satire on the American Dream perception .
• How the Cold War shaped American satire of the late 20th century.
• Medieval gun control: Unsheathing the hilarity of sword registry laws.
• The rise of authoritarianism and political satire.
• 1812 and the folly of Napoleon .
• Slavery in the land of the free.

Politics and Government Satire Topics

• The wonderful world of the two-party system.
• Political promises: A study in honesty and integrity.
• A satirical look at the theatrics of political ads .
• The department of bureaucratic ballet: A satirical look at the government’s efficiency.
• How the US bureaucracy became the monster everybody loves to hate.
• A crash course in gaining political power without the fuss of democracy .
• Political dodgeball: Avoiding questions made easy.
• Ingenious solutions: How politicians promise to solve everything with catchy slogans.
• How to survive your next Thanksgiving dinner .
• How political division brings a country together.

Social Issues Satire Topics

• Ten ways to avoid pressing social issues and feel good about yourself.
• Why pulling yourself by the bootstraps no longer works.
• Eating your way to a healthier life.
• The luxury guide to poverty: How to embrace destitution with style.
• How to become an effective cyberbully.
• The selfie pandemic: A guide to self-obsession.
• Unemployment reality shows: Who wants to be a broke millionaire?
• Remaining private in a globally connected world.
• How to become a cut-throat millionaire.
• The great overpopulation and its humorous consequences.

Literature Satire Topics

• How to bore your audience while looking important.
• Outdated language: Making dictionaries cool again.
• Crafting complex plots with just simple literary techniques .
• A masterclass in confusing storytelling.
• How to write a novel that people won’t buy.
• The art of long-winded narrative in Stephen King novels.
• Endings that made you throw books out the window.
• Breaking the fourth wall and hilarious in-text solutions.
• How to talk about books without reading them.
• A guide to nonsensical plot twists.

🤩 Fantastic Satire Essay Examples

As we all know, theory is good but practice makes perfect. This is why we want to offer you these satire essay examples. Carefully reading through them will help you understand the elements they use and what makes them work. We suggest that you also try your hand at writing essays on these topics – compare them to our samples and see where you can improve!

• Failed Leadership Can Only Be Whipped by Satire George Orwell used Animal Farm to critique totalitarian regimes that oppress the masses. The work pokes fun at many authoritarian movements, from fascism to communism, with a strong and charismatic leader usurping the top position and gaining full power. But most prominently it’s an attack on the October Revolution and the rise of Joseph Stalin as the leader. On a broader scale, Animal Farm serves as a satire of communism that ultimately didn’t meet the high expectations that the USSR’s citizens anticipated. Each character symbolizes a class or type of individual with strong and weak character traits. The novel’s antagonist, Master Jones, represents the bourgeoisie that exploits workers to death. The animals, a.k.a the proletariat, revolt and overthrow his iron rule. While things seem better for a while, thanks to the efforts and philosophy of a pig called Old Major, everything quickly turns for the worse. That soon results in many tragic events and the farm falling into the hands of another pig named Napoleon. He usurps the prime position much like Joseph Stalin did from Leo Trotsky . Any mentions of his political rival are met with brutal retaliation. Pretty soon, nobody remembers the original ideas that spearheaded the revolution. Ultimately, the pigs take over the farm and start to resemble humans. It is a masterful allegory of the oppressed becoming the oppressors. Animals become rulers of the farm, but most live in the same squalor they started with. Of course, nobody who is “ more equal than others ” ever complains.
• Political Satire and Stephen Colbert Political satire has been around almost since the dawn of American independence. Over the past couple of decades, it has become a favorite subject of many shows, including the subject of this essay — Stephen Colbert . His The Colbert Report is a prime example of how to criticize the political climate with the right amount of humor and heart. Colbert’s approach to satire pulls no punches as he famously mocked former President George Bush Jr. during a White House Correspondent Dinner. He criticized Bush’s actions, lifestyle, beliefs, and foreign policy decisions. He especially criticized the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties. Stephen Colbert used an ironic approach to discuss such issues to draw attention to them. While this was done lightheartedly, many people sided with Colbert. That allowed him to influence public opinion without being directly involved in politics. And Colbert always encouraged his viewers to do the right thing. Even though The Colbert Report ended in 2014, the man himself remains popular with American audiences. His current Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert enjoys millions of subscribers on YouTube and hundreds of millions of views. His previous program is still popular, with new people discovering it daily.

Thank you for reading our article. Hopefully, it helped you create a perfect satire essay. And if you need to find more ideas for your work, try out our essay topic generator !

❓ Satirical Essay FAQ

What is a satire essay.

A satirical essay sheds light on the absurdities of comical aspects of life. They are often used to criticize or make fun of a concept, a person, or a trend. This type of writing utilizes literary devices of irony and hyperbole to emphasize its message. Political satire is the most popular type in this field.

How to Start a Satire Essay?

Like any essay, it should start with an introduction. Here, you explain the theme of your work and what you want to shed light upon, be it a person, an event, or a concept. A good intro starts with a hook sentence for readers. Make it fun and engaging, and they’ll likely continue reading your satirical essay.

How to Write a Satire Essay?

First, find the right topic to make the subject of your essay. Second, use hyperbole and irony to point out the ridiculous aspects of the theme. You can check out examples of satirical papers to understand how these literary devices work. Finally, make the writing full of humor to drive your point home.

• What is Satire? || Definition & Examples. – Evan Gottlieb, Oregon State University
• 7 Satire Techniques With Tips. – Indeed
• The Process for Setting up a Satire Essay. – Loudoun County Public Schools
• What Is Satire? How to Use Satire in Literature, Pop Culture, and Politics—Plus Tips on Using Satire in Writing. – MasterClass
• Satirical Writing. – Del Donno, Lone Star College-University Park
• How to Write Satire. – Alex Baia
• 4 Ways to Come Up With a Great Essay Idea. – Oxford Royale Academy
• How to Use Satire, Sarcasm, and the Power of Contrast to Expand Your Writing Repertoire. – Dawn Bevier, Medium
• Writing Satire Is Harder Than You Think. – Jeff Goins, Writer
• Choosing a Topic. – The On-Campus Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University

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Jon stewart: the satirist as defender of democracy, satire defends the nation from trump, jimmy kimmel teaches trump how to be a man, another trump irony: even out of office, he gets more attention than the actual president, trump’s ironic effect on political satire.

Sophia A. McClennen is professor of international affairs and comparative literature at Penn State University and founding director of the Center for Global Studies. She has published twelve books including Pranksters vs. Autocrats: Why Dilemma Actions Advance Nonviolent Activism with Srdja Popovic (Cornell, 2020), Globalization and Latin American Cinema ( Palgrave, 2018), and Is Satire Saving Our Nation? Mockery and American Politics with Remy Maisel (Palgrave, 2014).

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Sophia A. McClennen; Trump’s Ironic Effect on Political Satire. Film Quarterly 1 December 2021; 75 (2): 27–37. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2021.75.2.27

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This essay analyzes how the presidency of Donald Trump presented a challenge to satirists. It argues that the ironic complexities of the Trump figure itself created an unusual situation for satire, one which required it to adapt and change in novel ways. Because Trump was both absurd and terrifying, because he was both parody and credible threat, he created a unique situation for satirists, one where many of the common tools they carry in their comedic toolkit didn’t work. Satirical irony of Trump was not a matter of irony everywhere or ironic post-truthiness; when Trump satire was at its best, it worked in two competing, yet intertwined, representational directions because it was at once a return to sincerely using irony to reveal the truth while also using irony to reveal that reality had become grotesquely and ironically absurd. This essay explores two key examples of this new satirical aesthetic, Sarah Cooper’s interpretations of Trump and Jimmy Kimmel’s use of satire to defend democracy.

In June 2021, the story broke that Donald Trump had asked advisers and lawyers to investigate whether the Department of Justice could probe sources of satirical late-night comedy, like Saturday Night Live , that made fun of him. 1 The fact that Trump would melt down, usually on Twitter, after he saw satire critical of him had been surprising enough. Typically, it is autocrats, not democratically elected leaders, who display such thin skin. In fact, one common trait of many US presidents has been the capacity to launch self-deprecating jokes—a move that often undercuts any similar jokes lobbed at them. 2 Ronald Reagan made jokes about his age. Jimmy Carter quipped after leaving the White House, “My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. It is very nice now when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.” 3 But Trump displayed none of that good-natured self-mocking.

In fact, quite the opposite. Seth Meyers once reflected on working with Trump as a guest host of Saturday Night Live and wondered if Trump even had the capacity to process comedy. 4 Whether or not Trump could “get” a joke, one thing is clear: he didn’t like being the butt of one. Throughout his 2016 campaign and after, Trump made a habit of complaining about jokes he felt were critical of him, regularly taking to Twitter to grouse after seeing a joke on late-night comedy.

A REAL scandal is the one-sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live. It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion? 6

His anxieties led to debates over how conservatives could defend themselves against liberal bias in late-night comedy. 7 But the critical point is that Trump did more than complain; he actually looked into whether he could find avenues to restrict political comedy targeting him. 8

The story of Trump’s relationship to satire is not just filled with similarly surprising anecdotes; rather, the complexities of the Trump figure itself created an unusual situation for satire, one that required it to adapt and change in novel ways. Because Trump was both absurd and terrifying, because he was both parody and credible threat, he created a unique situation for satirists, one where many of the common tools they carry in their comedic toolkit didn’t work.

If satirists’ invective is their hammer, how were they to use it on a figure who was already a bombastic bully? If another of their skills is parody, what to make of someone who already was parodic? After Trump was elected, New Yorker satirical columnist Andy Borowitz explained: “We’re living in an age that defies satire.” 9 Think, for example, of Trump’s suggestion that drinking bleach might offer protection from the coronavirus. Such a claim was deeply tragicomic: Trump—the deranged buffoon—threatens the health of the nation. The dramatic irony is also situational. The audience watching Trump handle the crisis knows that the ending won’t go well but also knows that they are stuck in the same play. It’s ironic, but not funny.

Trump defied satire. Yet, the effect was not the end of irony but, rather, a reinvention of satire’s primary mode of representational defiance. In fact, the most significant Trump effect on satire was to produce ironic irony. If satire is always an ironic representation, then under Trump it became an ironic representation of an ironic representation. Recall that irony has three dominant modes: (1) situational irony, where what is expected to happen doesn’t happen or where reality doesn’t make sense, as, for example, when the least-qualified person wins an election; (2) dramatic irony, where the audience knows more about the situation than the characters, as takes place famously at the end of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet ; (3) rhetorical irony, or what I prefer to call creative irony, since it may not only be expressed rhetorically, where an artist or comedian or everyday person represents something in one way but actually means something else. Most satire belongs to the third mode. But Trump complicated irony because he embodied all three types at the same time.

An SNL skit parodying “It’s A Wonderful Life”—and Trump.

In Trump, the United States had elected an actual reality-TV president (situational irony) who was also a parody of one (creative irony) and, by being elected, acquired an immense amount of power he was entirely ill-equipped to handle (dramatic irony). If the power of satire tends to lie in the gap between figurative representation and intended meaning, Trump’s own bizarre, uncanny embodied reality presented figurative representation with an ironic dilemma: how to make the bizarre real while also revealing how bizarre reality had become?

The catch, however, is that this ironic house of mirrors upended traditional representational layers of irony, even those associated with postmodern irony or post-irony. Under Trump, for example, Jean Baudrillard’s hyperreal America seems far more realistic than Trumpland. Similarly, one can only imagine how David Foster Wallace would have handled Trump, since Trump destabilized the ironically mundane aesthetics that often worked with a figure like George W. Bush.

In these ways, Trump presented a unique challenge to irony, one requiring a wholly new satirical aesthetic. Satirical irony of Trump was not a matter of irony everywhere or ironic post-truthiness. Rather, when Trump satire was at its best, it worked in two competing, yet intertwined, representational directions: a return to sincerely using irony to reveal the truth while also using irony to reveal that reality had become grotesquely and ironically absurd. Although there were multiple types of satirical aesthetics aimed at Trump, the most effective was this new satirical form that was at once an exaggeration of an exaggeration and also an earnest use of irony to deflate the lies, bigotry, and bias that defined the Trump presidency.

Two key examples of this new satirical aesthetic stand out: Sarah Cooper’s reinterpretations of Trump, and Jimmy Kimmel’s use of satire to defend democracy. But in fact, this new satirical aesthetic had multiple instantiations during the Trump presidency, and there is reason to speculate that it is a satirical mode that has yet to run its course.

The situational irony of having the least-qualified person win the 2016 election created a complex reality for critical irony. Because reality during the Trump era was already so deeply ironic, it became increasingly hard to find the right angle to expose the folly, farce, and fears brought on by the Trump presidency. Many late-night political comedians found themselves teetering between vulgar epithets and incredibly creative ironic commentary. Think of the clever interventions of Samantha Bee (alongside her C-word meltdown, which sadly served to detract from the point she had wanted to make). 10

Stephen Colbert’s own C-word scandal had the same effect of distracting from a sharp satirical take. 11 Bee had wanted to draw attention to the callous realities of the Trump administration’s immigration policy. Colbert had wanted to defend his CBS colleague from yet another Trump attack on the news media. Yet, in a further example of the ironies of the Trump era, their satirical interventions were lost on audiences outraged over vulgar language.

One of the particularly challenging components of the Trump presidency for comedians was the way in which he already seemed like an impersonation. Trump’s performative style, braggadocio, and basic lack of understanding of the workings of US government all combined to throw challenges to the comedians impersonating him. Trump’s persona required comedians to go beyond simply emulating his speech patterns and physical habits. This was why Jimmy Fallon’s impersonation of Trump fell flat. Fallon did the standard move of offering an exaggerated physical rendition of Trump, but that was boring since it captured neither Trump’s bluster, nor his dangerous ineptitude, nor his bigoted, sexist, selfish nature.

It’s not just that Fallon’s Trump fell flat; it was also that the aesthetic space within which he, as a white, hetero, male, celebrity, presented his version of Trump on a late-night network comedy show was ill-equipped to offer the sort of creative dissonance necessary for representational impact. Even though Alec Baldwin’s version of Trump on SNL was a powerful satirical intervention, largely due to the fact that Trump was so regularly bothered by it that it offered a spectacle of his insecurities, some of the best Trump mockery came from outside of the professional-celebrity class. The musical parodies of Trump posted by Randy Rainbow on YouTube, for instance, regularly attacked Trump’s character in a tone that was both disturbed and admonishing. Having an openly gay performer mockingly chide Trump through show tunes on such a popular site offered the novel representational aesthetics required to expose the dangerous, delusional realities of Trump. Even more important, having a lesser-known performer like Rainbow skewer a powerful figure like Trump was inherently ironic in ways that celebrity impersonations like those of Baldwin or Fallon could never be.

Sarah Cooper’s impersonations of Trump enjoyed a similar innovative creative space within which to make fun of Trump in a critically productive way. Cooper, though, used an even more creative platform than YouTube, since her work first appeared via TikTok, the platform for user postings of short videos. TikTok was known as a space that bypassed traditional celebrity venues, offering creators of all types a chance to be seen.

Cooper’s TikTok videos stood out as remarkable for their understated yet complex renditions of Trump. Cooper simply lip-synced Trump. Viewers would hear his voice yet see her saying his words. Occasionally she appeared in split screen, as one image of her mouthed Trump’s words and another reacted to them—a tactic that offered a complex layering, with Cooper both embodying and observing her own embodiment of Trump. Yet, even when the image was singular, just Cooper mouthing Trump’s words, her facial expressions offered layers of meaning. Typically, she seemed to be both reacting to his words and offering her interpretation of his inner thoughts. Her performance was doubly layered, signaling both astonishment and concern as Trump’s observer while simultaneously displaying the same bullying, narcissistic stupidity that Trump did.

The fact that Cooper did this performance as a female, Jamaican-American comedian cleverly passing judgement on a callous moron added an incisive layer to her impersonations that was aesthetically innovative. Cooper literally represented (almost) everything Trump hated—as a female immigrant of color—which added even greater representational force to her work. As she described it, she wasn’t trying to do an impersonation or an impression; she was “interpreting” Trump for the “emotionally blind.” Her reembodiment of Trump with actual sound bites of him talking had a deliberate communicative purpose. The idea was to create sufficient representational space to make it easier to truly see Trump. By only reprising his words, devoid of his precise choreographed physicality, Cooper aimed to make it easier to return representational gravitas to the Trump spectacle. Removing his physicality by disembodying his voice was an effort to make him more real. As she described it in an interview with Stephen Colbert, if you couldn’t see Trump’s BS when you watched him speaking, then watching her say it would work to expose his BS. 12

Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer on SNL .

It wasn’t just that Cooper disconnected Trump physically from his words; it was also that she embodied him as a woman. Prior to Trump, it was uncommon to see female comedians, especially women of color, impersonate (white) male politicians, particularly presidents. In fact, male comedians often embody women, but the reverse is rare. 13

This lack of reciprocity explains, in part, why Kate McKinnon’s Jeff Sessions and Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer impersonations were such powerful elements of Trump-era SNL . For in yet another novel development for satire during the Trump years, suddenly there was a wave of female comedians effectively impersonating powerful men—a shift that was brought on, at least in part, by the mainstreamed celebration of toxic masculinity that defined Trumpism. But there was more to the novelty of Cooper’s impersonation. Typically, the impersonator gains representational power from their own gravitas as a performer, supplementing the aura of the celebrity with their own creative aura. This, of course, was at least part of the reason why Baldwin’s Trump drew such attention and why McCarthy’s Sean Spicer was so epic.

Cooper, however, was relatively unknown when she started lip-syncing to Trump, even reportedly considering quitting comedy before her Trump impersonations went viral. 14 With Cooper, it was exactly her capacity to so effectively upend Trump’s celebrity as an unknown entity that then translated into her own celebrity. Cooper’s impersonation was especially noteworthy for how it inverted the traditional power dynamics of impersonations. And for the uncanny way that she embodied a fearful, blustery, incoherent Trump alongside her rendition of a concerned citizen.

Lip-syncing could seem like a simple gag, yet with Cooper it became high art—a fact that Cooper proved when she took her work to Netflix for a special called Everything’s Fine . In a brilliant display of how a different platform could offer her work new possibilities, she shot a scene with Helen Mirren in which the two re-created the 2005 audio of Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women to Access Hollywood’ s Billy Bush. Mirren portrays Bush and Cooper does Trump. Having the two women reenact a deeply misogynistic scene is yet another example of the representational potential offered by the disembodied reembodiment of toxic males by women. It has to be noted, as well, that Mirren’s own stature as a graceful, yet strong, female celebrity added considerable irony to her crass rendition of Bush. The dynamics between the two women as they stripped down the misogynistic performativity of “locker room” masculinity drives home the ironic aesthetic of Trump-era satire: they show how truly disturbing and strangely bizarre these men are, rendering them visible and absurd at the same time.

That Cooper started her satire of Trump on TikTok is noteworthy. Trump was the first president to personally manage his own social-media image, largely through Twitter and to a lesser extent Facebook. He also regularly knew how to navigate and control his representation on cable television—most specifically, on Fox News. What’s interesting, as highlighted in Trump’s meltdown’s over SNL , is that Trump tended to take the position that he was being discriminated against by the media, either by liberal-leaning negative representations of him or by exclusion.

His stance on how media was mean to him makes his reaction to TikTok even more interesting. While Trump tended to argue that he was being censored and treated unfairly in spaces like Twitter, with TikTok, he simply wanted it banned. The front-facing argument by the Trump team was that TikTok represented a Chinese threat to national security. For those familiar with Trump’s efforts to control his media image, that argument fell flat. Rather, what seemed more likely was that Trump wanted to ban TikTok because the platform represented a social-media platform totally out of his control. TikTok had been used, for example, to successfully ruin a major Trump rally that had been scheduled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June 2020. TikTokers, along with other online users, coordinated a campaign to register for tickets to the event and never show up.

While TikTok has a complicated connection to political activism, and while there is significant evidence that its content is controlled, there seems little doubt that the platform was an effective space for anti-Trump advocacy. The reality that TikTok was a space that offered average people, both in the United States and abroad, a space not just to mock the president but also to truly affect his image made the TikTok interventions of Cooper even more significant as a satirical innovation.

Helen Mirren (left) as Billy Bush and Sarah Cooper (right) as Donald Trump reenact the 2005 Access Hollywood tape.

Cooper’s satirical art was defined by the way that she ironically exaggerated an exaggeration in order to reveal the absurd truth. Before both Cooper and Kimmel, though, Jon Stewart had established this new critical form of satire when he hosted The Daily Show ( TDS ) (Comedy Central, 1996–2015). It is important to examine how the comedy of Stewart began the trend whereby satire defends democracy that Jimmy Kimmel would later take up.

Scholars of satire know that it is usually defined primarily by both irony and critique. Northrop Frye famously referred to the “militant irony” of satire, quipping that “in satire, irony is militant.” 15 While there is a great debate over whether the satirist hopes to eviscerate the target or merely poke good-natured yet sharp-witted barbs its way, it is generally agreed that the satirist aims to critique folly, foibles, vices, and other abuses of power. No matter whether the goal of satire is social reform or cynical nihilism, the satirist tends to want to upend a flawed status quo. The point is that satire tends to be profoundly critical, at times overtly negative, which is why it is so often associated with cynicism.

The satire of Jon Stewart started to trend away from these practices in interesting ways. As Matthew E. Popkin explains, over the course of his tenure as host of TDS , Stewart increasingly used satire as a mechanism to demand accountability from both the media and politicians. 16 In fact, one of the key shifts in Jon Stewart–style satire was the way that it moved from traditional entertainment comedy into a kind of fifth estate, functioning in the interest of the public good. 17 What further happened with Stewart was that his use of satire for the public good transformed into more than a critical prod meant to push those in power to act ethically, over time actually taking on its own positive qualities, with Stewart himself increasingly modeling civic action and engagement. This transformation of the satirist from cynical critic to critical citizen was a significant change in the aesthetic purpose of satire.

While it was not unique to Stewart to use satirical wit to demand more from politicians, his genuine commitment to democratic institutions and principles was uncommon. Stewart would frequently insist he was simply a comedian, but it was clear back in 2004, when he had already become a public influencer, that he was playing a dual role, one that exceeded the traditional boundaries of the satirical court jester. Perhaps one of the best examples of Stewart’s complicated persona was his appearance in 2004 on CNN’s Crossfire , cohosted by Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala. Frustrated by Stewart’s critical interventions on the show, Carlson kept asking him to just “be funny,” but Stewart couldn’t resist the chance to ask Carlson and Begala to take their roles in news media seriously, asking why they were doing such a lousy job. “You’re doing theater when you should be doing debate,” said Stewart. “What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery…. You’re on CNN. The show leading into me is puppets making crank phone calls. What is wrong with you?” 18 Stewart’s sincere critique struck a chord. CNN canceled the show.

These shifts meant that suddenly cable, particularly entertainment on Comedy Central, was operating under Stewart as a key part of the public sphere; it signals a shift whereby traditional news outlets started to be displaced by satire news, both in attracting viewers and in informing them in politically effective ways. Thus, the Crossfire exchange was significant not only for the story of its cancellation; it also reveals that, in 2004, satire was already playing a different role in US public culture. Previously, Lenny Bruce and George Carlin had made careers out of critiquing and shaming their audiences. For them, satire was about provocation and using irony to expose hypocrisy and folly. In contrast, Stewart offered a new version of political satire that was more interested in serving the public than in pointing out the nation’s flaws.

One of the key staples of Stewart’s satire was his use of sound bites from the news. As they would play, his WTF expression was often all that was needed to provide an ironic commentary on the vapid and sensationalist ways that news was being reported. In contrast to the hyped-up reality of most televised news, Stewart would then dive into an issue, either by including reporting by his team or through his interviews. The ironic juxtaposition of sound bites, openly empty of substance, and satirical interventions, not only informative but critically savvy, helped to create a news aesthetic for satire that was extremely effective—so much so that it was literally replicated across the globe.

In 2004, the same year that Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly ranted about how scary it was that Stewart’s “stoned slacker” audience could vote, the Pew Research Center released a study that showed that 21 percent of people under thirty said they regularly learned about the campaign and the candidates from comedy shows like TDS , a substantial increase from 9 percent in 2000. 19 Overall, more than half of those polled in 2004 suggested they got at least some of their political information from comedy. If O’Reilly was right to worry, he was wrong about what to worry about: TDS viewers weren’t stoned slackers, but they were increasingly pivoting to shows like TDS for their political reporting. Julia R. Fox, Glory Koloen, and Volkan Sahin found that in 2004 the “amount of substantive information in ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ and the broadcast network newscasts was the same.” 20 Their research showed that the primary difference was that TDS mixed substance with entertainment whereas the news combined substance with hype. The comedians blended reporting with ironic comedy; the journalists coupled it with fear.

What the traditional news media didn’t notice, as it created a fear-based mode designed to keep viewers glued to their shows, was that fear and hype were also the mode of much political discourse. If at one time Walter Cronkite was the calm voice of reason who could deflate the paranoid delusions of Richard Nixon, no such representational gap was in play in mainstream news outlets reporting on politics in the 2000s. Sowing political divisions, focusing on personalities over policy, and using faulty logic to exacerbate debates rather than foster dialogue were the norm for both politicians and the news media covering them. If viewers, especially younger viewers, found the repetitive spectacle problematic, then satire news, which was supposed to be spectacle, could get more serious; in effect, they started to trust it more.

Over the years, Stewart would take on the mantle of a trusted journalist—a role he constantly dismissed, preferring, instead, to keep hounding the actual journalists to do their job. Despite his protests, though, the public increasingly viewed him as a news-media figure. In a Pew Research study from 2007, Stewart was tied with Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Anderson Cooper, and Brian Williams for “Most Admired News Figures.” 21 It was striking that Stewart—a comedian—was even included on the list of “news figures.” Then, in 2009 when Walter Cronkite died, Stewart was voted by Time magazine as “America’s most trusted newscaster.” 22 The result wasn’t even close: Stewart carried 44 percent of the vote, with NBC’s Brian Williams (29 percent), ABC’s Charles Gibson (19 percent), and CBS’s Katie Couric (7 percent) trailing behind.

Stewart also crossed over into direct political action, thereby solidifying the role of the sincere satirist committed to the public good. In one example, Stewart testified before Congress in support of legislation to ensure health care for 9/11 first responders.

It was over the course of his time as host of TDS that Stewart’s irony shifted. He maintained his “Can you believe these guys?” mode when he satirized politicians and the media, but he also increasingly pivoted to a sincere tone, absent of any satirical wit. These moments were almost entirely aimed at encouraging his audience to be active and ethically committed citizens, to resist the logical flaws of most political discourse, and to refuse to be pushed into divisive categories like “red” versus “blue” which, he reminded them, were manufactured by the news media at the service of hype over information. In those moments of sincerity, Stewart’s irony, to the extent that it existed at all, was aimed at how ironic it was that a democracy had allowed itself to be so undemocratically defined by self-aggrandizing power elites. In these instances, Stewart’s own role as a champion of democracy replaced critically creative irony with situational irony, which was necessary for a comedian now more committed to the public good than either politicians or news media. The comedian was more interested in serving the public than in cracking an ironic joke.

When Stewart retired as host of The Daily Show in 2015, he opened the door to a far wider menu of satire news and satirical interventions into politics, both on video and in print. 23 By then, the daily appetite for that delivery of information had been heightened, and comedians like Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Hasan Minhaj, Trevor Noah, Amber Ruffin, and others offered the public a wide range of information packaged in satire, with each comedian crafting their own unique take on the form. What they all had in common, though, was that, like Stewart, they combined satirical commentary with an earnest commitment to democratic institutions and the public good—a mantle that would become even more pressing when Trump was elected.

Shortly after Trump was elected, Michael Moore appeared at a rally in New York and encouraged the audience to “form an army of comedy” to challenge the soon-to-be-inaugurated Trump administration. 24 What’s funny about his comment in hindsight is the fact that when Moore suggested the power of an army of comedy, the notion didn’t really seem that strange. During Moore’s own career he had witnessed the growing power of satire in shaping public opinion, encouraging civic engagement, and helping to defend the mind from the cognitive exhaustion of repression.

Jon Stewart on the set of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert following his retirement from The Daily Show .

Political satire holds a powerful role in influencing the public, especially during moments of crisis, catastrophe, and repression. Yet, as in the case of comedy like that of Sarah Cooper, Trump-era satire had to develop unique strategies due to the complexities of making jokes about a joke, impersonating an impersonation, and parodying a parody. In Cooper’s work, satire was both an exaggeration of an exaggeration and an effort to reveal the real.

Another strain of satire displayed similar aesthetic qualities, but with an added caveat inspired by the “good citizen” satire of Stewart. Under Trump, a number of satirists took up the unusual position of defending democratic institutions, acting as “conservators” rather than conservatives. In reaction to Trump’s political allies, who seemed hell-bent on literally dismantling every civic agency that they were asked to lead—the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, to name a few—satirists found themselves defending civic institutions. No longer did they want to simply criticize bureaucratic institutions or point out the flaws in the system itself; they literally wanted to protect them.

While these trends were already visible during the early post-9/11 years, the Trump administration’s combination of incompetence, hubris, and flagrant disrespect for democratic institutions took these practices to a whole new level. Think, for example, of how Hasan Minhaj lectured Trump on the meaning of the First Amendment during his White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner speech in 2017. Or how Seth Meyers schooled Trump on how to be a president in the wake of the Charlottesville alt-right, neo-Nazi rally that left activist Heather Heyer dead. In fact, examples abound of satirists stepping up to champion the very institutions that Trump and his team seemed to want to destroy. But, perhaps the most surprising—and consequently, poignant—example of this shift was the way that Trump’s election affected the comedy of Jimmy Kimmel.

If there was one way to prove that the presidency of Donald Trump changed comedy in the United States, it would be in the transformation of Jimmy Kimmel from a frat-boy jokester into a seriously ironic comedian. It’s true that Kimmel still offered a heaping dose of bro humor that is a far cry from critically provocative satire. (He was, of course, once a cohost of The Man Show [Comedy Central, 1999–2004], where one of his most famous bits was a long-standing feud with Matt Damon and another, with a series of stars, was entitled “I’m Fucking Ben Affleck.”) But after the Trump election, Kimmel’s comedy acquired a new sincerity—one that, while likely spurred on by his own family experiences, was certainly a response to the ways that the Trump team threatened to destroy a range of civic institutions.

In January 2003, Kimmel left his post at The Man Show to launch his new show for ABC, Jimmy Kimmel Live! When his show first premiered, Kimmel’s comedy largely was dude jokes, influenced, at least in part, by his admiration of the work of Howard Stern. He also relied heavily on pop-culture commentary and viral gimmicks (like his “Mean Tweets” segments and telling kids you ate their Halloween candy). His humor tended toward observational comedy, black comedy, and insult comedy, often delivered deadpan. Kimmel had built up a specific fan base that enjoyed that type of humor—a fact that would make his Trump-era transformation even more significant.

The shift became highly visible after the birth of his son, Billy, in April 2017. Billy had been born with a rare heart defect that required emergency surgery. When Kimmel returned afterward, he was a changed man, and he was prepared to let his audience see it. That night, as he showed himself to be vulnerable and sensitive and capable of connecting a highly personal event to a larger political landscape, marked a sea change for Kimmel. Over the course of the thirteen-minute segment he cried, made a few standard self-deprecating jokes, but then deliberately shifted into a different gear. He purposefully linked Billy’s health challenges with the Trump administration’s efforts to cut the National Institutes of Health. The experience made him deeply aware of the struggles facing many families who didn’t have his privilege but also needed major medical care for their children. And he became highly aware of the fact that medical research is a public good that requires investment and commitment from political leaders.

Up until that moment Kimmel had avoided political comedy. With David Letterman as one of his biggest influences, Kimmel had not wanted to reveal his political views. But then Trump won the presidency and, as Kimmel said, “This sounds romantic, but I’ve never felt this way about a president before.” 25 Later, when Kimmel chastised Trump for not supporting gun-control legislation after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, he stated, “If you don’t think we need to do something about it, you’re obviously mentally ill.” 26

Jimmy Kimmel’s new Trump-era sincerity.

Since Kimmel’s turn toward the political he has championed health-care reform, gun control, and a revised immigration policy. But Kimmel’s most significant Trump intervention took place when he went after Trump’s right-wing toxic masculinity, outsize male ego, and dangerous megalomania. Given Kimmel’s own macho bravado, his critique of the right-wing male ego is an especially powerful and much-needed addition to the menu of satirical Trump-era takedowns. In January 2018, Kimmel went after one of Trump’s particularly batshit weeks, which included, among other things, referring to Haiti and African nations as “shithole” countries. 27 Given Kimmel’s own history of making jokes that traded in locker-room humor, frat-boy jokes, and a bro sensibility, it was deeply ironic to have a comedian like Kimmel suddenly become a model for masculine leadership.

Further, Kimmel’s Trump jokes often circulated on Twitter—a platform that Trump himself used to increase his political presence. In fact, it was on Twitter that you could really see how serious Kimmel was about taking ironic jabs at Trump. On February 26, 2017, Kimmel tweeted “Hey @realDonaldTrump u up?” 28 Even better, each time Kimmel mocked Trump, a host of average Twitter users piled on in the comments section to offer their own satirical jabs, some of which were even funnier and more pointed than the original Kimmel joke. On Twitter, Kimmel opened up a public sphere of ironic mocking that continuously put Trump’s hollow yet toxic masculinity fully on display.

Kimmel became an especially important part of the satirical humor lineup for comedy in the Trump era. The power of his ironic and impassioned interventions came from the very fact that comedy in the service of the public good had not previously been one of his interests. In contrast to the radical work of Cooper, the innovative element in Kimmel’s satire mode comes from the irony of his doing these sorts of interventions in the first place. The irony of Kimmel’s sincerity, as a comedian with his own history of shallow jokes, positioned him as a productive foil who could expose the shallow, yet dangerous, reality of Trump. Kimmel acquired the representational force needed to expose Trump’s own destructive tendencies.

While it’s true that most of the trends outlined here began well before Donald Trump was elected to office, there is little question that his run in the White House both accelerated and exacerbated a satirical aesthetic committed to exposing equally the real and the absurd in the service of the common good. For some, such shifts cause concern—whether that politics requires seriousness or that satire is a dangerous distraction that leads to cynical apathy. Yet, as seen in the Trump years, one of the best ways to counter situational ironies is with creative irony. When a corrupt, self-serving, bigoted narcissist tells a nation that he will make it “great,” it may be satirical irony that does the best job of exposing the truth behind the lies.

Since the election of Joe Biden, many have speculated that ironic comedy will wane, and there is evidence that professional comedians have backed off of Biden jokes. The catch, though, as with Cooper and TikTok, is that public satire is no longer controlled by professionals and no longer dominated by shows like SNL : up to and since the 2020 election, there has in fact been significant satire of Biden, who already had a long history of being spoofed, notably with jokes about his affinity for “muscle cars.” Biden’s own complex image as a creepy, gropey “uncle” who is also a strong, benevolent leader offers plenty of creative ironic space for satire.

Thus far, though, the continued presence of Trump and Trumpism has largely eclipsed any real development of a new Biden satire aesthetic. That displacement has produced another irony: a former president is getting more attention than the one in office. This is another Trump-era shift, one that is entirely new in the nation’s comedic history and another sign that satire—aimed at making the bizarre real and exposing how real the bizarre has become—has a new normal that may just be here to stay.

Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley, “Trump Wanted His Justice Department to Stop ‘SNL’ from Teasing Him,” Daily Beast , June 22, 2021, www.thedailybeast.com/trump-wanted-his-justice-department-to-stop-snl-from-teasing-him .

Frank T. McAndrew, “Politicians Don’t Seem to Laugh at Themselves As Much Anymore,” The Conversation , August 21, 2019, https://theconversation.com/politicians-dont-seem-to-laugh-at-themselves-as-much-anymore-122103 . This study shows that making self-deprecating jokes elevates the audience’s opinion of a politician. In contrast, jokes that mock a politician can negatively influence the audience’s view. Jody C. Baumgartner, Jonathan S. Morris, and Jeffrey Michael Coleman, “Did the ‘Road to the White House Run Through’ Letterman?: Chris Christie, Letterman, and Other-Disparaging versus Self-Deprecating Humor,” Journal of Political Marketing 17, no. 3 (2018): 282–300, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15377857.2015.1074137 .

Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard, “The Best Joke George W. Bush Ever Told in Office,” Time , January 9, 2018, https://time.com/5094914/president-jokes/ .

Edward-Isaac Dovere. Meyers, “Trump Wanted Me To Apologize On-Air for Making Fun of Him,” Politico , May 8, 2018, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/05/08/seth-meyers-trump-whcd-jokes-apologize-218323/ .

Brian Flood, “‘SNL’ Is Tougher on Trump Than Past Presidents, but NBC Won’t Let Up Anytime Soon, Experts Say,” Fox News , December 7, 2018, www.foxnews.com/entertainment/snl-is-tougher-on-trump-than-past-presidents-but-nbc-wont-let-up-anytime-soon-critics-say .

Kyle Balluck, “Trump: ‘Unfair’ Coverage Should Be Tested In Courts,” The Hill , December 16, 2018, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/421574-trump-unfair-coverage-should-be-tested-in-courts .

Christian Schneider, “Conservatives Should Not Surrender in Entertainment Wars,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , June 14, 2018, www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/columnists/christian-schneider/2018/06/14/conservatives-should-not-surrender-comedy-war/701802002/ .

Jon Skolnik, “Trump Tried to Get Justice Department to Stop ‘SNL’ and ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ from Mocking Him: rpt,” Salon , June 22, 2021, www.salon.com/2021/06/22/trump-tried-to-get-justice-department-to-stop-snl-and-jimmy-kimmel-live-from-mocking-him-rpt/ .

Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman, “Andy Borowitz: ‘We’re Living in an Age That Defies Satire,’” CNN Money , June 12, 2017, https://money.cnn.com/2017/06/12/media/andy-borowitz-interview-reliable-sources-podcast/index.html .

See Arwa Mahdawi, “Samantha Bee Proves There’s Still One Word You Cannot Say in America,” The Guardian , June 2, 2018, www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jun/01/samantha-bee-ivanka-trump-c-word-america . While Bee took a lot of flak for the comment, I would suggest that there was not nearly enough attention to her brilliant use of the word feckless .

See German Lopez, “Stephen Colbert Tried to Insult Donald Trump. He Made a Homophobic Comment Instead,” Vox , May 2, 2017, www.vox.com/identities/2017/5/2/15515066/stephen-colbert-trump-putin-homophobia-late-show .

Stephen Colbert, “Sarah Cooper’s Viral Trump Lip Sync Videos Act as an Interpreter for the Emotionally Blind,” October 28, 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKr8i23RwiU .

For a fun take on this point, see Nick Delmacy, “Why Do So Many Men Imitate Women for Comedy but Not the Other Way Around?” Cypher Avenue , 2014, https://cypheravenue.com/why-do-so-many-men-imitate-women-for-comedy-but-not-the-other-way-around/ .

Andrea Marks, “‘I Have to Pinch Myself’: Sarah Cooper’s Rapid Rise from Trump TikToker to Netflix Star,” Rolling Stone , October 27, 2020, www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/sarah-cooper-interview-everythings-fine-1081258/ .

Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957), 222.

Mathew E. Popkin, “The Role and Impact of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart : Taking Satire Seriously on a ‘Daily Show’ Basis,” Inquiries 4, no. 9 (2012), www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/693/the-role-and-impact-of-the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-taking-satire-seriously-on-a-daily-show-basis .

For a more in-depth consideration of this shift, see Sophia A. McClennen and Remy M. Maisel, Is Satire Saving Our Nation?: Mockery and American Politics (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

THR Staff, “Watch Jon Stewart Call Tucker Carlson a ‘Dick’ in Epic 2004 ‘Crossfire’ Takedown,” Hollywood Reporter , January 5, 2017, www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/jon-stewart-takes-down-tucker-carlson-crossfire-video-961127/ .

“Cable and Internet Loom Large in Fragmented Political News Universe: Perceptions of Partisan Bias Seen as Growing, Especially by Democrats,” Pew Research Center, January 11, 2004, www.pewresearch.org/internet/2004/01/11/cable-and-internet-loom-large-in-fragmented-political-news-universe/ .

Julia R. Fox, Glory Koloen, and Volkan Sahin, “No Joke: A Comparison of Substance in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Broadcast Nework Presidential Election Campaign,” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 51, no. 2 (2007): 213–27, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08838150701304621/ .

“Today’s Journalists Less Prominent,” Pew Research Center, March 8, 2007, www.pewresearch.org/politics/2007/03/08/todays-journalists-less-prominent/ .

Megan Garber, “Shocker of the Day: Stewart (Still) Most Trusted Newscaster in America,” Columbia Journalism Review , July 23, 2009, https://archives.cjr.org/the_kicker/shocker_of_the_day_stewart_sti.php .

Stewart returned to television in the Fall of 2021 with the Apple+ series The Problem With Jon Stewart , which he describes as like The Daily Show , but “less entertaining, but also… more complete.” Lacey Rose, “Jon Stewart Isn’t Laughing,” The Hollywood Reporter , September 15, 2021.

Aja Romano, “Michael Moore: Fight Donald Trump with “an Army of Comedy,” Vox , January 20, 2017, www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/20/14331072/michael-moore-alec-baldwin-we-stand-united-rally-comedy .

Geoff Edgers, “Late Show of Emotion,” Washington Post , March 1, 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/03/01/feature/jimmy-kimmel-might-be-americas-conscience-but-hell-still-do-anything-for-a-laugh/?utm_term=.ba973e8c34ce .

“Jimmy Kimmel Runs Through Donald Trump’s Particularly Batshit Week,” Digg.com, http://digg.com/video/kimmel-trump-racist-comments .

Jimmy Kimmel @jimmykimmel, February 26, 2017. https://twitter.com/jimmykimmel/status/836060793783267328 .

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Laughing Matters

Sophia McClennen, author of Trump Was a Joke , discusses how political satire decoded the chaos of the forty-fifth presidency.

During his tenure as a president, Donald Trump flouted the norms of his office. His unconventional behavior inadvertently exposed the fragility of American democracy and thwarted the press corps, who often wound up covering spectacle, not substance. In contrast, America’s comedians, especially political satirists like John Oliver, Hasan Minhaj, Samantha Bee, and others, were well equipped to cut through the onslaught of bizarre antics emanating from Mar-a-Lago and the Oval Office. They provided Americans with a way to make sense of Trump’s administration.

Sophia McClennen, a professor of International Affairs and Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University, argues that audiences of satire turned out to be more politically informed than those who only consumed traditional news. The author of Colbert’s America , Ariel Dorfman: An Aesthetics of Hope , and other volumes, McClennen has long investigated the political potential of laughtivism —the combination of protest action with elements of humor and mockery. Her newest work, Trump Was a Joke: How Satire Made Sense of a President Who Didn’t , explores the role satire plays in helping audiences retain news, contextualizing contemporary politics, and undertaking the watchdog responsibilities expected of the Fourth Estate. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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Why did satire become so prominent during the Trump era and what evidence is there that it was influential in public discourse?

Public conversations change based on satirical coverage of issues. Alec Baldwin’s impersonations of Trump are a good example. People were watching them—they would see the clips.

The other thing is noticing the extent to which satirical interventions change how people talk, every once in a while, we’d have a thin-skinned political leader who complained about jokes made at their expense, but Trump went head-to-head with comedians again and again. He’d mock Alec Baldwin and insult him. Alec Baldwin would tweet back at him . We’d never seen anything like that.

Can you imagine George W. Bush tweeting at Colbert? Bush, whatever his flaws, stayed in his lane as a statesman. Trump did not. So, of course, satire was going to start to have a bigger impact because you suddenly had the leader of the United States engaging in a direct way with comedians.

Trump tweets out, “ despite the constant negative press covfefe ”, then tweets, “who can figure out the true meaning…?” Webster’s makes fun of it on their feed . The lines between serious and unserious speech were obliterated. So, of course, it was going to change the space of satire because satire was no longer the thing you went to after the news, no longer on the side. It was right in your face.

In the GOP debate, he said that just because he had short fingers didn’t mean he “had a problem,” comedians are diving in on this stuff. You can’t really recount a serious Trump media moment and not correlate it with a satirical intervention of some kind.

How did this affect public trust in comedians versus in traditional journalists?

Even before Trump, right after Walter Cronkite died in 2009, Jon Stewart topped a poll on the most trusted news person. There were older studies, where the trust in Stewart and Colbert were on the same level as Brian Williams. These were already signs that the public was taking the messaging of news satirists at a level that they simply shouldn’t have been. They shouldn’t have been correlating Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert with Brian Williams. But they were, and part of the reason they were doing it was because cable news had itself gotten so stupid, increasingly becoming like a scandal junkie.

Jon Stewart was giving the public information but packaging it through ironic commentary. Figures like Brian Williams were later discredited because it came out that he lied about being on a helicopter that was shot down , things like that. People started saying, “I don’t trust you guys, you’re just trying to get views. Whereas Jon is trying to help the country understand important issues.” That’s where the shift starts to happen. The public started believing that his goal was to help inform them .

By the Trump era, there are people like John Oliver, Hasan Minhaj , Samantha Bee creating a more fragmented satire information space. Colbert, who had started off on The Late Show not being very satirical, got more politically satirical once it became clear it was helping him with his ratings.

It was particularly noticeable because of the stupid ways that the news covered Trump. CNN would literally have an empty podium before Trump was about to show up. The screen is three quarters and a podium with no person, and the commentator on the side. And they would show this for twenty minutes at a run.

How else did news coverage change during the Trump presidency?

Thomas Patterson at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard has some great data that shows the disproportionate media coverage for Trump . Polling numbers and donations should be the metric, more or less, for how much coverage a politician gets. In the early days, Trump had raised no money and wasn’t polling very high, but the media couldn’t take their eyes off him—Patterson shows that Trump got two billion dollars in free media coverage. They created him as the candidate.

The other study that Patterson did shows that not only was Trump’s coverage disproportionately more than Hillary Clinton’s, but it also shows that when Clinton was covered, it was often Trump’s voice talking about Clinton that would be used in the news segment. Very little of the coverage in 2016 was about Trump’s policy versus Clinton’s policy. Patterson talks about horse race coverage —it doesn’t help the electorate; the coverage was not policy driven.

A lot of the initial post-Trump election coverage, mainly cable news—we have to bracket off Fox because Fox is its own thing—CNN and MSNBC, some of the major newspapers like Washington Post , New York Times , for the most part, the dominant narrative was that Trump is a disaster and that some sort of judicial option will take him out of office. There was obsession with that. It’s like watching a movie. You’re waiting for the bad guy to get arrested, the world to even out. The problem was that this narrative allowed the public to not take agency.

Like Putin isn’t going to do or say anything where you point and giggle. Trump did do things like that. When he calls Kim Jong Un ‘Rocket Man’, you can’t report on that and not have a smirk on your face. You saw this with Don Lemon, with Anderson Cooper, where they had a difficult time even delivering the news without an “are you kidding me?!” look on their faces. That wasn’t satirical, but it was snarky. It became hard to cover Trump with a straight tone because of the absurdities within his administration. The news media were deeply unserious about the serious damage he was doing.

How was Trump normalized by mainstream media?

News media were regularly burying the lede . They were caught up in hype in ways they didn’t even recognize. People seemed particularly offended by Michelle Wolf’s joke about Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner . Almost all coverage of Michelle from the news media was negative .

At the same time, Trump himself was bashing the press, and the media wasn’t covering it. They had lost the bigger picture.

This dials into a longer history of that happening with Stephen Colbert roasting George W. Bush, people said he crossed a line. There’s no reason why the news media can’t suggest that a comedian has gone too far. But look at it in the broader context where the media itself was not recognizing the fact that at the same time Trump was attacking journalistic rights to cover him. Which is worse? There was a lack of context, an inability to zoom out.

Could you talk more about the challenges that satirists faced in covering Trump?

Andy Borowitz has a brilliant quote on this—”You have a president of the United States who is a former game show host. That sounds like something that would happen on a Sharknado sequel. It’s really tough to make a daily diet of comedy out of something that’s already ridiculous.”

Part of what satire tends to do is reframe faulty logic and false narratives, but then when the narrative is not just a false narrative but an absolutely inane narrative, it gives you very little room to reveal its absurdity through absurdity.

What are the tools in the satirist’s toolbox? Hammer is exaggeration. Screwdriver is invective. Trump already took your favorite tools, so now, the satirists got more blunt and crass and aggressive, but then they also got more creative because they had to figure out how to use irony in a situation that’s extremely ironic—at a level we simply had never seen, certainly not in presidential politics.

Trump raised the stakes. He appointed a cabinet where almost every single member hated the agencies they were leading . So suddenly you get somebody like Jimmy Kimmel—who you wouldn’t think of as political—coming out and literally advocating for healthcare reform and gun reform and being very serious about these things.

In the lineup of satirists and political comedians, one who really changed under Trump was Jimmy Kimmel, who, if anything, was a relatively toxic male comedian. At best, he was bro humor—not representing sophisticated political comedy. He was funny because he was mean. So when he was schooling Trump on how to be a man, that had a whole extra layer of power in the political comedy space.

Then there were people like Sarah Cooper who was the opposite. As a woman of color, an immigrant, just lip-syncing Trump’s words and doing split screens where her facial expressions are like, “What the holy…!”

You had this huge range in which satirists were trying to identify how strange it was to have the president have no interest at all in preserving the values and democratic institutions of the United States. We really never had somebody quite that uneducated in terms of what democratic institutions are even supposed to do.

What do you make of the wave of female comedians that emerged in the Trump era?

We’ve always had female comedians , but satire has been particularly male dominated. The irony that happens when a female is impersonating a toxic man is brilliant. The bit where Sarah Cooper is replaying the Access Hollywood tape, where Helen Mirren and her embody these toxic men, the layers of irony increases the ability to see the blatant misogyny of these people. It takes the gloves off in a powerful way.

Trump ushered in a period of open misogyny that it made it easier for satirical female comedians to get into the game. Impersonations are at the heart of the power of women to shape the satirical conversation. I still rewatch Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer whenever I’m feeling depressed.

What sparked your interest in covering satire?

I was on the Harvard Lampoon when I was an undergraduate, so I was interested in being around satire in general. When I saw Colbert’s speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in front of George W. Bush, I felt like this is exactly what this country needed to hear. I had done a lot of research in human rights… difficult things, torture and torture survivors. Satire is a different way of trying to make sense of hard times. Colbert was, for me, such a quintessential breath of fresh air from a cultural standpoint. That started it.

The first book I did was on The Colbert Report , and then I did a book called Is Satire Saving Our Nation? That looked specifically Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert during those years, but also at the larger forces at play, people like Michael Moore, what we were calling at the time, citizen satirists. Citizens could speak truth to power through satire, through social media at levels that we had never seen before. My plan was to start working on this in a more global framework. I did a small book called Pranksters versus Autocrats with Serbian activist Srdja Popovic who had real world experience of how satire was effective at helping to bring down Slobodan Milošević. We looked at forty-four cases of these kinds of activist tactics in a global setting to see how inserting comedy and creativity could help advance social movements.

What makes ‘laughtivism’ a powerful tool for social change?

You can’t do a protest these days without seeing a significant amount of laughtivist protest signs. The playfulness helps you not be exhausted. It’s successful at reframing the narrative and showing where real abuses of power are. Activists are so regularly depicted in the media as disruptive, as threatening to the status quo, as potentially violent. The typical news media coverage of a protest is that they didn’t break anything. So, when you interject laughter, it changes the coverage because now it’s actually about the issue at a different level. It also shows the issue they’re protesting to be the threat. Not the activist. And that’s what you want.

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Home — Essay Types — Satire Essay

Satire Essay Examples

Satire essay topics and satire essay ideas are boundless, allowing for creative expression in various formats and lengths. However, it's crucial to maintain a delicate balance, ensuring that humor does not transform into rudeness. Satire should be a lighthearted, even nurturing approach to highlighting the absurd or inappropriate aspects of a subject. The ultimate goal is to shed light on why something is shameful or incorrect.

To achieve this, writers often employ literary devices such as irony, allegory, hyperbole, and metaphors to invite the audience to read between the lines. Satire frequently conveys a message different from its surface meaning, so it's important to choose words carefully when using irony. The essence of satire lies in its ability to provoke thought and laughter simultaneously.

As you brainstorm satirical essay ideas and satirical essay topics, consider subjects that can be approached with a touch of wit and humor, while still highlighting important issues or absurdities in society. By doing so, you can create thought-provoking and entertaining pieces that captivate your audience while delivering a meaningful commentary on the world around us.

Popular Topics for Satire Essays

Explore a diverse array of thought-provoking and humorous subjects that serve as perfect topics for satire essays. These topics offer ample material for crafting witty and insightful satirical pieces.

• The Absurdity of Social Media Influencer Culture
• The Perils of Modern Dating Apps
• Corporate Jargon and Buzzword Overload
• The Bizarre World of Celebrity Obsession
• Analysis of The Television Show "The Office"
• The Ridiculousness of Fashion Trends
• Over-the-Top Fitness and Diet Fads
• The Hilarity of Political Campaign Promises
• The Exaggerated Culture of Political Correctness
• The Comedic Side of Student Loan Debts
• The Presentation of Products to Consumers in The Onion Magnasoles: Rhetorical Analysis"
• The Quirks of Office Politics and Office Etiquette

Satire Topics for High School Students

When seeking inspiration for satire essay topics, high school students or anyone else can benefit from exploring satire essay samples.These examples of satire topics for high school students can provide valuable insights into effective satirical techniques and help generate fresh and engaging ideas.

Literature:

• The Inexplicable Popularity of SparkNotes and CliffsNotes
• The Dramatic Overanalysis of Shakespearean Sonnets in English Class
• The Misadventures of Students Trying to Interpret Symbolism in Classic Novels
• Comparing The Construction of Satire Through Naiveté
• The Puzzling Fascination with Cliffhangers in Young Adult Fiction
• The Chronicles of the Overused Book Report Clichés
• The Hilarious World of High School Student Council Elections
• The Absurdity of School Cafeteria Politics and Lunchtime Alliances
• The Bizarre Election Promises Made by Class President Candidates
• The Satirical Take on History Class and Revisionist History
• The Comedy of Errors in Mock United Nations Debates
• The Comedic Chronicle of Historical Misinterpretations in Textbooks
• The Secret Lives of Historical Figures: A Satirical Exposé
• The Time-Traveling Adventures of History Class: When Studying the Past Gets Weird
• The Great Historical Conspiracy Theories: Aliens, Time Travelers, and Other Explanations
• The Absurdity of Students Reenacting Historical Battles with Water Balloons

These satire topics provide a humorous take on various aspects of high school life, making them relatable and entertaining for high school students.

Remember, satire is a powerful tool for social commentary and humor, so it's essential to use it responsibly and thoughtfully. By staying within the bounds of humor and wit, you can create compelling satire essays that entertain and enlighten your audience without resorting to negativity or insult.

Writing a satirical essay presents a unique challenge that stands apart from other forms of writing. This genre requires not only a deep understanding of the subject matter but also a keen sense of humor and the ability to see the world through a critical, often ironic lens. Satirical essays aim to highlight the absurdities, hypocrisies, and flaws in society, politics, or human behavior, using humor as a tool to provoke thought and encourage change.

Writing a satirical essay stands in sharp contrast to drafting research or proposal essays, each distinguished by their unique objectives and stylistic approaches. While research essays are anchored in a thorough investigation, presenting findings with academic rigor, and proposal essays outline detailed plans for future projects or studies, satirical essays carve out a niche that relies on wit, irony, and humor to critique and reflect upon societal norms, policies, and human behaviors.

Unlike research essays, which aim to contribute new knowledge to a specific field through systematic inquiry and analysis, satirical essays use exaggeration and satire to underscore the absurdity and flaws within those very topics or in broader societal issues. Where proposal essays are structured to persuade or seek approval for initiatives with logical argumentation and evidence-based benefits, satirical essays skewer proposed solutions or existing conditions, highlighting their shortcomings or the ironic realities that underpin them.

The essence of a satirical essay lies in its ability to disguise critique within humor, making it a unique vehicle for social commentary. It challenges readers to question and reconsider the status quo, using laughter as a tool for reflection, rather than straightforward persuasion or the presentation of empirical research. This distinct difference sets satirical essays apart, making them not just a form of entertainment but a powerful medium for conveying complex critiques in an accessible and engaging manner.

What is a Satire Essay

Satire is a literary technique that employs humor, irony, and sarcasm to criticize or mock various aspects of society, politics, or human behavior. If you’re looking for inspiration for your satire essays , consider exploring satire essay examples and existing satire essays on various topics.

Contrary to popular belief, a satire essay is not about getting angry or bitter as you write about politics or some social issues that must be explained. The trick here is to explore existing satire essay topics that would help you come up with ideas. If you have never written satire in the past, you may be already provided with a topic to start with. In simple terms, a satire essay must criticize some subject by making it in a smart way where you talk about issues like procrastination or being too greedy. It has to be fun and not turn into a sort of bullying. Always show due respect as you structure things, as it will help you provide an excellent paper.

The Art and Power of Satire

Satire is a versatile and influential form of expression, frequently employed by writers and comedians to address serious issues indirectly. Let’s examine how it works, why it’s so popular, and explore some satire writing examples for a better understanding.

Understanding Satirical Elements

Satire typically utilizes the following elements:

• Exaggeration : Satire often takes real-life situations and exaggerates them to absurd proportions. This technique draws attention to the flaws or absurdities of the subject.
• Irony : Irony is a cornerstone of satire. It involves saying one thing but meaning another, creating a humorous contrast.
• Sarcasm : The use of biting humor and cutting remarks is a trademark of satire. Sarcasm is a potent tool for satirists to convey their message.
• Parody : Satire often mimics the style of its subject matter, creating a humorous imitation that highlights the subject’s flaws.

Satire has been a potent tool throughout history, addressing issues from politics to social norms. Its effectiveness lies in its ability to entertain and provoke thought simultaneously.

5 Satire Writing Examples

• The “Smart” Home Assistant:   

In this satire piece, imagine a world where smart home assistants have become so intelligent that they start giving unsolicited advice, judging your life choices, and offering condescending remarks. It humorously highlights the overreliance on technology and the invasion of privacy in the digital age.

• The “Healthy” Fast Food Chain:

Explore a fictional fast-food restaurant that claims to serve healthy alternatives, but in reality, their salads are drenched in more calories than a burger, and their smoothies are packed with sugar. This satire pokes fun at the deceptive marketing tactics used by some food establishments.

• The “Eco-Friendly” Space Travel Company:

Imagine a future where space tourism companies claim to be eco-friendly while launching rockets that spew massive amounts of pollution into the atmosphere. This satirical piece highlights the hypocrisy of industries that prioritize profit over environmental concerns.

• The “Innovative” Social Media Platform:

Create a satire of a fictional social media platform that constantly introduces new features, each more intrusive and time-consuming than the last. This piece satirizes the addictive nature of social media and the never-ending quest for user engagement.

• The “Superhero” Government Agency:

Craft a story about a government agency tasked with solving everyday inconveniences rather than addressing real issues. This satire highlights the bureaucracy and inefficiency often associated with government institutions.

These satirical essay examples provide a glimpse into the world of satirical writing, where humor and wit are used to comment on various aspects of society, culture, and human behavior.

How to Start a Satire Essay

Speaking of satire essay structure , you must remember that it should resemble the rules of creative writing or narrative papers.

Here is what you can do as you are about to start with a satire essay:

• Introduction with a strong sentence hook where you introduce a fictional person or a problem. 
• Talk about why it’s bad and explain things by providing several examples that we all know well. 
• Talk about how to avoid the problem by using some ideas why this or that is wrong. 
• Tell a story or provide another example by making things fun. 
• Provide a conclusion paragraph by explaining why something is wrong or pose a moral lesson. 

Remember, satire is all about using humor and irony to critique and comment on various aspects of society or human behavior. These prompts should inspire you to create a satirical essay that engages and amuses your readers while offering a unique perspective on the chosen topic. Explore free critical analysis essays to improve your understanding of satire and enhance your writing skills further

Prompts for a Satirical Essays

Social Media and Technology:

•  The Social Media Obsession: Explore the absurdities of our society’s obsession with social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. How has it affected our lives, self-esteem, and relationships?
• The Endless Quest for the Perfect Selfie: Explore the humorous side of our society’s obsession with taking the perfect selfie. How far are people willing to go for that flawless Instagram post?

Health and Wellness:

• The Ridiculous World of Fad Diets: Satirize the never-ending cycle of fad diets and weight loss trends. Are these diets truly effective, or are they just empty promises?
• The Fast-Food Frenzy: Take a humorous approach to the culture of fast food, addressing issues like overindulgence, health consequences, and the strange allure of the drive-thru.

Society and Cultural Trends:

• The Culture of Political Correctness: Explore the concept of political correctness and how it sometimes goes to extremes, leading to hilariously awkward situations and language policing.
• The Fantasy of Reality TV: Explore the surreal world of reality television and the way it blurs the line between real life and scripted entertainment. How does it shape our perceptions of reality?

How to Write a Satire Essay

Here are the steps to help you write a satire essay effectively:

Satire Essay Writing Checklist

Take a look at our checklist for a satire essay and explore our free examples of satire essays . It’s always much better to find out what good satire essay structure must be like!

• You introduce your topic by explaining why a certain problem exists.
• You provide at least one example of a problem in real-life or describe a fictional character.
• Make sure that there is no anger or offense.
• You keep your tone in a narrative and follow an explanatory way.
• You provide a moral lesson in the final paragraph by explaining things as to “why and how”.
• You edit and proofread your satire essay by checking for logical words and transitions between the paragraphs.

Remember that satire is a form of social commentary, and while it is humorous, it should still convey a message or critique a particular aspect of society or the subject you’re addressing. Use your creativity and wit to craft a compelling satire essay that effectively communicates your perspective while entertaining your readers. Think about exploring satire books in classic literature to see what modern subjects can be suitable. 

10 Free Satire Essay Examples

Funny satire essay examples.

Satire it’s a powerful form of expression that allows writers to poke fun at the quirks and absurdities of our world while delivering insightful social criticism. But satire doesn’t always have to be serious or solemn; it can be downright hilarious! These humorous satirical essay examples are crafted with the sole purpose of making you laugh out loud while offering a satirical take on various aspects of society, culture, and human behavior. 

Famous Satirical Essay Examples 

Famous satirical essay examples showcase the remarkable ability of satire to address serious issues indirectly. Through humor, irony, and sarcasm, these essays provide a lens through which we can examine the absurdities of society, politics, and human behavior. They invite us to question the status quo and see the world through a new and often amusing perspective

These topics provide a starting point for creating famous satirical essays that engage with timeless themes while offering fresh and humorous perspectives on contemporary issues.

Modern Satirical Essay Examples

Modern satirical essay examples capture the spirit of our digitally interconnected world. From social media antics to the challenges of remote work, these essays take a humorous look at the experiences and dilemmas of the 21st century. They highlight the ways technology, politics, and culture intersect in our daily lives

Satire essay examples like the ones mentioned above demonstrate how humor can be a powerful vehicle for social commentary. Satire’s ability to entertain while prompting critical thinking makes it a unique and valuable form of expression.

In conclusion, exploring free satire essays and satire essay examples can be both enlightening and entertaining. It reminds us of the power of humor in addressing serious issues and encourages us to view the world with a more critical eye. So, next time you come across a satire essay, remember that beneath the humor lies a deeper message waiting to be discovered.

Satire on Bullying

Bullying is a prevalent issue in society, especially among young people. It can have serious consequences for the victims, including emotional and psychological trauma. Satire, as a form of humor that uses irony and exaggeration to criticize and ridicule societal issues, can be a powerful…

Voltaire’s Use of Satire in Candide

Voltaire’s novel, Candide, is a classic example of satire. Through the use of wit, humor, and irony, Voltaire challenges the prevailing ideas of his time and criticizes the societal norms and institutions of the 18th century. This essay will explore how Voltaire uses satire in…

Religious Satire in Huck Finn

One of the most debated aspects of the novel is the use of religious satire, particularly in relation to Christianity. In this essay, we will explore the religious satire present in the novel and examine its significance in the context of the story. Huck’s Relationship…

Satirical Elements in WALL-E

WALL-E, a 2008 animated film by Pixar, is often celebrated for its heartwarming story and stunning visuals. However, beneath its surface, the film also contains a number of satirical elements that comment on modern society. Through its portrayal of consumerism, environmental degradation, and human reliance…

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What’s Wrong with Illegal Immigration: Satire

Illegal immigration is a topic that has been widely debated for decades. It refers to the act of entering a country without proper authorization or overstaying a visa. Illegal immigration is a significant issue, and it affects various aspects of society. From economics to security,…

The Satirical and Hopeful Message of Wall-E

Wall-E is a 2008 Pixar film that tells the story of a lonely robot that cleans up the trash-covered Earth while dreaming of finding love. Through its satirical portrayal of contemporary society, modern technology, and capitalism, Wall-E offers a thought-provoking commentary on the current state…

The High School Circus: A Satirical Perspective

High school, the place where young minds are nurtured, friendships are forged, and the foundations of adulthood are laid. Or at least, that’s what they want you to believe. In reality, high school is more like a three-ring circus where the clowns wear backpacks, the…

The Absurdity of Poverty: A Satirical Examination

Imagine a world where the richest 1% of the population holds more wealth than the bottom 90%. Oh wait, that’s not just imagination; that’s reality! In our modern society, poverty has become an art form, a masterpiece of absurdity that leaves us all scratching our…

The Absurdity and Hypocrisy of Dress Codes

One of the most common forms of dress codes is for students in primary and secondary schools. These dress codes often impose restrictions on clothing, such as prohibiting tank tops, shorts, or clothing with offensive or provocative language or imagery. The consequences for breaking the…

The Absurdities of Social Media Culture: A Satirical Reflection

The rise of social media has transformed the way we communicate, consume information, and interact with others. While social media platforms have undoubtedly opened up opportunities for connection and communication, they have also given rise to a new culture that is often absurd, superficial, and…

What is a satire essay?

Although you might have seen rude satirical essay examples, this kind of writing stands for polite fun. The idea of satire is to expose the moral sides of a topic. The most popular satire topics will revolve around politicians, absurd situations, human greed, or even Instagram stars. Most importantly, satire essays should not be insulting or angry in any case!

How to write a satire essay?

The most satire essay examples you will encounter will have a structure that starts with an engaging statement, a famous quote, or an anecdote. You may even tell a story you have seen in person by turning it into a narration. Choose funny satire topics with a light-hearted approach and keep things educational. It has to teach a good lesson!

What makes a satire essay effective?

A satire essay is a piece of writing that uses humor, irony, sarcasm, and exaggeration to criticize or mock a particular subject, such as societal issues, individuals, or institutions. The primary goal is to entertain and provoke thought while highlighting the flaws or absurdities of the subject.

What topics can I satirize in my essay?

You can satirize a wide range of topics, including social issues, politics, popular culture, trends, and human behavior. The key is to choose a subject that you find interesting and that has room for satire.

How do I come up with satirical ideas?

Observe the world around you, paying attention to absurdities, contradictions, and hypocrisy. Satirical ideas often arise from everyday situations and human behavior.

How do I know if my satire essay is successful?

A successful satire essay entertains the reader, makes them think, and effectively critiques the subject. If your essay achieves these goals, it can be considered successful.

The most popular topics for Satire Essay

• Christopher Columbus
• Homelessness
• Illegal Immigration
• Competitive Sports
• Global Warming
• Climate Change
• School Uniform
• Freedom of Speech
• Donald Trump

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How To Write A Satire Essay

This article will guide you on how to write a satire essay in detail and will explain what a satire essay is as well as show you some examples. The text uses satire to make you understand its main objective. Assignments on this topic are known to be the most challenging for most students. In these kinds of essays, students need to show their expertise in content and subject area. Similarly, they should use humor to point absurdities found in our real-life situations . Although satire essays are full of humor, there are those without or minimal instances of humor. Most of them are expressed in a serious tone which shows that readers should take them seriously.

There are advantages of writing these kinds of essays more so to those individuals wishing to master the art of writing. Once you have learned how to infuse irony, humor, and hyperbole, you will discover them not only being fun but also easy to write.

• Learning your Task

It’s crucial for you to understand every aspect of your writing assignment. You should be in a position to point out the following:

If your homework intends to satirize a given cultural topic

• The length of the essay

Our formatting guide will help you select the right format to use while writing your assignment. You might be in a dilemma not knowing whether to write your paper in first, second or third person point of view. For those who have never read satire essays before, you should consider reading the work of Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal who is well known for these types of pieces. If you are wondering where to find them, then consider the site “The Onion” which usually deals with the topics in politics.

While writing your assignment, incorporating satire enables you to write the essay in a first person’s point of view. This makes you point out issues in the society especially those concerning society and culture. Using an example where this article points women’s demeaning which is being explained by Trump’s Hollywood tapes leaked information (“Satire Essay,” 2019). Meme proposing that female gender should not oppose what amen say suggest that they are annoyed by his utterances. This is clearly shown through the work of E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Gray showing a romantic relationship between female and male where the male is in total control and the woman is expected to submit to him.

Topics of Satire Essay

When writing a satire essay on any topics, it’s good to point out the significant events of culture and politics. The most common ideas you should consider while writing:

• Border Walls
• Hillary Clinton
• Donald Trump
• Barack Obama
• Immigration reform

A list of satirical topics is endless and if you are unsure of what to select contact our support team who are ready to help you any time.

Brainstorming of Any Satirical Essay

Any good essay writing process begins with brainstorming. Brainstorming is a useful tool for all essay writers that plays a significant role even in writing a satirical essay (“Satire Essay,” 2019). While there are familiar writing outlines employed in the initial stages of planning, there are other methods that work perfectly well when it comes to satire writing tasks. One of the tools that are commonly used and we like most is the use of a bubble map. A bubble map is a simple tool that would be used starting from elementary schools onwards. The tool associates words in line with your topic of interest. For instance, if you decide to write a bubble map for any prominent figure in the society say, Donald Trump, you will diversify and use words like businessman, father, married, adulterer, divorced, New York City, orange, billionaire, bombastic, real estate, and home alone.

You can see from the above bubble map how those words bring out elements that are associated with Donald Trump. When it comes to descriptive essays on a dog, there would be some words in the middle like the name of that given dog (“Satire Essay,” 2019). When using the bubble map, you should be aware that the words you choose should not be your own words you decide to use while writing your essay. The words used should aid in exposing an issue and further directs on the ways of approaching it satirically.

Thesis Statements in Satire Essays

After deciding on the right topic, you should then come up with a good thesis statement for your essay. You may be wondering what a thesis statement is. Thesis Statement is merely a road map of your piece that is always one or two sentences. It helps your readers understand the primary objective of your essay. Regardless of your essay type, the structure of your thesis statement always remains the same except in satire essay where it differs slightly. In satire essays, it is different unlike situations when one is proposing a real idea.

Below are some examples of Thesis Statements:

To ensure the safety of your jewelry, you need to be conspicuous on it, ensure valuable jewelry is stored in a vault or deposit box that is safe, also, do not travel with excessive jewelry than (Author: Kim Kardashian-West)

Having a successful marriage is extremely simple: you have to identify your second wife while married to your first wife and have more children with her before you get married. (Author: Brad Pitt)

From the above examples, it is clear that the most satirical element in the essay is the individual writing it. Also, the target audience can be part of the satire. When Jimmy Carter wrote to Trump a letter informing him not to worry of offending women is satirical in a way since both Jimmy and Trump are respected figures in the United States of America.  The case of Bill Clinton is writing a letter to Barrack Obama to guide him on how to be a good husband while in the White House is Irony in itself. This is because Obama is well known for his excellence in family matters and he is perceived to be an excellent husband too. On the other hand, Bill had a lousy legacy as he had an affair outside marriage while in office. Finally, criticisms of Maddona of Lady Gaga of publicity or even Peter Rose Criticizing Tom utilize all aspects of double-satire.

Resources for Satirical Essays

A wide range of satirical essays is based on events happening in the current century. Though citing them directly may not be compulsory at the moment, it is essential for you to know the real facts and issues that are associated with a given situation (“Satire Essay,” 2019). It is even ironical for you to identify the satiric news sites. In this modern time, this would be much more difficult to notice concerning political context. To avoid all these troubles, you need to be careful while selecting your topic and ensure your sources are unbiased and academically reliable.

It can be difficult finding a reliable source for your essay. To be sure you have the right sources, use the sources that are not more than three years old and from reputable publishers like newspapers, magazines, and .com and .org websites. However, you are free to use sources for more than three years old, but you should inform your readers of any change of information in the concerned period.

Additionally, you might have been discouraged to use sources like Wikipedia, Britannica, and Encyclopedia while doing your writing assignments. The advice is good as these sources are not regarded as reliable sources in the scholarly world. However, do not allow the ban to prevent you from using the references (“Satire Essay,” 2019). They can give an excellent overview of your topic and give you resources you can research for further information.  Google scholar is another great search engine that gives you an opportunity to limit the kind of resources you want to look at. With the above search engine, you can find either academic or scholarly articles and would support you in finding the best academic and scholarly writing.

Other generic sites like CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC are also good sources of information while writing satire essays. Also, you can make use of other local and major networks as they are good sources of news. The above news channels have programs that are not sources but are both social and political commentary. While using these shows, you need to be careful as they sometimes present information to the readers in a biased way or give unreliable information. As you write be aware of possible biased information especially when selecting your sources.

Citing your Sources

If you decide to incorporate all your resources in your satirical essay, you will have to cite all academic sources to back-up any claim you make on certain political styles. If your essay is based on actual dates, rare facts, and figures, you need to cite all your sources. In such cases, you will be directed on the formats to use, or you will have to decide on your own . The most commonly used academic citation styles for undergraduate students are the American Psychology Association (APA), modern language association (MLA), and Turabian or Chicago. Unless in your assignment there are clear instructions on the type of format to use, go for the writing style you understand best.

Examples of Satire Essays

As a student, it’s easy for you to digest a concept if you are given an example. Thus, our model will not only help you understand how you can write an amazing satirical essay but will also help you master how you can format your essays correctly. On our site, you will get an excellent satirical essay. Just fill in the order form.

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22 Satire Examples: How to Use Satire + 5 Best Tips

• Updated: 03/04/24
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Satire is a powerful and often overlooked tool for making an impact in your writing, but it’s often misunderstood. We’re sharing our best satire examples in a variety of different contexts to illustrate how to use this literary device.

Satire examples can range from political cartoons to satirical essays, but no matter what form it takes, it can be a really effective way of getting people’s attention while also delivering an important message.

By using satire, you can draw attention to social issues in a humorous way that engages readers and encourages them to think critically about the topic being discussed.

In this post, we will discuss how to use satire effectively, illustrate with some great satire examples, and share 5 tips for using it to create engaging and entertaining pieces of content.

So if you’re looking for some inspiration on how to write compelling satirical content, then keep reading!

What is Satire?

Satire is a form of humor in writing that conveys a message in an entertaining way while often targeting social issues, people, or institutions to bring attention to faults and flaws in our society.

Writers use satire to criticize issues that they think are wrong or unjust, but it can also be used to celebrate popular issues as well.

This often includes social commentary on topics such as politics, racism, classism, sexism, religious intolerance, environmental destruction, and more.

Examples of satire can be seen in many different forms including literature, film, television programs, political cartoons, and songs.

The best satire will mix elements of humor with wisdom in order to create insightful yet entertaining content that leaves readers having thought deeply about an important topic while also having had some laughs along the way.

3 Types of Satire

The different types of satire allow for different forms of expression by letting writers decide how serious they want their message to be taken by their audience and what kind of impact they want it to have.

There are three main types that can be used to make a point, ranging from gentle ridicule to biting sarcasm.

Horatian Satire

Horatian satire takes a light-hearted approach to its subject matter and generally seeks to amuse rather than offend.

It tends to be more playful in nature and highlights the absurdities of the situation without attacking specific people or organizations.

Horatian Satire Example

The hit show “The Office” uses Horatian satire to poke fun at the mundane and repetitive aspects of a corporate office job. The characters are exaggerated versions of real people, creating an iconic satire of white-collar America that both amuses and critiques the way of life.

Juvenalian Satire

Juvenalian satire usually has a harsher tone and aims to criticize and provoke change in behavior or beliefs on behalf of society.

It tends to focus more on outright mockery or scorn towards its target and often contains elements of moral indignation or contempt.

Juvenalian Satire Example

An example of Juvenalian satire is the 2018 film Sorry to Bother You , written and directed by Boots Riley. The movie tells the story of a young African American telemarketer named Cassius Green who finds success using a “white voice” while on the job. Through satire, Riley critiques modern society’s focus on money, power, and privilege.

Menippean Satire

Menippean satires combines elements from both Horatian and Juvenalian satire into one piece.

It typically features dialogue between characters who discuss various topics in order to provide commentary on their subject matter

Menippean Satire Example

Voltaire’s “Candide” is one of the most well-known examples of Menippean satire in literature. Written in 1759, it follows its character as he learns lessons about human nature and morality while traveling a world that often proves to be absurdly unpredictable.

“Optimism,” said Cacambo, “What is that?” “Alas!” replied Candide, “It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.”

Voltaire employs satire to mock religion, government, and what he saw as the foolish idealism of optimism.

Examples of Satire

Satire works by using humor and irony to point out societal flaws in a light-hearted way that makes them easier for people to digest.

You can find examples in so many areas of life, but we’ll share some of the most common: pop culture, politics, and literature.

Satire Examples in Pop Culture

Modern satire examples are everywhere, from television shows and movies to websites and social media accounts.

1. South Park

This long-running, adult animated series is a satirical comedy that follows the adventures of four boys living in a fictional town in Colorado. South Park is known for its satire and dark humor of current events and controversial topics such as politics, religion, race, gender identity, and more.

This movie starring Sacha Baron Cohen is a classic example of satire done right. The movie follows the character Borat as he travels throughout America making fun of American culture and customs with his outrageous behavior, pranks, and humor designed to shock viewers into laughter or outrage depending on their perspective.

3. “Weird Al” Yankovic

A singer-songwriter known for his comical parodies of popular songs, Weird Al Yankovic is an example of how satire can be used effectively through music that still manages to convey important messages about society without coming off as preachy or condescending towards those who don’t agree with him on certain issues.

4. Twitter Accounts

The Twitterverse is vast and ever-growing, with dozens of accounts dedicated to poking fun at politics, culture, and everyday life.

The Twitter account @TheTweetOfGod combines satire with religious satire and dark humor. Run by writer, director, and producer Ryan Cooper, the account has almost two million followers who enjoy its irreverent take on religion and God’s perspective on current events.

World War III would be a great way for people to stop worrying about climate change. — God (@TheTweetOfGod) November 15, 2022

The tweets often take a humorous jab at the state of today’s world while still managing to make important points.

5. The Simpsons

First aired in 1989, this long-running animated series skewers American culture and politics by caricaturing various public figures, politicians, journalists, activists, business tycoons, celebrities, and so on.

6. Team America: World Police

Team America is a popular satirical movie that satirizes American patriotism and foreign policy, particularly in regard to the War on Terror.

Through its exaggerated action sequences (featuring a cast of marionette puppets) and ridiculous plot points, it makes light of how some aspects of American foreign policy can be considered over-the-top or misguided by other nations and cultures.

The television show Archer follows secret agent Sterling Archer as he gets into ridiculous situations that often involve satire of espionage films and spy thrillers, such as the James Bond franchise.

While it’s a comedy series at heart, Archer also uses satire to comment on modern society and politics, often making jokes about gender roles or race relations within its episodes for comedic effect but also addressing serious issues with a keen eye for social commentary at times as well.

Political Satire Examples

Political satire is a powerful way to use humor to comment on current issues and political events.

From cartoons and stand-up comedy to fictional books and television shows, satire can be found in many forms of media.

1. Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report”

This mock news show aired from 2005-2014 and featured Stephen Colbert as an outspoken conservative host who often satirized American politics through satire, parody, and irony.

2. The Onion

This website has become an online satire powerhouse by providing news satire articles that poke fun at current events while also remaining informative and relevant to readers. The Onion has become renowned for its irreverent blend of satire and newsworthiness that’s earned it legions of fans over the years.

3. Saturday Night Live (SNL)

SNL has been around since 1975 and continues to be a source of satire-filled comedy on television today. From political impersonations to humorously exaggerated news segments, SNL often makes light of what’s going on in the world while still being educational.

4. Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator

Released in 1940 during World War II, this movie parodied Adolf Hitler by showing him as a buffoonish dictator with seemingly no real power or control over his own country or people.

5. The Daily Show

This iconic satire-based talk show has been running on Comedy Central for over two decades. The show parodies world events through interviews, skits, and other comedic segments, often poking fun at current political issues and satirizing public figures.

Satire Examples in Literature

Satire is a powerful literary style used by authors, playwrights, poets, and other writers to comment on aspects of society and culture.

With satire, writers use irony, exaggeration, and other devices to make a point.

The following 5 satire examples are from classical literature.

1. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726)

Jonathan Swift provides satire of the English political system and society through his protagonist Lemuel Gulliver is one of the most famous examples of satire in literature.

Along his travels, Gulliver encounters several different societies which are often exaggerated and ridiculous, allowing Swift to comment on various aspects of human nature in a humorous way.

2. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

Mark Twain satire criticizes 19th-century America for its hypocrisy when it came to race relations between whites and African-Americans.

Through this novel, Twain aims to show how racism was embedded into American culture despite laws that were in place to combat it.

3. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

Vonnegut satirizes not only the brutality of war but also those who glorify it or ignore its consequences when they are convenient to do so by telling the story of Billy Pilgrim who becomes “unstuck in time” when he experiences flashbacks from his participation in World War II.

“Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer.” Slaughterhouse-Five

4. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

This Gothic novel features satire that examines Victorian ideals surrounding morality and beauty through its protagonist Dorian Gray whose portrait ages throughout the story as an outward representation of his inner corruption caused by vanity and greed.

5. Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (1961)

Set during World War II this dark comedy follows Yossarian as he tries to avoid serving any longer in an unstable military bureaucracy where nothing makes sense — no matter how illogical or ill-advised it may be — as long as it follows orders; this satire illustrates how senseless wars can be due to bureaucracy that fails to consider human life above all else.

6. George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945)

Through the story of animals on a farm taking over from their human owners and creating their own set of rules, George Orwell powerfully critiques the oppressive elements of Stalinism and social reform in the Soviet Union during the 1940s.

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Animal Farm

7. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal (1729)

Swift satirizes the English government’s indifference to the plight of the Irish people by suggesting that a solution to their poverty and overpopulation might be to fatten up their children and sell them as food.

He suggests that this is a reasonable, if extreme, solution to the problem and that it would be beneficial to both the Irish people and the English government.

5 Tips for Successful Satire

Are you ready to start using satire in your writing? Here are 5 tips for satirical writing to help you satirize your content!

1. Consider Your Audience

Satire can often be misconstrued if the audience is unfamiliar with satire or its conventions, so it’s important to consider who you’re writing for.

Knowing their background and interests can help you tailor your satire and humor to them in a way that will resonate and be understood.

2. Use Satire Sparingly

Like any other literary device, satire should only be used when appropriate and necessary. Too much may cause readers to become desensitized or bored, so use it along with other literary devices to express yourself creatively instead of relying on it heavily.

3. Check Your Sources

When writing satire, double-check that your facts are correct and up-to-date—incorrect information can lead to a piece that falls flat, or worse, that is damaging due to its inaccuracy. Be sure to consult reliable sources when researching topics and events for your material.

4. Avoid Stereotypes and Generalizations

Rather than leaning on stereotypes, aim to focus on individual behavior when satirizing someone’s actions or beliefs—this keeps satire from becoming overgeneralized or too broad in scope.

5. Stick With What You Know

Familiarity can help because you know the ins and outs of the subject matter better than those who are not deeply familiar with it. This helps give your satire more weight and makes it more effective for the reader.

Satirical Writing Summary

Satire is a powerful literary device to highlight the absurdity of certain situations or ideas without taking a direct stance on them. It often encourages readers to think deeper about the issue being discussed.

In this way, it can provide an alternate perspective on otherwise sensitive topics while still encouraging critical thinking among its readers.

Satirical pieces often focus on characters instead of abstract concepts, which makes them more relatable and easier for readers to understand.

By giving characters unique personalities and mannerisms satirists are able to make their points clearer while still maintaining the comedic element of satire.

You can use the tips above to write satire in your own copy to connect, polarize, or entertain your audience!

60 Satire Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best satire topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 most interesting satire topics to write about, 👍 good research topics about satire.

• Satire in Parts 3-4 of Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” The present paper argues that in Part 3, the author displays satire through the characters of Laputa’s desperate rulers and Lagado’s gifted scientists, who waste their time for useless experiments, and senile, envious immortals, whereas […]
• The Political Satire Film “Wag the Dog” In the film, his role is to divert attention from the president’s sex scandal involving the Firefly girl to the forthcoming elections. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Why is Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby a Satire? Another aspect of satire in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is the wealth associated with Gatsby, as the reader observes in chapter two.
• Satire in “Breakfast of Champions” by Kurt Vonnegut These would lead to destruction of the environment and consequently to the death of humanity. This shows that everyone is to be blamed for the destruction and the existing conflict in America and the world […]
• The Satire Relevance of “The Simpsons” and Politics The paper covers the discussion about political satire relating to the Simpsons show and its relevance in the current political issues.
• The Role of Satire in El Buscon The paper shows how satire is used in the novel and how it helps in the development of the plot of the story.
• Satire and the Anti-war Movement In “Slaughterhouse-five”, his the most famous and popular work, Vonnegut resorts to the use of the sharpest satire in order to criticize all the sad consequences that war might have for the civilians along with […]
• Satire in “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift Just like successful manipulative politicians, Swift carefully selects and presents facts to shift society’s attention from the proposed measure’s ethical inappropriateness to the practical benefits that it can promote.
• Jonathan Swift Satire Analysis A similar point was made in Swift’s work, in the part where the author tries to reassure the reader that children under the age of 12 are not a saleable commodity to eat.
• Satire in Voltaire’s Candide In this story, Voltaire wanted his audience to question the church’s monopoly over moral issues in the face of her hypocrisy, critique the system of giving objects like jewels monetary value, assess the usefulness of […]
• Satire and Social Commentary The Life of George Cruikshank George Cruikshank was a famous English book illustrator and caricaturist, known as the “modern Hogarth” during his lifetime. Cruikshank was born in London in the family of Isaac Cruikshank who was a popular caricaturist and […]
• Satire. Bushisms: George Bush’s Mistakes The peculiarity of that phrases is, that they are more natural for the member of some sect or cult, than to the president of the USA. The God can talk through his prophets, and there […]
• Satire as a Literary Work: Road Trip With Kids When voted in, politicians seem to forget all the promises they gave to the electorate. For instance, politicians promise to change lives of citizens within a twinkle of an eye yet after elections, they forget […]
• Failed Leadership Can Only Be Whipped by Satire In what is a parallel to Marx’s philosophy and attack on the exploitation of the workers by the capitalists; and therefore a call for a revolution, the farm animals are inspired by the counsel of […]
• Optimal Philosophy and Satire in Voltaire’s Candide One of the first examples of satire as the possibility to introduce some philosophical ideas was the description of the professor’s activities.
• Satire in “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift Moreover, it is known that he published it anonymously to ensure that the reader is not aware of what to expect from this proposal.
• Political Satire in American Literature Scott Fitzgerald was one of the more famous satirists of the time, particularly in his production of the work The Great Gatsby.
• Perception of Satire in Gulliver’s Travels, The Tempest, and Diderot’s One of the most effective methods to ensure the satirical sounding of a particular episode in the work of literature, is to overplay the idea that people are actually quite capable of not even noticing […]
• How Fake News Use Satire as a Medium to Address Issues on Racism? The show offers a critique of authority by challenging the decision that was made by the jury. The decision that was finally made by the jury in itself is also a mockery of justice, and […]
• Satire as a Tool for Fighting Political Impunity This seems to be the biggest challenge for satirists since the audience is the most powerful person in their work. It is this power of the media that has taken these shows to facebook, twitter, […]
• Satire in Mikhail Bulgakov’s Works With time, Bulgakov’s satire turned out to be more and more dramatic, pointing out the shortages of technology and society development.”The first of the various levels on which the novel’s satire functions is that of […]
• Jonathan Swift’s a Modest Proposal: Swift’s Satire Approach Concerning the Social Problem of Dublin’s Starving Children Instead of suggesting the obvious limiting the number of children each female “breeder” should have he encourages the “breeders” to get pregnant, enjoy motherhood and nursing of their suckling infants for one year, and then […]
• The Role of Social Satire in Huckleberry Finn as Illustrated in Three Blind Vices
• Using Satire to Create Awareness of Gender Roles: Egalia’s Daughters
• The Great Use of Satire in the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
• The Satire Of The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain
• Use of Satire in Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
• Use of Satire to Target Religion, Military, and Optimism in Voltaire’s Candide
• The Stairway To Surinam Voltaire Use Of Satire Candide And Pangloss
• The Use of Satire to Criticize Society in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• The Dominant Tone of Satire in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• The Society’s Satire in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
• The Use of Satire and Its Effect on Literary Works
• The Importance of Satire at the French Newspaper Charlie Hebdo
• Use of Satire in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
• The Use of Satire and Irony in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
• The Use of Satire in the Futuristic World of Aldous Huxley in Brave New World
• Seriousness and Satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• The Rape Of The Lock As A Satire Of Society Analysis
• The Satire and Humor in the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
• The Meaning of Satire, Satirical Elements and Their Use in Literature
• Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt and Use of Satire
• The Evolution of Satire: Where The Daily Show is Taking America
• The Canterbury Tales Was Geoffrey Chaucer’s Satire Towards The Catholic Church
• The Satire of the Modern American Society in Horace Miner’s Essay Body Ritual among the Nacirema
• The Political Satire Described in George Orwell’s the Animal Farm
• The Spectacles’ by Edgar Allan Poe and His Use of Satire
• Social Satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Great Dictator Movie and The Means of Satire Against Nazis
• The Miller’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer and Satire
• What is Satire and In What Literary Pieces Did Writers Used It
• The Satire on Travel Guides and the Cultural Context
• Tragedy And Satire Of Irish Life As Depicted By J.M. Syng
• Voltaire’s Use Of Satire To Compare Europe And El Dorado
• The Comedy of Manners Brand of Satire in The Importance of Being Earnest, a Play by Oscar Wilde
• The Satire Of Comedians Don ‘t Take A Good Look At Social
• The Satire And Labelling Of The Cartoon, By Michael Ramirez
• The Use of Satire in Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”
• The Satire of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
• The Symbolic Political Satire in the Novel Animal Farm
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Exploring 60+ Creative Satirical Essay Topics: Beyond Comedy

• Post author By admin
• November 8, 2023

Explore a world of wit and humor with our satirical essay topics. From societal absurdities to playful parodies, find inspiration for your next laughter-inducing masterpiece.

Imagine being able to express your opinions, critique the world, and entertain your audience, all while having a good laugh.

That’s the magic of satirical essays. These essays provide a unique platform where humor meets social commentary, and where you can make a powerful point with a touch of wit and sarcasm. However, the success of a satirical essay hinges on the topic you choose.

So, whether you’re aiming to tickle funny bones or provoke deep thoughts, this article is your guide to the world of satirical essay topics.

We’ll explore ideas that are not only hilarious but also thought-provoking. Get ready for a journey through the realm of satire as we uncover the perfect subjects to fuel your creativity and captivate your readers.

Table of Contents

The Art of Satire

Satire is like a secret doorway into the world of wit and wisdom, where humor becomes a tool for unveiling the absurdities of life.

It’s an art form that has been around for ages, tickling our funny bones while nudging us to think deeper. So, what’s the deal with satire, and how does it weave its magic?

At its core, satire is like a sly social commentator. It puts society, individuals, or even entire systems under a magnifying glass, exposing their quirks, flaws, and idiosyncrasies. But here’s the twist – it does all this while making us laugh, cringe, and nod in agreement.

Satire is a versatile beast, lurking in literature, theater, TV shows, and the wild world of the internet. You can stumble upon it in essays, short stories, cartoons, or even stand-up comedy.

No matter the form, satire’s mission remains constant: to challenge the norms and jolt us into questioning our reality.

What makes satire special is its talent for confronting the unmentionable. It deals with the tough stuff – the controversial, the uncomfortable, and the thought-provoking – all wrapped up in a hilarious package. It’s like delivering bitter medicine with a sweet coating.

Mastering the art of satire demands a sharp mind and a good grip on society’s quirks. It involves using humor as a Trojan horse, smuggling important messages behind the laughter.

Satirists are the word acrobats, using irony and sarcasm to create a gap between words and meanings, inviting us to read between the lines.

Satire isn’t just about teasing others; it’s also a way for creators to turn the humor microscope on themselves and their own society. It’s a bit like saying, “We’re all in this together, folks. Let’s laugh at our shared absurdities.”

In the end, satire is a waltz between laughter and contemplation. It’s a potent tool that can hold a mirror up to the truth, challenge the powerful, and kickstart change.

So, the next time you giggle at a satirical piece, remember, it’s not just humor; it’s an artful invitation to see the world from a different angle.

Finding the Perfect Satirical Essay Topic

So, you’re gearing up to dive into the world of satirical essays, armed with humor and a desire to make a point. But there’s one small challenge: what on earth should you satirize?

Finding the perfect satirical essay topic can feel like hunting for buried treasure in a vast sea of ideas. But don’t worry; we’re here to make the search more exciting than daunting.

Explore Life’s Quirky Side

Let’s start with the everyday oddities that often go unnoticed. Satire thrives on the absurdities of life. So, consider topics like “The Chronicles of Awkward Elevator Encounters” or “The Epic Saga of Misplacing Car Keys.”

Roast Society’s Foibles

Satire is a powerful tool for poking fun at societal flaws. Delve into topics like “The Unbelievable World of Clickbait Headlines” or “The Drama of Oversharing on Social Media.”

Mock Trends and Hypes

Trends and fads come and go, but their absurdity lingers. Satirical essays can take a hilarious spin on subjects like “The ‘Instant Celebrity’ Recipe” or “The Quest for the Ultimate Superfood.”

Expose Hypocrisy

Nothing’s quite as amusing as uncovering double standards. Consider topics like “The Eco-Warrior with a Private Jet” or “The ‘Healthy Living’ Guru Who Sneaks Midnight Snacks.”

Satirize Celebrity Culture

Celebrities and public figures are a satirist’s playground. Create essays like “A Day in the Life of a Paparazzo” or “The Politician’s Guide to Perfecting the Fake Smile.”

Twist Timeless Tales

Classic stories and fairytales can get a satirical makeover. Imagine “Snow White’s Reality TV Dilemma” or “The True Story Behind ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.'”

Tease Technology

Our tech-infused lives offer endless satirical material. Think about subjects like “The Smartphone Addiction Chronicles” or “The Comedy of Online Dating Fails.”

Skewer Schooling

Educational systems have quirks worth exploring. Consider topics like “The Art of Mastering Procrastination in College” or “The Confessions of a Self-Help Guru’s Ghostwriter.”

Roast Pop Culture

Pop culture is a goldmine for satire. Delve into topics like “The Art of Reality TV Editing” or “Decoding Celebrity Baby Names.”

Reflect on Human Quirks

Sometimes, the best satirical essays explore the oddities of human behavior. Think about subjects like “The Secret Language of Passive-Aggressiveness” or “The Science of Cringe-Worthy Moments.”

Remember, the key to a fantastic satirical essay is to mix humor, irony, and a dash of social critique. Seek out the absurd in the ordinary, and don’t be afraid to push the boundaries of creativity.

With the right topic in your sights, you’re on your way to crafting a satirical masterpiece that’s not only entertaining but also thought-provoking, leaving your readers chuckling and pondering the world around them. Happy satirizing!

Satirical Essay Topics

Check out satirical essay topics:

Social Issues

• The “Selfie Olympics”: A Humorous Take on Self-Obsession
• “Smart” Appliances: How Your Toaster Is Plotting Against You
• The Art of Ghosting in Modern Dating: A Guide for Cowards
• “Influencer” Starter Kits: A Satirical Look at Vanity in a Box
• “Political Correctness” Gone Mad: The Absurdity of Language Policing
• The Faux Philanthropist: Exposing Fake Social Activism
• Instagram Filters: The Gateway Drug to Plastic Surgery
• The Chronicles of “Healthy” Fast Food Chains
• “Inspirational” Quote Overload: When Motivational Messages Lose Their Meaning
• The Irony of “Cancel Culture”: Who’s Next in Line for Erasure?

Technology and Digital Age

• The Amazon Echo: Is Your Virtual Stalker Also a Comedian?
• The Satire of Social Media “Influencers” Selling the Impossible
• The Comedy of Clickbait: When Everything Is “Mind-Blowing”
• GPS Devices: Helping You Get Lost Like a Pro
• The Hilarity of Internet Trolls: A Deep Dive into the Art of Anonymity
• The True Cost of “Free” Apps: Selling Your Soul for Candy Crush
• The Mystery of “Smart” Home Devices: Are They Plotting World Domination?
• The Ridiculous World of Internet Challenges: From Cinnamon to Tide Pods
• The Irony of Virtual Reality: Escaping the Real World to Do the Same Things
• The Evolution of “Face Filters”: From Cute Animals to Unrecognizable Humans

Education and Learning

• The Art of “Wikipedia Scholar” Degrees
• Group Projects: Where Slackers Become the Best Magicians
• The Science of Fake Homework Excuses: A Comprehensive Study
• The Irony of “Learning Styles”: Are You a Visual, Auditory, or Kinesthetic Liar?
• The Satire of “No Child Left Behind”: How We Left Them All Behind
• The Comedy of “Participation Trophies”: Everyone’s a Winner (Except Not Really)
• Teachers’ Lounge Conspiracy Theories: What Really Happens in There
• The Mystery of Library “Silence” Zones: The Noisiest Places on Campus
• The Chronicles of “Extra Credit” Hustlers: Masters of the Brown-Nosing Arts
• “Back to School” Sales: How to Convince Kids That Pencils Are Fashion Statements

Pop Culture

• Celebrity Fragrances: Smelling Like You Could Be Famous
• The Comedy of Reality TV: Where Non-Celebrities Act Like Celebrities
• The Hilarity of Award Show Speeches: From “Genuine” Tears to Thanking Your Dog
• The Mystery of Viral Internet Challenges: Surviving the Stupidity
• The Absurdity of Tabloid Headlines: Alien Babies and Celebrity Reincarnations
• “Trendy” Diets: From the Cabbage Soup Cleanse to the Twinkie Diet
• The Satirical Take on Superhero Films: When Spandex Saves the Day
• The Comedy of “Real Housewives” Shows: Unreal Lives in Expensive Houses
• Celebrity Social Media Feuds: The Battle for the Most Retweets
• “Cool” Urban Legends: Bigfoot’s Hipster Cousin and the Loch Ness Hipster

Environmental Issues

• The Comedy of Earth Day Parades: Marching for the Planet with Plastic Signs
• The Irony of “Eco-Friendly” Disposable Diapers: Breaking Down in a Million Years
• The Green Guilt Trip: How Your Neighbor’s Solar Panels Shame You
• The Chronicles of the “Green” Car Owner: Driving a Gas Guzzler with a Green Sticker
• “Zero-Waste” Instagram Accounts: How to Produce Tons of Trash for Likes
• “Organic” Fast Food: Because Deep-Fried Organic Is Healthier, Right?
• The Absurdity of “Recycling” Electronics: Sending Your Old Laptop to a Landfill
• The Hilarity of “Farm-to-Table” Restaurants: How Far Is That Farm, Really?
• “Eco-Friendly” Water Bottles: Saving the Earth, One Plastic Bottle at a Time
• The Satire of “Vegan” Junk Food: Tofu Hot Dogs and Deep-Fried Kale Chips

Political Issues

• Political Campaign Slogans: Promising Everything, Delivering Nothing
• The Comedy of Political Debates: Where Civility Goes to Die
• Political “Spin Doctors”: Turning Scandals into Inspirational Stories
• The Absurdity of Political Ads: Making Promises You Know Won’t Be Kept
• The Mystery of Bureaucratic Jargon: Translating “Government Speak” into English
• Election Promises vs. Reality: A Satirical Look at Broken Pledges
• The Irony of Campaign Fundraising: How the Poor Donate to the Rich
• Presidential Twitter Wars: When World Leaders Act Like Teenagers
• Political Conventions: Where Balloons Are the Highlight of the Evening
• The Satire of Political Polls: Predicting the Future with a Magic 8-Ball

The Recipe for a Perfect Satirical Essay

Satirical essays are a unique and entertaining form of writing that allows you to explore and critique various aspects of society, culture, and human behavior with a humorous twist.

Crafting the perfect satirical essay requires a blend of wit, humor, and keen observation. Whether you’re an experienced satirist or just dipping your toes into this literary art form, here’s the recipe for creating a deliciously satirical essay:

Choose a Target

Start by identifying your target, which is the subject of your satire. It can be a social issue, a cultural phenomenon, a common behavior, or any aspect of society that you find intriguing or absurd.

Your target should be something you have strong opinions about, as satire involves commentary.

Understand Your Audience

Consider your audience’s sensibilities and preferences. Satire should be funny and thought-provoking, but it should also resonate with your readers. Know what will make them chuckle or nod in agreement.

Develop a Strong Thesis

Your satirical essay should have a clear thesis statement that conveys your central message or criticism. This statement will guide your entire essay and help your readers understand the purpose of your satire.

Embrace Exaggeration

Exaggeration is a key ingredient in satirical writing. Amplify the flaws, quirks, or absurdities of your target to an extreme degree. Push it to the limit to create humor and emphasize the point you’re making.

Employ Irony and Sarcasm

Irony and sarcasm are your trusty companions in satire. Use them to highlight the gap between appearances and reality, between what’s said and what’s meant. Witty one-liners and clever wordplay can add an extra layer of humor.

Employ Parody

Parody involves mimicking or imitating a particular style, genre, or individual to create humor. You can parody well-known personalities, famous works of literature, or iconic brands. This approach adds a layer of recognition for your readers.

Use Hyperbole

Hyperbole is an extravagant exaggeration used for emphasis. It’s an effective tool for satirists. Make the ordinary extraordinary, and the absurd even more ridiculous with the use of hyperbole.

Employ Ridicule

Ridicule is the act of mocking or making fun of your target. It’s a fundamental component of satire. Create amusing caricatures, funny situations, or absurd scenarios to ridicule your subject.

Craft a Catchy Title

Your essay’s title is your first chance to grab your readers’ attention. Make it catchy, clever, and relevant to your subject matter. A well-crafted title sets the tone for your satire.

Provide Real-World Examples

Support your satire with real-world examples, anecdotes, or observations. These give your essay authenticity and make your critique more relatable.

Maintain Consistency

Stay consistent in your satirical approach throughout the essay. Your humor, tone, and style should remain constant from start to finish.

Offer a Resolution or Alternative

A good satirical essay doesn’t just point out flaws; it suggests improvements or alternative solutions. Offer a thought-provoking resolution or present an absurd alternative to highlight the flaws in the existing system or behavior.

Revise and Edit

Like any other type of writing, satirical essays benefit from revision and editing. Review your work for clarity, coherence, and grammatical correctness. Ensure that your humor is sharp and your message is clear.

Seek Feedback:

Share your essay with friends or colleagues and ask for their feedback. A fresh perspective can help you refine your satire.

Don’t Cross Boundaries

While satire encourages humor and exaggeration, be mindful not to cross into offensive or hurtful territory. Your satire should be amusing and thought-provoking, not mean-spirited.

Incorporate these ingredients into your satirical essay recipe, and you’ll be on your way to creating a delicious, thought-provoking, and entertaining piece of satirical writing.

Remember, the goal is not just to make your readers laugh but also to make them think. Happy satirizing!

What is a good topic for satire?

When it comes to crafting a satirical essay, choosing the right topic is essential. A good satirical topic should be timely, relevant, and capable of shedding light on the hypocrisy, absurdity, or foolishness prevalent in a particular person, group, or institution.

Here, we present a handful of excellent topics ripe for satirical exploration:

The Social Media Obsession

Satire can delve into our incessant phone-checking habits and the constant updates on our lives. Explore the addictive nature of likes and followers in the digital age.

The Political Circus

Politics is a treasure trove of satirical material. Unveil the world of empty promises made by politicians or their peculiar fascination with fundraising over serving constituents.

The Cult of Celebrity

Delve into the worship of celebrities and society’s fixation on every move they make. Expose the extremes of idolizing famous figures.

Commercialized Holidays

Highlight the shift of holidays from meaningful family and friend gatherings to consumerist extravaganzas. Satirize the overwhelming emphasis on shopping.

The Wellness Mania

Poke fun at the relentless pursuit of healthy eating and exercise, sometimes taken to the point of neuroticism. Examine society’s obsession with wellness.

These topics serve as a starting point, and there are numerous other excellent options for satirical essays. The key lies in selecting a topic that seamlessly combines humor with thought-provoking insights, fostering essential conversations about pertinent issues.

In the realm of satire, humor is the vehicle, but reflection is the destination.

What is a satirical essay?

Satirical essays are a unique genre that employs humor, irony, exaggeration, and various literary devices to critique individuals, groups, or institutions.

Their purpose is to reveal hypocrisy, absurdity, or foolishness, all while prompting readers to view essential issues from a fresh perspective.

Let’s explore the defining features of a satirical essay:

Humor with a Purpose

Satirical essays are inherently humorous, but this humor serves a greater objective. It isn’t merely for laughter’s sake; it’s a powerful tool used to underscore the essay’s subject.

Masters of Irony and Sarcasm

Satire relies heavily on irony and sarcasm, two potent instruments. Irony involves using words in a way that contradicts their actual meaning, while sarcasm is a form of irony that expresses contempt or criticism.

Exaggeration for Effect

Satirical essays often amplify the flaws and shortcomings of their subjects. This amplification serves to sharpen the essay’s point and portray the subject in an even more ludicrous light.

Laser-Focused on Specifics

These essays are not vague musings. They pinpoint particular individuals, groups, or institutions, enhancing their effectiveness in conveying a message.

Clever and Witty Execution

A successful satirical essay should be clever and witty. Without these qualities, it risks losing its humor and impact.

In the world of satirical essays, humor is the vehicle, but enlightenment is the destination. These essays serve as a remarkable means to provoke reflection on crucial issues, all while bringing a smile to the reader’s face.

What is a good satire example?

In the world of literary satire, some timeless classics have managed to tickle our funny bones while offering profound insights.

These masterpieces don’t just amuse us; they make us ponder the follies of human nature and society. Here are a few of these gems:

1. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726)

Swift takes us on a whimsical journey with Lemuel Gulliver through lands like Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and more. But beneath the fantastical adventures lies a clever satire on the quirks of humanity, politics, and society.

2. Candide by Voltaire (1759)

Voltaire’s story follows the eternal optimist Candide, who explores the world and encounters a string of misfortunes. Through Candide’s misadventures, Voltaire uses satire to skewer the notion of unbridled optimism and reflect on the harsh realities of our world.

3. Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945)

Orwell’s allegorical tale is a biting critique of the Russian Revolution and the emergence of Stalinism. As a group of farm animals rebel against their human overlords to create their society, Orwell uncovers the corrupting influence of power.

4. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)

Heller’s novel hilariously underscores the absurdity of war and the bureaucratic maze of the military. Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Air Force bombardier feigning insanity to avoid more bombing missions, embodies the dark comedy that ensues in wartime.

5. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)

Toole paints a satirical portrait of Southern culture and the elusive American Dream through the comical misadventures of Ignatius J. Reilly. A lovable yet exasperating character, Ignatius dreams of becoming a writer while wrestling with his own eccentricities.

These works are just a sampling of the rich tapestry of satire in literature. They remind us that humor can be a powerful tool for reflecting on society and uncovering truths in the quirkiest and most unexpected ways.

In the enchanting world of satire, the boundaries are as limitless as your creativity. Satirical essay topics offer a stage where humor, irony, and cleverness intertwine, allowing us to dive headfirst into the quirks of human behavior, the baffling peculiarities of society, and the intricacies of our ever-evolving world.

These topics spark laughter, but they do much more – they beckon us to think. Satirical essays act as a mirror, reflecting back the contradictions, paradoxes, and absurdities we often overlook.

They prod us to question the norms, to challenge established norms, and to perceive the world from a fresh angle.

So, whether you’re composing a satirical essay to entertain, to shed light on social issues, or just for the sheer joy of wit, remember that satire transcends humor – it’s an art form that inspires contemplation.

It’s a delightful nudge that reminds us humor can be a powerful instrument for change, and that even the weightiest of subjects can benefit from a sprinkle of humor.

So, let your imagination soar and your pen dance merrily, because who knows, amid the chuckles, you might uncover profound truths that were hiding in plain sight.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of a satirical essay.

A satirical essay aims to criticize and ridicule societal issues, individuals, or institutions using humor, irony, and exaggeration. Its purpose is to entertain, make readers think, and shed light on the absurdities of our world.

Can I use satire to discuss serious topics?

Absolutely! Satire is a powerful tool to address serious issues indirectly. It allows you to critique and challenge the status quo while keeping your readers engaged through humor.

How do I maintain a balance between humor and critique in a satirical essay?

Balancing humor and critique in a satirical essay is key. Ensure that your humor supports your critique and doesn’t undermine the seriousness of the issue you’re addressing. Clever wit and well-crafted irony can help maintain this balance.

Is it essential to use real examples in a satirical essay?

While using real examples can enhance the impact of your satire, it’s not always necessary. You can create fictional scenarios and characters to highlight the absurdities

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10 Essential Political Satires

Charles bramesco.

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In America, political satire is as old and august a tradition as politics itself. Descended from the

newspaper cartoons and humor writing that deflated politicians full of hot air while shining a light

on governmental hypocrisies, political satire has granted American

cinema some of its funniest and most deviously clever comedies. In some instances, it’s allowed

filmmakers a a buffer to implicitly comment on the hot-button issues of the day,

though the majority attack on a much broader scale, implicating the unsavory realities of

politicking in general.

“ Our Brand Is Crisis ,” the new political dramedy from David Gordon Green ( our review here ), falls squarely into

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the latter category. Revolving around a hard-fought campaign for the 2002 Bolivian Presidency, the film recasts the fun and games of dirty campaigning as literal fun and actual games.

When Sandra Bullock ’s live-wire campaign strategist sets her mind to crushing her constant

professional nemesis (a cueball Billy Bob Thornton ) once and for all, no move is too sophomoric

or underhanded if it means emerging triumphant. High-speed bus chases, makeshift trebuchets,

and runaway trains all add a dose of levity to a story of socioeconomic unrest in a volatile

political climate. “Crisis” ends up refining its focus to the same theme every political satire must

eventually confront: is there room for morality in politics? (The answer, speaking

volumes about American pop-cultural attitudes, is most frequently “hell no!”)

The Playlist has collected ten of the most essential political satires on film for your entertainment

and edification, ranging from the cynical to the extremely cynical. Give your local

representatives a call today to let them know which one is your favorite, and while you’re at it, demand

that they never abandon their principles in the face of immovable institutional dictates.

“Wag The Dog” (1997) It’s never clear whether Barry Levinson ’s black-hearted comedy is a political satire

that secretly eviscerates Hollywood, or a showbiz satire that secretly eviscerates Washington.

Either way, there’s plenty of sin to go around in this deeply cynical piece of work. With both

Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman nearing the tail-end of the “Doing Good Movies” phases of

their careers, Levinson managed to get top-tier work out of both of them. De Niro and Hoffman star, respectively, as a political spin doctor and

the Hollywood heavy-hitter he employs to manufacture an ersatz war, as a diversion to distract

from a Presidential sex scandal. In one of the most specific instances of life

imitating art on record, “Wag the Dog” opened a mere month before the Monica Lewinsky

scandal broke. When the Clinton administration approved the bombing of Sudan’s al-Shifa

pharmaceutical plant shortly afterward, it certainly appeared as if they had taken a page from

Levinson’s playbook. Though admittedly, no members of the Clinton administration had to deal with a

criminally insane rapist Woody Harrelson undermining the campaign to turn him into the faux-war’s poster boy, or coordinate a fake funeral. But the darkest elements present themselves

incidentally, like collateral damage in a much larger and screwed-up scheme. In a massive

operation, things fall through the cracks. And in the complicated machine that is a film production, it’s

usually easy enough to move past oversights, but when the stakes have risen to treasonous

levels of national import, lives are on the line. Due in no small part to the muscular script from

David Mamet , “Wag the Dog” ultimately concludes that politics is a more evil business than

entertainment, but it’s a close-run race.

“Bulworth” (1998)

Three words: rapping Warren Beatty . One hundred and ninety-eight more:

director/writer/star/producer/craft-services coordinator (probably) Beatty’s attempt to lighten up on politics after his sweeping historical epic “ Reds, ” made a handful of crucial miscalculations.

As Jay Bulworth, an embittered politico who turns to suicide by surprise assassination after

accepting how powerless he is in the face of the system’s grinding machinery, Beatty deals

himself an unenviable actorly task. It falls on him to sell the most dubious of transitions once

Bulworth cuts the BS, starts hanging with the urban impoverished, and returns from the ‘hood to

spit some game in the public arena, partisan-style. The film plays uncomfortably in an America

where the term “cultural appropriation” is widely in use, and the actual verses themselves that

Beatty limply delivers are cheek-reddeningly bad. But there was still something (very )quietly

revolutionary about the film’s utter exhaustion with the pussyfooting around when it came to

issues of class and race. How far has American pop culture come since the days of “Bulworth”?

The film’s most incendiary quote went a little like “Everybody just gotta keep fuckin’ everybody

’til they’re all the same color”… and a similar sentiment was expressed on the last season of “ Broad

City.”

“Bob Roberts” (1992) Tim Robbins started off relatively easy in his directorial debut, circumventing some of directing’s

challenges by shooting his nasty political satire in the mockumentary style. Most of the film

plays out through the lens of a British documentarian’s camera as he tracks the titular folk

singer (Robbins, pulling double duty) as he tries his hand in the political game. As folk singers

go, he only affects the appearance of a Bob Dylan or a Woody Guthrie , two figures that Robbins

alludes to liberally in the script. In fact, he’s conservative to the core, cloaking reactionary rhetoric on

the lazy-ass poor and the evils of ‘60s-era social turbulence in pan-fried folksiness. The

dispiriting thing, is that it works like gangbusters. Not even rumors of ties to shadowy CIA drug-

trafficking operation can diminish Roberts’s Everyman appeal, though it could spell doom for the

journalist ( Giancarlo Esposito , years away from getting his due via his

“ Breaking Bad ” gig) intent on uncovering it. Robbins favors lunges over jabs in his pointed

critiques, swinging at such easy targets as huckster neoconservatives and pseudo-simple-hearted people’s candidates. Although, the film packs more of a theoretical wallop when

the viewer instead focuses on the little-seen documentarian, helpless to intervene as he

watches a man of decidedly questionable character rise to power. He’s British, but his position

in the film echoes that of the lowly American citizen, constrained to the sidelines while influence

changes hands behind closed doors.

“Duck Soup” (1933)

Behind the peppy musical numbers, underneath its chipper exterior, the Marx brothers ’ high watermark remains a work of white-hot political aggression. Born entertainers, the Marxes maintain a good-natured demeanor in the film, pulling off some of the most elaborate physical

comedy in their illustrious oeuvre (students of comedy should have their eyelids clipped open,

“ A Clockwork Orange ”-style, and watch Harpo and Groucho’s celebrated mirror scene until it’s

permanently imprinted upon them) and deploying fearlessly randy puns at a breakneck speed

that feels like it’s actually trying to break your neck. (Groucho fantasizes about marriage to his

beloved with “I can see you right now in the kitchen bending over a hot stove, but I can’t see the

stove,” which is both a fat joke and supremely raunchy sex joke.) But Groucho’s quick-talking

despot Rufus T. Firefly — and no writer’s dreamed up a sillier name since —

was a sniper shot aimed right between the eyes of the politicians who obfuscate, distract, and

cloud the truth in their shameless power-grabs. “If you think this country’s bad off now, just

wait’ll I get through with it!” could be the most accurate summation of political strategy ever

committed to celluloid, blurring the line between a promise and a warning. Hail Freedonia!

“Thank You For Smoking” (2005) Before the star-making successes of “ Juno ” and “ Up in the Air ” and star-unmaking catastrophes

of “ Labor Day ” and “ Men, Women & Children, ” Jason Reitman made an auspicious debut with

this meditation on smokescreens both literal and moral. There’s no room for questions of right

and wrong in the anything-goes dervish of rationalization and straight-up lies that is professional

lobbying. There’s no truth, only victory. As quick-talking tobacco rep Nick Naylor, Aaron Eckhart

conducts some pretty objectively evil business. To wit: falsifying studies, knowingly

misrepresenting information, and offering a dying man a suitcase full of cash that might as well

be spattered with blood, in exchange for his agreement not to implicate the deleterious effects of

tobacco on his condition. But Reitman affords Eckhart ample opportunity to make his case for

Naylor’s soul, and ultimately offers him a lifeboat out of his relativist hell. For a film in which

tobacco, alcohol, and firearms lobbyists collectively refer to themselves as the “Merchants of

Death,” it’s not nearly as cynical as it might sound. The innocence of children provides

this film with a soft gooey center, though it never undermines Reitman’s disparaging perspective

on lobbying and the soul-suckers who do it. The language can be cartoonishly over-the-top, but

Reitman’s depiction of carnivorous amorality isn’t too far removed from reality.

“Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964) The finest, most perfectly calibrated work of American political satire on film is full to bursting —

tumescent, one might even say — with dick jokes. Dicks are everywhere in Kubrick’s comedic

masterwork, compelling rational men to make irrational decisions and empowering irrational

men to make the jump to full-on insanity. A symbolic dick gave the film its most iconic image, of

Slim Pickens ecstatically riding his massive atomic phallus into the great beyond. And one dick

in particular threatens to bring about the end of days when it stops functioning and its owner,

Sterling Hayden ’s mad general Jack D. Ripper, figures the only possible explanation is a

Commie plot. Kubrick, aided by the multi-role genius of Peter Sellers , expertly skewers the lunacy of American crisis-politics, but as order and

propriety break down in the War Room (where, as we all know, fighting has been expressly

forbidden), he gets at deeper critiques of the fragility of manhood. It’s almost as if men will do

absolutely anything to feel powerful, and if that means repopulating the Earth in a coal-shaft

bunker during a nuclear winter, them’s the breaks. Like a male-rights activist’s dream sprung

to horrifying life, ‘Strangelove’ scandalized audiences upon its release in ’64, but the volcanic

eruption of thoughtpieces the film would’ve generated if made today would be enough to bring

about a different sort of apocalypse.

“In The Loop” (2009) In Armando Iannucci ’s funhouse version of both the U.S. and U.K. governments, characters

don’t just curse. They unleash grand operatic arias of profanity, approaching four-letter expletives with the same spirit of restless creativity that Jean-Luc Godard brings to

a camera. The virtuosic blue language is endlessly quotable, but more than that, it attests to the

dog-eat-dog nature of politicking. Whoever can rage loudest and hardest wins, and

so naturally, the human manifestation of fury, Malcolm Tucker ( Peter Capaldi) is the key figure for

anyone who wants to play ball in the major leagues. It falls to him to conduct damage control

when an indelicately-phrased soundbite from the Minister of International Development ( Tom

Hollander) sets off a chain of events which could very well culminate in global war. Indeed,

‘Loop’ does evoke the swiss-watch precision of the plot of “ Dr. Strangelove ”, but the thematic

underpinnings peg it as a comedy more concerned with miscommunication rather than outright

deception. All it takes is an innocent misunderstanding to send the world careening towards

oblivion, and humanity’s last hope against certain destruction is the glorious misanthropy on

display in every direction in Iannucci’s picture. The lowly public has always suspected that

politicians refer to people as “meat puppets” behind closed doors, but it’s still oddly reassuring to see it

“Election” (1999) What might possess a high school teacher to rig something as inconsequential as a student-

government election? Because this is an Alexander Payne film, the answer must necessarily be

a combination of jealousy, sublimated resentment, pettiness and good old fashioned misogyny.

Payne’s underappreciated debut “ Citizen Ruth ” first established the director’s pet theme: the

way small-town folks get caught up in imbroglios with consequences that expand to a national

scale. But for his breakout follow-up, Payne swapped out the hot-button abortion debate for a

the less fraught milieu of the American high school. Reese Witherspoon would never outdo her

tone-perfect performance as Tracey Flick, a student so monomaniacally driven that you want to

strangle her, and Matthew Broderick nearly matches her as the Cool Teacher who recognizes a

type-A monstrosity when he sees one and attempts to nip it in the bud. Payne’s interest lies

mostly in the self-destructive havoc that egoism can wreak, but a rousing speech about halfway

through the film underscores the film’s satirical leanings. Issues candidate Tracey and populist

champion Paul fail to register a reaction from the student body with their campaign speeches,

leaving outsider independent Tammy to offer an alternative. Her triumphant declaration that this

is all a waste of everyone’s time and that there should be no student government at all, of

course, brings the crowd to their feet.

“The Candidate” (1972) In 1972, the thought of a Californian Democrat winning a seat in the Senate was nearly

laughable. In fact, the possibility of a Democrat victory was so remote that the DNC heads in

Michael Ritchie’s jaded satire “The Candidate” didn’t see any harm in throwing the nomination to

a charismatic but naive junior politico (played with vanishing innocence by Robert Redford ).

They figure they’ll set the kid loose on the campaign trail, let him have his fun, and then his

career will be set out to pasture. With no leash to go off of, Redford’s free to sermonize his no-bullshit morals, and when they stir up a little support from voters, he finds he likes the spotlight.

Before long, it’s a race to the middle as he descends deeper and deeper into positive yet hollow

vagaries in pursuit of the public’s favor. Like a reverse “ Mr. Smith Goes to Washington ” and with

all the brutal pessimism that comparison implies, Ritchie shows how the individual’s human

fallibilities can do a number on any sense of ethical righteousness long before the institutions

need to stamp it out. The refrain is as old as politics itself, beginning with a general named

Caesar who enjoyed his unquestioned rule under martial law a little too much: power corrupts,

and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

“The Great McGinty” (1940) In retrospect, it’s frankly astonishing that Preston Sturges was able to begin his directorial career with such a fully-realized assemblage of the hallmarks that’d make him the toast of Hollywood’s Golden Age in the years that followed. (Doubly so that he followed it with four

stone-cold classics in a row: “ Christmas in July ,” “ The Lady Eve ,” “ Sullivan’s Travels ,” and “ The

Palm Beach Story” — check out our Sturges Essentials feature ). It’s all on full display in the inspired tale of a machine-politics lackey who

grows a conscience after falling for his just-for-show wife. Sturges’ man-of-the-people spirit of

magnanimity contrives an ending that’s not exactly happy, but it is just. His screwy wit renders the

whirlwind romance between Brian Donlevy as the title character and Muriel Angelus as his

moral compass with a great set of gams not just believable, but effervescent. But above all,

Sturges’ keen eye for the shifting dynamics of suckerism, guides this frothy creation,

and it would never be more appropriate than in the muddy arena of politics. Sturges takes such

palpable pleasure in turning the tables; he lives at the turning point where the chump becomes

the chump-er. (The harebrained logic of that turn of phrase gels with the comic nuttiness of

Sturges’ satire, don’t worry.)

Got any other favorite satires on double-dealing politicians and the ethics they subvert? Let us know in the comments below. 

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Political Satire College Essays Samples For Students

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Over the course of studying in college, you will certainly have to compose a lot of College Essays on Political Satire. Lucky you if linking words together and transforming them into meaningful content comes easy to you; if it's not the case, you can save the day by finding an already written Political Satire College Essay example and using it as a template to follow.

This is when you will certainly find WowEssays' free samples database extremely useful as it embodies numerous expertly written works on most various Political Satire College Essays topics. Ideally, you should be able to find a piece that meets your criteria and use it as a template to build your own College Essay. Alternatively, our qualified essay writers can deliver you a unique Political Satire College Essay model written from scratch according to your personal instructions.

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If there’s any genre of literature designed to make fun of humankind, it’s satire. In both prose and poetry, writers have employed satirical techniques as far back as Ancient Egypt, utilizing the conventions and elements of satire to write about our follies.

Satire writing has become more popular in recent years. This is partially due to the internet: greater access to information has given writers more follies to satirize. It also helps that satirical publications, like The Onion and Reductress , have amplified satires about the modern day.

While headlines like “ Overly Cautious Pregnant Woman Only Going To Ride Roller Coaster 6 Or 7 Times ” seem silly and unsophisticated, there’s actually a fine art to satire that many readers and writers overlook. This article covers the basics of how to write satire: the different types of satire, the various elements of satire, and different satirical techniques essential to the form. Along the way, we’ll analyze those elements and techniques through some satire examples.

But first, what is satire? It’s important to understand both what it is and what it isn’t . Let’s define satire accordingly.

Satire Definition: What is Satire?

Satire is the art of mocking human follies or vices, with the intent of correcting or criticizing those shortcomings of human nature. It is, quite simply, a tasteful means of ridiculing human behaviors, institutions, and politics.

Satire definition: the art of mocking human follies or vices, with the intent of correcting or criticizing those shortcomings of human nature.

Now, satire isn’t just senseless ribbing. Writing about something with sarcasm, irony, or condescension doesn’t make something satirical. Nor does it count if you simply make fun of something: an essay that laughs at arson victims, for example, would just be cruelty.

Rather, satire must criticize a specific action, belief, or institution. It must poke holes in the logic of those actions, beliefs, or institutions, without ever explicitly stating the humor. Finally, it must showcase this flawed logic with the intent of creating awareness and inciting change.

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Let’s use an Onion article as an example. Read this brief story: “Mark Zuckerberg Asks Hawaiian Neighbor To Cut Down Unsightly, Overgrown Rainforest”

The title alone makes for a great bit of satire, but let’s break down what the article is doing.

• Realistic fiction: For starters, this never happened—but it sounds like something that would.
• Ironic use of “lack of respect”:   Zuckerberg finds the forest’s presence to be disrespectful, though his request to disrupt the natural land is far more disrespectful.
• Hyperbolic language: Phrases like “unkempt biome” and “obnoxious waterfall” are hyperbolic and unusual, signifying the comedy of the article.
• Scornful Tone: The writer of the article clearly expresses a scornful, satirical tone.
• Subtlety: The article never says “Mark Zuckerberg is a bad person.” But it does quote him as calling native Hawaiians “disgusting nuisances,” using a word play device called “paraprosdokian.”
• Logical extremes: The idea behind this article is that a billionaire is making unreasonable, hurtful demands to satisfy his own comforts. This article takes that idea to a logical extreme.
• Juxtaposition of incongruous features: There’s no HOA for Hawaiian rainforests. The inclusion of this detail satirizes the bureaucracy that wealthy people use to their advantage: if there was a rainforest HOA, it would certainly come to Zuckerberg’s benefit.

We’ll examine these elements of satire more closely in a moment. For now, take note that all of these elements—irony, juxtaposition, hyperbole, etc.—are working together in this short but highly effective article.

Elements of Satire

Whether you’re writing Juvenalian satire or Horatian satire (terms we’ll define in a bit), the following elements are useful to writing satirical works. You’ll notice some of these elements working in both the above article and the satire examples we include later on.

• Realism: A work of satire must sound like it could actually happen in the real world. Now, this isn’t always easy, especially if your essay is about a politician condoning the consumption of newborns. What’s important is that satire does not draw attention to its own farce . The story must ostensibly treat its subject matter seriously, even when it uses literary devices in jest.
• Irony :  Irony is when the opposite of what’s expected actually occurs. It is a contrast between “what seems to be” and “what is,” surprising and provoking the reader. Irony is pivotal to satire, as it allows the story to seem realistic while being hyperbolic, while also amusing the reader or challenging a certain assumption the reader has made.
• Hyperbole: Hyperbole is language that is incommensurate with the thing being described. For example, let’s say you walk outside on a hot July day, and you say “it’s a million degrees outside!” Hyperbolic language often makes for great satire writing. Note that “understatement” is an effective form of hyperbole as well.
• Tone: Tone refers to the author’s attitude towards a certain topic. Because the intent of satire is to criticize or make fun of something, the tone of a satire piece might be ironic, sarcastic, mocking, critical, or simply satirical.
• Subtlety: Satire writers need to strike a fine balance between realism and absurdism. The story should seem possible in the real world, but it should also lean into comedy and farce without explicitly stating the thing that’s being satirized .
• Logical Extremes: A logical extreme is when an idea or argument is amplified to a hyperbolic, but still possible, conclusion. Let’s take the argument “Cats are evil.” A logical extreme of this would be “ Kitten Thinks Of Nothing But Murder All Day .”
• Juxtaposition of Incongruous Features: Juxtaposition refers to the close placement of two related objects in text. In satire, writers will juxtapose incongruous features—items which don’t belong next to each other, but are written about as though they do. An example of this would be “ Geologists Find Historical Record of Last 3 Million Years in Woman’s Makeup Brushes .”

It is important to recognize that satire is all about imitation . The story seems like something that could or has happened in the real world, with only slight adjustments to make the story farcical or hyperbolic. These changes—these juxtapositions, hyperboles, and logical extremes—amount to a subtle, yet evocative, critique of the satire’s subject.

Works of imitation are often satire. Parody, for example, is a satirical imitation of another work of art, literature, or media. Similar to parody is the burlesque, which treats a serious work of art as something caricatured and risible. Slapstick, finally, can be satirical, especially when the characters of a slapstick comedy are public figures that the author views as unintelligent.

Pay attention to these elements at play in the satire examples we share throughout this article.

Satire vs. Parody

Because works of parody are intended to mock, riff, or imitate other works of art, parody is often confused with satire. Although parody can produce satire, there are a few key differences between the two.

Parody is always the comical imitation of a certain style or genre. One example of this is Don Quixote, a novel which parodies the romance novels of 17th century Spain. Another example is Candide . Candide is ostensibly a work of satire, but it uses parodies of the romance and adventure novel—for example, the picaresque and the bildungsroman—to construct this satire.

In media, parody is a huge aspect of Saturday Night Live skits. 1-800-Flowers , for example, is a parody of flower commercials on television.

Satire is much more complex than parody.

Satire is much more complex than parody: for one, it is much subtler than the parody, and for another, it specifically criticizes an idea, argument, or person. Parodies can make fun of certain styles or conventions without attacking a particular person or idea—though a parody can also be critical.

In short, parody is a work of imitative art that can stand on its own, or it can contribute to the development of a work of satire, but it is not the same as satire itself.

Satire vs. Sarcasm

A similar dilemma emerges with satire vs. sarcasm: they seem the same, but one is actually an element of the other.

Sarcasm is the use of ironic language to poke fun at another person’s faults. It is verbal irony with the intent of making fun. Let’s say you drop your phone and the screen cracks. Your sarcastic friend (or enemy!) might say “That was so graceful,” implying that what you did was the opposite of graceful.

Sarcasm, thus, is one of the elements of satire. A work of satire might have a sarcastic tone, employ sarcastic description, or rely heavily on inverted language.

People often employ the adjectives “satirical” and “sarcastic” as if they’re synonyms. They are, but they mean slightly different things. “Sarcastic” means “using wit and irony to hurt someone,” whereas “satirical” means “using wit and irony to expose or criticize human folly.”

Satire in Poems

Although most satire examples you’ll find are works of prose, you can also find satire in poems. Satirical poetry relies on the same techniques as works of prose do, but because the poem is constrained by poetry form , the poet must be much more discerning about which elements of satire to include in the poem.

Classical poets such as Dryden, Swift, and Shelley employed satire in poems, but let’s look at an example from the modern day: Read “Thank You For Waiting” by Simon Armitage .

The satire is readily apparent in this poem. The format riffs off of the language that airlines use to board their passengers. By taking this language to its logical extreme, the poem effectively satirizes the artificial class divisions perpetuated by airlines, corporations, and other wealthy, capitalist institutions.

What are the two types of satire?

What are the two types of satire? Literary theorists organize works of satire into two categories: Horatian and Juvenalian. These categories come from the names Horace and Juvenal, two poets of Ancient Rome.

Horatian satire is a typically lighthearted work that pokes fun at mankind’s follies. It is not caustic or overly critical. Rather, it laughs at the failings of mankind with a certain amount of sympathy, telling the truth about our imperfections with a smile.

By contrast, Juvenalian satire is much angrier, and is written with the intent of criticizing and condemning a certain person or institution that the satirist views as evil. These pieces of satire usually confront social and political issues.

There exists a third and less frequently discussed form of satire called the Menippean satire. This type satirizes certain ways of thinking, rather than particular individuals or groups. It tends to be a novel-length work that focuses on societal norms, often including philosophical discussions. Named after an Ancient Greek satirist, a contemporary Menippean satire might poke fun at, for example, altered states of consciousness ( Alice in Wonderland ).

The Menippean satire has its own history and genre conventions which are beyond the scope of this article. To learn more about those conventions, start here .

In the meantime, let’s look at some Horatian satire examples and Juvenalian satire examples.

Horatian Satire Examples

The Horatian satire is the most lighthearted form of satire. As such, these works of literature and journalism are intended to make you laugh—but that doesn’t mean a Horatian satire cannot also be thought-provoking.

Here are a few examples from literature:

1. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Gulliver’s Travels is a novel that satirizes the “travelers’ tale,” a subgenre of literature that was especially popular during the ages of exploration. In the novel, Lemuel Gulliver’s travels take him to a land of tiny people (Lilliput), a land of giants (Brobdingnag), a floating island of the arts (Laputa), and a land of talking horses (the Houyhnhnms).

Throughout these travels, Gulliver often compares the societies and governments of the people he meets with that of 18th century Europe. Each land has its own problems, taken to logical extremes. The Houyhnhnms, for example, are honest and upright people who don’t have a word for lying. (Their name is an onomatopoeia for the sounds horses make.) Yet, they’re happy to suppress Gulliver’s status as an outsider to the local humans (the Yahoos), indicating that they believe silence is better than lying.

Additionally, the character Gulliver is rather easily misled and rarely employs critical thinking. As a result, his outlook on humanity becomes more and more depressing as the story progresses, because he becomes aware of the flaws in each of these societies and comes to believe that all men are the same, rather than recognizing the nuances in human civilization and psychology.

As a result, each element of the story is carefully crafted satire. It’s Horatian satire because many of the situations are intended to make readers laugh, such as the Brobdingnag giants crafting a tiny house that they can carry Gulliver around in. Nonetheless, the novel prompts readers to examine the ways they react to different cultures and lived experiences, as well as coming to terms with the fact that there is no ideal government.

2. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales is noteworthy for a number of reasons, namely that it popularized the use of English vernacular in literature (when, previously, English was seen as a commoner’s language, and literature was written in Latin or French). Partially written in prose and partially written in verse, The Canterbury Tales provides an interesting window into culture and society during the turn of the 15th century.

It is also, when closely examined, a work of satire on the peoples of England.

The Canterbury Tales revolves around a group of pilgrims regaling each other with stories of their lived experiences. Those experiences range widely: characters include a friar, a knight, two nuns, a shipman, a physician, a cook, a pardoner, and many more. Each person’s tale is inevitably informed by their class and social standing. As a result, their stories end up being satires on the lived experiences they represent and, more broadly, satirize elements of medieval society as a whole.

For example, the Nun’s Tale satirizes “courtly love,” a literary genre (and true-to-life representation) of what relationships looked like among the ruling elite. The Nun’s Tale takes place in a barnyard, not in the high courts, which makes a mockery of the acts of chivalry described by the Nun.

The 15th century was a time of great social upheaval for Europe, particularly England, where the emergence of a merchant class and a (non-religious) intellectual class spawned new ideas about the structure of society. The Canterbury Tales capitalizes on these changes by satirizing the societies and psychologies of people in each class.

3. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is most frequently heralded as one of the first time travel novels. Apart from this, it is also a hilarious Horatian satire on the values of medieval Feudalism.

In the novel, Hank Morgan, an engineer from Connecticut, inadvertently travels to 6th century England after being struck in the head. Hank convinces the people of his “magical powers” by telling them about the future. Doing this, he gains power in King Arthur’s course and tries to bring modernity to the 500s. This results in a satire of the values and institutions in both medieval society and 19th century America.

For example, Merlin creates a veil of invisibility, which Sir Sagramor wears in a duel against Hank. Hank pretends that he can’t actually see Sir Sagramor, satirizing the superstitions about magic, as well as the institution of chivalry, prominent in medieval England.

Through the juxtaposition of incongruous societies, Mark Twain pokes fun at human society 1300 years before Twain’s time, while also demonstrating parallels between people then and now.

For contemporary satirical journalism, The Onion and Reductress are both generally examples of Horatian satire, though both are occasionally Juvenalian.

Juvenalian Satire Examples

While Juvenalian satire can certainly make readers laugh, the intent is to ridicule the actions and philosophies of certain societies and institutions. As such, the following Juvenalian satire examples often bear resemblance to the politics of their times, taking political philosophies to their logical extremes.

1. “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift

“A Modest Proposal” is quintessential Juvenalian satire. Written in 1729, the essay satirizes British policy concerning Ireland, as Britain’s occupation of the Irish state routinely caused famine and strife. The essay was originally published under the title “A Modest Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to the Publick.”

The essay’s satire is effective precisely because of its shock value. Swift first describes the plight of Ireland, particularly the suffering of its many beggars and hungry citizens. Then, without warning, Swift’s essay pivots to the nutritional value of eating 1 year old babies (a juxtaposition of incongruous features, and an argument taken to its logical extreme).

Much of the essay is then devoted to the logic behind eating infants: the many ways they can be cooked, the financial benefits, and how it will resolve other issues like murder and taxation. The essay amounts to an argument that is almost convincing. If the reader doesn’t think about the morality of eating children, the satire is almost actually effective in proposing that the consumption of infants is pragmatic policymaking.

Nonetheless, the reader comes to sympathize with the Irish and hate the narrator of the essay, effectively undermining the policymaking decisions of 18th century Britain. Because this essay is criticizing British policymakers and their treatment of the Irish people, there is no doubt that the caustic tone of this piece makes it Juvenalian satire.

You can read “A Modest Proposal” for yourself at Project Gutenberg .

2. Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm is a Juvenalian satire that retells the establishment of the Soviet Union with farm animals in place of political leaders. As such, it adapts the form of the fable into a satirical novella about Trotsky, Lenin, Stalin, and the dramas that unfolded with the overthrow of the Russian monarchy.

Animal Farm begins on an old, dilapidated farm, run by the careless taker Mr. Jones, who represents the monarchy. The pigs band together around the wisdom of Old Major, an elderly pig who represents Lenin, as well as Karl Marx and his teachings. Inspired by the prospect of freedom from Mr. Jones, the animals revolt and claim the farm for themselves.

Much like the beginnings of the Soviet Union, the newly run Animal Farm begins in prosperity. The animals work to modernize the farm and make it self-sustaining, able to nurture all of the animals equally.

Before long, however, some of the farm’s leaders begin to grapple for power. Snowball, who represents Trotsky, tries to maintain the ideals of equality and progress espoused by Old Major (a philosophy called Animalism in the book). Napoleon, who represents Stalin, wants to seize power for himself. To do this, he uses a pig called Squealer, who represents Molotov, the Soviet Union’s head of propaganda. Squealer convinces the farm animals that Snowball is conspiring against the farm, even though it’s really Napoleon who’s conspiring.

The novella then follows how Napoleon abuses the language of progress to satisfy his own needs, hoarding wealth from the farm animals he claims to represent.

What makes this a work of Juvenalian satire? For one, it’s no subtle insult that the leaders of the Soviet Union are represented by pigs. But the work’s satire comes from its farcical resemblance to Europe’s political situation in the first half of the 20th century. Orwell takes Soviet propaganda to its logical extreme, showing how easy it is to manipulate an entire farm (or country!) through the manipulation of words and ideas.

3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Another work of mid-century satire, Brave New World satirizes the ideal utopian society, presenting a world in which everyone is happy and nothing has meaning. In the novel, people are artificially manufactured and born into a certain social class, based on the intelligence and strength they are bestowed upon their manufacturing.

The novel primarily follows Bernard Marx, a high class citizen who starts to question the social structures of the utopia. The society functions in large part due to Soma, a drug that manufactures happiness and is frequently taken by all citizens of the world. Soma allows people to be satisfied with their place in society, so nobody questions the flaws in this apparent utopia—except for Bernard, who doesn’t consume the drug, as well as Bernard’s friend Helmholtz, a writer who struggles to write when he can’t experience his own suffering.

The novel follows Bernard’s reckoning with society, including his witnessing the lives of Native Americans who don’t live in the modern world, and what happens when those Native Americans, who don’t live a manufactured life, find themselves in the manufactured realities of the “utopia.”

What makes this a piece of satire is the extension of social ideals to their logical extremes. For example, the people in Brave New World are sexually liberated, in part because the society has controlled for the possibilities of pregnancy and STIs. When John, a Native, falls in love with Lenina Crowne, he ends up committing suicide because he can’t support her sexual freedom, suggesting there’s a certain loss of humanity that comes from this liberation.

Another example is a satire of contemporary media. Before John commits suicide, he exiles himself to a lighthouse, where he self-flagellates in the hopes of purifying himself of modern civilization. What he doesn’t know is that he is secretly being filmed. When that film is released, all of society zeroes in on John and his strange behavior. This spectacle resembles, in large part, our contemporary lust for information, to the point that we invade each others’ privacy. Huxley wrote this novel far before the advent of social media, but now that we’re constantly filming each other for fame and spectacle, how far off was he?

How to Write Satire

How did the great satirists of history pull off such effective works of literature? In addition to having savage wits and keen eyes for politics, satire writers followed a few strict rules. Here’s how to write a satire in 5 steps.

1. How to Write Satire: Familiarize yourself with satirical techniques

Satire is a difficult genre to pick up, which makes it essential to read like a writer . Read the satire examples we included in this article, and analyze how the following satirical techniques are employed:

• Logical Extremes
• Juxtaposition of Incongruous Features

These elements of satire, when employed strategically, combine to make effective, poignant, and gut-busting stories.

2. How to Write Satire: Begin with a topic or issue you’d like to satirize

Satire can criticize both local issues and global ones. The Canterbury Tales satirizes the stories and personalities prominent in medieval England; conversely, Brave New World criticizes the Western view of utopia and the direction of global society.

Regardless of what issue you choose, do your research. It’s important to understand the arguments for and against a certain issue, and the logic and reasoning behind those arguments. That way, you can take those arguments to their logical extremes, undermining the rhetorical strategies used in favor of the issue you’re against.

For example, let’s say you wanted to write a piece of satire on removing the penny from U.S. circulation. An argument in favor of this is that it could curb inflation. You could then take this argument to its logical extreme. Imagine a country in which we made every coin out of pure gold, and everyone starts fighting with each other for change? Or, imagine a country in which the lowest monetary denomination is the $10 bill, and, again, everyone starts fighting with each other for change?

3. How to Write Satire: Build a narrative

Once you have a topic and a stance on that topic, build a story around the argument you’re trying to undermine.

This is where the art of storytelling , and elements like character, plot, and setting, can prove extremely useful. For example, read this brief Horatian satire from The Onion: ‘ This City. These People. All Sheep, And I Am Their Shepherd,’ Says Eric Adams, Looking Out Over New York .”

NEW YORK—Clasping his hands behind his back and looking out over Manhattan’s iconic skyline, New York mayor Eric Adams was reported to have said, “This city. These people. All sheep, and I am their shepherd,” as he launched into a monologue Wednesday. “I and I alone am the line between order and chaos, guiding toward the light these confused, woeful masses who wander in darkness,” said Adams, who reportedly cast his gaze on the citizens below and contemplated how fortunate they were to have a place in the palm of his merciful hand. “Without me, without my power and my will, each of these 8 million souls would be condemned to a wretched life and death amidst a twisted, seething cesspool of humanity. As they cling to a crumbling precipice, they reach out, in their desperation, to the one man whose whims control their destiny: to me, to their protector, to New York’s greatest benefactor, to Eric Adams!” At press time, sources reported Adam had retired for the night to his apartment in New Jersey.

If you know anything about New Yorkers, you know we always hate the mayor. Let’s deconstruct what this piece is doing:

The issue: At the time of this article’s publication, Adams has been NYC mayor for just over 4 months. In that time, he’s had a formidable media presence, but he often sounds a bit self-aggrandizing when he talks about the city and the role he’s going to play in running it. In a recent video message, he’s quoted saying “I will not stop until the peace we deserve becomes the reality we experience.” The issue is that the mayor might be all words, no action—especially when those words are already overwrought.

The satire : This article amps up the melodrama, taking Adams’ speech to a logical extreme. The parody of his melodrama builds Adams up to be a god-like figure, as he is the difference between “order and chaos,” between “life and death.” He is even “the one man whose whims control [New York City’s] destiny.”

The storytelling: This article makes a sort of caricature of Adams. A caricature is a type of characterization in which the character is one dimensional and distorted for the audience’s pleasure. The story, here, is that Adams went off on a monologue before retiring to his non-NYC apartment, making the story’s structure a satire for his administration: all talk, no action.

4. How to Write Satire: Surprise the reader

All works of satire have an element of surprise. The reader shouldn’t be able to expect where the story goes, otherwise it’s not doing a good job of delighting and provoking the reader. As such, your satire should have a twist, even if that twist doesn’t occur until the final sentence.

Pay attention to the twists in the above satire examples. In “A Modest Proposal,” the twist is the proposal itself: that the solution to Ireland’s poverty is to cook and consume 1 year olds. In The Onion article about Eric Adams, the twist is that he goes home to New Jersey.

The twist should both surprise the reader and advance a certain satirical argument. Whatever you do, be clear about what you’re mocking and criticizing, because this will inform what your twist is and help you stick the landing.

5. How to Write Satire: Edit for clarity and laughs

Can you make your story more ironic, hyperbolic, or realistic? Are you juxtaposing unalike items in clever ways? Is it clear who or what your satire is criticizing? Ask yourself these questions as you edit your piece: the goal is to distort reality just enough that the reader knows this is satire, but to still be hyperbolic and ironic, even if the work is more Juvenalian than Horatian.

Learn How to Write Satire at Writers.com

Ready to laugh at the world? The instructors at Writers.com are eager to help you polish your works of satire. Take a look at our upcoming writing courses , and write satirical stories and books alongside our award-winning instructors .

Sean Glatch

Excellent presentation, Sean. It gave me some structural ideas for a collection of poems and epistles in the vein of Horace and Juvenal. I’ve previously published a parody of Voltaire’s Candide. My story is called: The Alchemy of Happiness. ( which is the title of a book by a Muslim scholar from the 10th century.

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NPR in Turmoil After It Is Accused of Liberal Bias

An essay from an editor at the broadcaster has generated a firestorm of criticism about the network on social media, especially among conservatives.

By Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson

NPR is facing both internal tumult and a fusillade of attacks by prominent conservatives this week after a senior editor publicly claimed the broadcaster had allowed liberal bias to affect its coverage, risking its trust with audiences.

Uri Berliner, a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years, wrote in an essay published Tuesday by The Free Press, a popular Substack publication, that “people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview.”

Mr. Berliner, a Peabody Award-winning journalist, castigated NPR for what he said was a litany of journalistic missteps around coverage of several major news events, including the origins of Covid-19 and the war in Gaza. He also said the internal culture at NPR had placed race and identity as “paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.”

Mr. Berliner’s essay has ignited a firestorm of criticism of NPR on social media, especially among conservatives who have long accused the network of political bias in its reporting. Former President Donald J. Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to argue that NPR’s government funding should be rescinded, an argument he has made in the past.

NPR has forcefully pushed back on Mr. Berliner’s accusations and the criticism.

“We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories,” Edith Chapin, the organization’s editor in chief, said in an email to staff on Tuesday. “We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world.” Some other NPR journalists also criticized the essay publicly, including Eric Deggans, its TV critic, who faulted Mr. Berliner for not giving NPR an opportunity to comment on the piece.

In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Berliner expressed no regrets about publishing the essay, saying he loved NPR and hoped to make it better by airing criticisms that have gone unheeded by leaders for years. He called NPR a “national trust” that people rely on for fair reporting and superb storytelling.

“I decided to go out and publish it in hopes that something would change, and that we get a broader conversation going about how the news is covered,” Mr. Berliner said.

He said he had not been disciplined by managers, though he said he had received a note from his supervisor reminding him that NPR requires employees to clear speaking appearances and media requests with standards and media relations. He said he didn’t run his remarks to The New York Times by network spokespeople.

When the hosts of NPR’s biggest shows, including “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” convened on Wednesday afternoon for a long-scheduled meet-and-greet with the network’s new chief executive, Katherine Maher , conversation soon turned to Mr. Berliner’s essay, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting. During the lunch, Ms. Chapin told the hosts that she didn’t want Mr. Berliner to become a “martyr,” the people said.

Mr. Berliner’s essay also sent critical Slack messages whizzing through some of the same employee affinity groups focused on racial and sexual identity that he cited in his essay. In one group, several staff members disputed Mr. Berliner’s points about a lack of ideological diversity and said efforts to recruit more people of color would make NPR’s journalism better.

On Wednesday, staff members from “Morning Edition” convened to discuss the fallout from Mr. Berliner’s essay. During the meeting, an NPR producer took issue with Mr. Berliner’s argument for why NPR’s listenership has fallen off, describing a variety of factors that have contributed to the change.

Mr. Berliner’s remarks prompted vehement pushback from several news executives. Tony Cavin, NPR’s managing editor of standards and practices, said in an interview that he rejected all of Mr. Berliner’s claims of unfairness, adding that his remarks would probably make it harder for NPR journalists to do their jobs.

“The next time one of our people calls up a Republican congressman or something and tries to get an answer from them, they may well say, ‘Oh, I read these stories, you guys aren’t fair, so I’m not going to talk to you,’” Mr. Cavin said.

Some journalists have defended Mr. Berliner’s essay. Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, NPR’s former ombudsman, said Mr. Berliner was “not wrong” on social media. Chuck Holmes, a former managing editor at NPR, called Mr. Berliner’s essay “brave” on Facebook.

Mr. Berliner’s criticism was the latest salvo within NPR, which is no stranger to internal division. In October, Mr. Berliner took part in a lengthy debate over whether NPR should defer to language proposed by the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association while covering the conflict in Gaza.

“We don’t need to rely on an advocacy group’s guidance,” Mr. Berliner wrote, according to a copy of the email exchange viewed by The Times. “Our job is to seek out the facts and report them.” The debate didn’t change NPR’s language guidance, which is made by editors who weren’t part of the discussion. And in a statement on Thursday, the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association said it is a professional association for journalists, not a political advocacy group.

Mr. Berliner’s public criticism has highlighted broader concerns within NPR about the public broadcaster’s mission amid continued financial struggles. Last year, NPR cut 10 percent of its staff and canceled four podcasts, including the popular “Invisibilia,” as it tried to make up for a $30 million budget shortfall. Listeners have drifted away from traditional radio to podcasts, and the advertising market has been unsteady.

In his essay, Mr. Berliner laid some of the blame at the feet of NPR’s former chief executive, John Lansing, who said he was retiring at the end of last year after four years in the role. He was replaced by Ms. Maher, who started on March 25.

During a meeting with employees in her first week, Ms. Maher was asked what she thought about decisions to give a platform to political figures like Ronna McDaniel, the former Republican Party chair whose position as a political analyst at NBC News became untenable after an on-air revolt from hosts who criticized her efforts to undermine the 2020 election.

“I think that this conversation has been one that does not have an easy answer,” Ms. Maher responded.

Benjamin Mullin reports on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact Ben securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or email at [email protected] . More about Benjamin Mullin

Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email:  [email protected]   More about Katie Robertson