Satire

Aldous Huxley ●Born 1894 United Kingdom ●English writer and philosopher “Brave New World” published 1932 About a perfect utopian society with a ruling government that controls everything. Government ensures safety and happiness at the cost of progress and change. Citizens are assigned jobs for life and given a happy drug called “Soma.” Birth has become artificial and citizens are encourage to have sex with anyone they please. The society lacks individuality and differences. Everyone’s life is planned out and there is no room for new innovations and discoveries. They are in a sense stuck in an infinite loop of pleasure, ignorance, and conditioning. The satirical point in this book is humans effort in creating a perfect society only leads to their own demise.

Jonathan Swift ●Born 1667 Republic of Ireland ●Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, poet “Gulliver’s Travels” published 1726 This book follows the adventures of an englishman who want to travel the world. The book is broken up into 4 parts to each tell his tales from the 4 places he visits. First his ship wrecks in Lilliput, a land inhabited by small humans called lilliputians. He then leaves and ends up in a land of giants called Brobdingnag. After this island he goes to Laputa, a land of academics and theoreticians. The last place Gulliver visits is an unknown land ruled by rational thinking horses called Houyhnhnms and brute humans. The satire in his book comes from his experiences from the natives of the lands he visits. Lilliputians symbolize misplaced human pride, Brobdingnag symbolize human existence, Laputans symbolize knowledge useless to human advancement, and finally Houyhnhnms symbolize a standard of rational thinking

Politics And Satire During the 1960’s late night comedy shows became increasingly popular. These shows use satire and parody to deliver news about politics. There is no one that is off limits to the comedians they talk about any and everybody. Presidents, Senators, Congressmen and women are all targeted in these shows. ●Late Night Comedy Shows o The Colbert Report w/ Stephen Colbert o The Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart o Real Time With Bill Maher o and many more

How is satire used? ●Humor has long been valued for its ability to convey qualities about politicians to the public, both when the politicians define themselves and when the politicians are defined by others ●Humor has long been an important tool for presidential candidates on the campaign trail by humanizing them while endearing them to their constituents. ●this humor may reduce the chasm between candidate and voter while establishing the candidates' personal qualities and enhancing prestige ● it can also be used as a tool to attack and denigrate opponents both within and out-side the candidate's political party. ●The laughter that occurs can also serve to signal support for the candidate and increase group cohesion. ●used by candidates to attack competitors and outsiders while not appearing impolite