1. Introduction to Satire
The Canterbury Tales

2. Satire
The blend of a disapproving attitude with humor and wit in order to affect change in human institutions (government, school, etc.) and humanity (individual people).
Six devices of satire exist.

3. Mockery Mockery diminishes its subject by evoking laughter or scorn.
Example:
When someone has a really strong accent and you make fun of him by imitating that accent and making it even more ridiculously extreme, this is an example of mockery.
A parody of a soap opera that makes fun of how seriously it takes itself is an example of a mockery.
Colbert Report, SNL skits, Key & Peele , The Onion, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Scary Movie, etc.

4. Dramatic Reading of a Breakup Letter

5. Mockery Examples Ellen/Matthew McConaughey’s commercial
SNL “Beygency”

6. Parody
Parody diminishes its subject through imitation and ridicule. Parodies traditionally imitate serious works or people who take themselves too seriously. The true craft of parody is minimal tampering.
Examples:
Al Yankovic songs, SNL skits, Key & Peele, etc.

7. Saturday Night Live

8. Verbal Irony
Verbal irony presents a double meaning in which you say something and mean another. Essentially, it is the use of opposites.
Example:
“There was no reason for the marriage to fail” following a list of all the reasons the individuals are incompatible.
When someone comments on the great weather outside and it’s raining.

9. Mean Girls

10. Sarcasm
An expression of strong disapproval, sarcasm is personal, jeering, and typically intended to hurt.
Can be considered a kind of verbal irony
Example:
In Act I, scene i of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Sampson claims, “I strike quickly being moved,” and a few lines later, Gregory responds, “To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand: / therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn’st away.”

11. Big Bang Theory

12. Understatement
Understatement is a figure of speech in which you say less than what you mean.
Example:
Chaucer describes his Nun: “She never let a crumb fall from her mouth.”

13. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

14. Overstatement
Overstatement is hyperbole, exaggerating by saying more than you mean.
Example:
“All of them feared him as they feared the plague,” Chaucer says of his Reeve.

15. The Colbert Report http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq8Lc973A1A