Satire is, at its core, punching up.
Satire is a medium with a long history of cleverly and precisely criticizing those in power, notably through creative media ranging from literature to film and comics. It exposes our shortcomings, pokes fun at our flaws and hopes to provoke thought as well as societal change.
However, for satire to be effective, we first have to understand what it is. Its function is fundamentally political and critical, and not all humor is capable of earning the label. With the rise of the internet, satire has been continuously challenged, embraced and misunderstood. Its political function is dangerously diluted when “satire” becomes synonymous with “joke.”
When satire targets systemic injustices perpetrated by the powerful, it serves as a form of resistance. But when satire is misrepresented and used to mock the marginalized, it becomes hate disguised as humor.
If we don’t understand what satire is, it can transform into mediocre, gratuitous and often hateful attempts at humor. When these jokes are allowed to co-opt the label of “satire,” they gain a sense of legitimacy that can be harmful to society’s most vulnerable. Hostile views may become more commonplace when hate speech is masked by humor.
Noah Isenberg, radio-television-film professor, specializes in media studies and film history. He notes satire may be distinguished from hate speech through its use of nuance and subtlety.
“Satire serves to cast a harsh and unforgiving light onto those who are in power and those who are corrupt,” Isenberg said. “At this moment in time, we have plenty of evidence of political corruption … certainly in our country and elsewhere across the globe. I think that satire is a means of, in a very modest (and) not violent way, undermining that power and doing so in a way that, ideally, is funny.”
Not all humor that claims to be satire truly is, and it’s often used to disguise and validate attacks aimed at marginalized groups. It’s easy to aim at the weakest members of society and easy to laugh at them. But satire is the opposite of easy. In reality, satirical humor’s genius is its ability to communicate often difficult messages, packaged in the ease of humor.
However, while humor mislabeled as satire can be harmful for marginalized groups, satire can be just as powerful in their hands.
Ya’Ke Smith, filmmaker and radio-television-film professor, focuses on social cinema and storytelling. He argues that satire can be effective for minoritized groups because it allows them to mitigate the pain caused by institutions through humor.
“When you think of minoritized groups, we are most of the time the ones who are at the receiving end of the greatest pain,” Smith said. “When you think of racism, when you think of sexism, when you think of homophobia, all of those things are wielded at minoritized groups. We need the levity of being able to laugh about some of those things, sadly, because if you only approach those things thinking about how horrible they are, it will completely consume you.”
But when these jokes don’t come from these groups and are instead made at their expense, allowing them political legitimacy exacerbates their harm. It’s easy to pass off ignorant, discriminatory or hateful rhetoric as politically conscious when we forget that satire requires challenging the powerful. While an ordinary joke may be subject to criticism, satire’s perceived higher political function makes it harder to challenge; pointing out insensitivity can lead to attacks on the critic’s intelligence rather than the supposed satirist’s intentions.
Satire reaches us by disarming us. However, we must not be so disarmed that we forget who has earned our ridicule. Not all jokes are satire; some are just hateful, unintelligent or lazy.
“(Satire) elicits critical reflection on the part of the viewer,” Isenberg said. “I think even that alone is a step in the right direction. I worry that so much of what’s occurring in the world today, part of it, is meant to lull us to sleep, that these sorts of things can only be achieved if people are sleepwalking through life, and we need to be alert. We need to be awakened.”
Being awakened is even more important now, as marginalized groups are increasingly scapegoated by the individuals and institutions satire is supposed to target. It’s essential that we understand what constitutes meaningful political expression and, more importantly, what doesn’t. Satire validates speech in a way that plain humor doesn’t, and recognizing that fact makes us better equipped to engage with satire beyond passive consumption.
Ultimately, when we consume content that’s labeled as satirical, it’s important to ask ourselves what — or who — we’re really laughing at.
Tuscano is a government sophomore from Round Rock, Texas.
