Satire Examples

Satire is when an author uses exaggeration, humor, and irony to criticize something about a person or society. Author's turn a serious subject into something humorous by exaggerating or employing irony to expose the foolishness of society.

Satire can be used to ridicule a person, a group of people, or society as a whole. The hope is that by pointing out the foolishness of the person, group, or society, that a situation might improve.

1. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal"-satire proposes that children be eaten in order to deal with overcrowding in London during the Industrial Revolution.

2. Mark Twain uses satire in Huck Finn-through Huck's comments and remarks about how society works-through the eyes of an uneducated child-Twain points out the foolishness of slavery and the Southern social structure of the time period.

3. Jonathan Swift also uses satire in Gulliver's Travels-the entire story is a satire of English society. One example is that the fictitious Lilliput has two political parties, that are only different because of the size of their boots. Swift uses these two parties as a satire of the Whigs and Tories in England.

4. John Stewart on The Daily Show consistently satirizes our current society and political events by turning his "serious" newscast into an ironic exaggeration of current events.

5. Stephen Colbert does a similar thing on The Colbert Report-he satirizes current events and talk show hosts as well.