Satire (nonfiction)

Drawing on limestone of a scene from a fable, Ancient Egyptian, 19th dynasty, c1120 BC. A cat with a shepherd's crook and a bag over his shoulder guards six geese and a nest of eggs. From the Cairo Museum.

Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule.

Satire is typically used with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government or society itself, into improvement.

Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.

A feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm -- "in satire, irony is militant" -- but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, hyperbole, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing.

This "militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist wishes to attack.

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