Double Satire

In today's society, a lot of what we as consumers see in the media are different forms of satire. There are a vast amount of televisions shows that have satire embedded in their foundation. For example, The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, The Colbert Report, etc. All of these shows comprise of satirical jokes and essentially rely on them to constitute the principal or dominant theme of the shows. Satire is literary/mediated work that diminishes or derogates a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn or indignation. The two I am going to address specifically, are horatian satire and juvenalian satire. These two types of satire are very different from each other. 

The first type of satire, horatian, is typically more gentle, urbane, and aims to correct through gentle, sympathetic laughter. One of the first topics that I thought related to horatian satire is Miley Cyrus. Miley has been under extreme observation lately, or was more so in the previous year, when her imaged changed from charming, innocent Disney actress to a wild, sexual, pop artist. Below, I have an example of horatian satire directed toward Miley Cyrus. 

It is clear within this example of satire that the goal is to make fun of Miley's dancing and sexualization of herself at the 2013 VMA awards show. During this show, she exposed her new image to the world. She wore little to nothing, danced provocatively, and changed the way the entire world saw her as a singer/actress. This example is funny and isn't necessarily harmful. It's illustrating how majority of the public felt after watching her perform two years ago at the VMA's. 

I posted another example of horatian satire below so you can further grasp the idea of it. 

 In this example, the author is poking fun at those who believe biking is more financially efficient than driving. The comic explains that while the biker depicted thinks he's saving much more money by not buying gas, he's actually spending what he would have spent on gas on bike tires and bike accessories. This is an innocent and gentle way of illustrating the contradiction or argument that can occur between bikers and drivers.

On a different note, however, juvenalian satire aims to do the opposite of horatian satire. Juvenalian satire is bitter, biting, has an angry contempt, and moral indignation. Juvenalian satire can be seen within a lot of different contexts. One common context is politics. There are many comics that have biting messages about past/current presidents. Another context is race. Below, I have an example of juvenalian racial satire.


This example of juvenalian satire illustrates a black man being lynched and pulling the "race card". We often hear about these types of stories within the media when a black victim is accused of pulling the "race card" to justify something. By making satirical illustrations revolving around this sensitive topic, we're essentially covering up the underlying issue. People aren't focusing on what the real problem is when they accuse a black person of pulling the "race card". They're overlooking it entirely. This illustration was pretty bitter in that sense.

So the question is, how do you distinguish between horatian and juvenalian satire? And what should our reaction be when we witness biting satire?

It's mainly a personal decision. It's important that you, yourself, decide how to react. Some comics, like the examples I've included, are meant to make you smile and consider the topic further, while others are created out of pure distaste and aversion. It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to let it affect you. And if you are affected in any way by the form of satire, talk about it. It's beneficial to think out loud. Talk to your friends about it, your parents, your roommates, etc. Discuss how it affected you and see if they feel the same way. It can become a learning experience by doing this. And not only a learning experience for you, but for those who you choose to share it with.