Why satire is important

In Britain the rich and powerful get more comfortable, the poor are increasingly afflicted, and the satiric volleys are fired with greater and greater frequency and have less and less effect. In the days when I still considered myself to be a satirist, I would tell people that in a society in which there was little true agreement about the fundamentals of morality, the best satire could do would be to prick people's consciences sufficiently to make them think about right and wrong at all.

I was wrong - such a multicultural satire cannot even do that, let alone pass the test of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, because the kinds of comfort - if comfort it is - that people experience in states of ethical complacency, differ so very widely.

One person's morality may be founded in grotesque religiosity, another's in outright bigotry, a third's may rest on values that are quite incomprehensible to the majority of their fellow citizens.

If we consider the scatter-gun nature of the seeming satire that Charlie Hebdo dispensed we can see quite clearly that it fails to pass the test. Who really is afflicted by depictions of the Prophet Mohammed? Well, almost all believing Muslims. And who's comforted by these depictions?

Who finds their earthly burden lifted by contemplating such heavenly insults? No doubt there are those whose sense of alienation from society, whose paranoia and powerlessness are eased by identifying with others who, frankly, don't give a damn, but this shouldn't be mistaken for a constructive dialogue about how to make society more equal, more fair, or more just.

The paradox is this - if satire aims at the moral reform of a given society it can only be effective within that particular society, and, furthermore, only if there's a commonly accepted ethical hierarchy to begin with. A satire that demands of the entire world that it observe the same secularist values as the French state is a form of imperialism like any other. Satire can be employed as a tactical weapon, aimed at a particular group in society in relation to a given objectionable practice - but like all tactical weapons it must be very well targeted indeed.

But there is more complexity to laughter than we may think. It is a natural defense mechanism we all share when it comes to trying to comprehend the absurdity we encounter every day, but it also opens up the doors to our consciousness and can serve as great teacher. Republished with kind permission of Content Insights , the next generation content analytics solution that translates complex editorial data into actionable insights. Skip to content. Digital Publishing. Why satirical news sites matter for society.

Thank God for that. Satirical journalism — not just for laughs Satire in journalism existed way before the digital era. Dooley became something many would [still] feel accurately describes the role and responsibility of journalists: The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Satirical news sites vs. The research defines fake news in the following way: Fake news is information, presented as a news story that is factually incorrect and designed to deceive the consumer into believing it is true. Facebook Twitter Email. The above article is an opinion piece expressing the views of the contributor author and not necessarily the views of WNIP.

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