viz.

Video Credit: Youtube.com

John Lloyd, producer of Spitting Image (1984–1996), tells a story of how he was asked to validate the "humor" of the title ('If the unemployed are hungry, why don't they eat themselves') to television executives who missed his allusion to Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal (8:08 min). He had given these lines to the puppet of conservative MP Norman Tebbit (with bat above). Lloyd’s story gestures to two limitations to satire on the boob tube:

1. The public's general lack of familiarity with the satirical tradition

2. A pervasive demand for our ‘satirists’ to operate as ‘comedians’

A brief explanation through the lens of satires during Jonathan Swift's era (17th–18th c.) might clearly show that the english language/english-speaking population once possessed:

1. a refined and self-conscious conception of satire

2. a definite distinction between comedy and satire

To begin, if we consider Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary—published in the golden age of British satire—we find a striking differentiation between:

Comedy: [comedia, Lat.] A dramatick representation of the lighter faults of mankind

Comical: [comicus, Lat.] (1.) Raising mirth; merry; diverting

Comedian: A player or actor of comic parts

Satire: [satira, anciently satura, Lat. Not from satyrus, as satyr] A poem in which wickedness or folly is censured.

Satirick: (1.) Belonging to satire; employed in writing of invective; (2.) Censorious; severe in language

Satirist: One who writes satires

Image Credit: Eighteenth-Century Collections Online

Writers and artists have formerly recognized several forms of satire. For example, there are several well-defined classical forms. A polite “Horatian” satirist would favor laughter, wit, and amusement, and tend toward conciliatory, quietist, apolitical stances. A “Juvenalian” satirist, conversely, would compose brash, abrasive, indignant, and confrontational works. Juvenalian satirists embraced a tragic sensibility regarding vice, folly, and corruption. They attacked forces that did not fear the law itself. The 'Juvenalian' adopted a persona of unquestionable authority—a pose of moral righteousness. Beyond the prominent Horatian and Juvenalian styles, there is also the learned "Menippean” satirist, who focused on ideas, mental attitudes, and the "humours," and culled subject matter from an obscure and diverse array of sources. In contrast to this rich discourse of satirical possibilities, we now have a narrow idea of satire. Some influential voices in the media don't even understand what satire is. Case and point:

Video Credit: Crooksandliars.com

Wallace's obtuseness to satire (I'll be generous and not call it disingenuity) suggests to me that he and his colleagues need more exposure to it. The following video is one satire I like, because it effects the belly (laughter) and the gut (disgust). Skip the lengthy musical introduction below, but check out Amy Goodman's interview with the "Yes Men" and see their pseudonymous satire in the "private sphere" (courtesy of Haliburton). Our steak-and-potatoes badge of corporate/collective shame:

Video Credit: Youtube.com

So I suggest that we might start thinking about and experimenting with this wider sphere of satirical possibilities. Our society seems to be asking us to.

Video Credit: Youtube.com