Parody and Satire

A parody, also called a spoof, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), a caricature or a joke, is a work which is created to imitate and/or make fun of or comment on an original work—its subject, author, style or some other target—by means of satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, "parody ... is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice".Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music (although "parody" in music has an earlier, somewhat different meaning than for other art forms), film, animation and gaming. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody Links to an external site.) 

Satire is a genre of literature and performing arts, usually fiction and less frequently in non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement.[1] 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", according to literary critic Northrup Frye—[2] but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, 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 question.

Satire is found in many artistic forms of expression, including internet memes, literature, plays, commentary, television shows, and media such as lyrics. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire Links to an external site.)

Watch this video, which shows a few of the ways in which parody and satire differ.

 

 

Disinformation and Parody

There have been a number of examples in which sites that were intentionally created to spread falsehoods have defended themselves by claiming their statements were parody. As a reader, you have to pay careful attention to those sites that are parody and satire sites (e.g. The Onion) and those that intentionally seek to mislead. 

Checking Information

You will learn a variety of techniques to fact check in this module, but for contemporary information, urban legend, fake news, you might first want to visit Snopes Links to an external site., has been fact checking news stories and rumor since 1994.