When does it become offensive?

A satiric cartoon that has gained a lot of attention over the past few years is this cartoon portraying the president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, when he is about to rape the Justice system. In a documentary that is currently showing here in Sweden Zapiro, the creator of this cartoon, explains why he decided to create the cartoon. He states that for him it is natural to be an activist and a satirist at the same time and that the cartoon was his statement against the power abuse and corruption of the South African government. In the documentary, he also enhances the power of satire by stating that his cartoons are often used in English and history tests in South Africa.

Since Zapiro was an active satiric cartoonist during the apartheid period in South Africa, he says that it is natural for him to protect democracy. He also says that he is probably willing to go further in doing this than most other people, which brings me to the title of this blog post: How far can you go with your satire, when does it become offensive? Personally, I think that Zapiro had every right to draw Jacob Zuma like he did. What I sometimes have trouble with are satiric cartoons of Mohammed. What do you think? Can everything be satirized and, if not, where do you draw the line?

Posh people don't stand a chance

To build onto what I was saying earlier about satire being a weapon that can be used to fight someone with more power than yourself, I thought that it could be interesting (and fun) to show you this clip, which satirizes people of the upper class. Upper-class people are often satirized; they are a very grateful subject for ridicule. The Romans, who introduced the concept of satire (they called it satura, and even though all satura would not be classified as satire today, it is very similar to satire) were amongst the first to satirize the upper class. One of the earliest examples is Petronius' Dinner with Tramalchio, which contrasts the behavior of a group of wealthy freedmen to that of upper-class Roman citizens. It basically criticizes the greed and conceit of Rome's upper class.

Now, for more modern satire, I want to show you this clip called Posh People, which ridicules the life of the upper class in an extremely entertaining way.

 

Why I love satire (and why you should too)

If I was to tell you why I love satire in one sentence I would say: "I love satire because it is one of the few things in this world that the weak can use to get back at the strong.” John Snyder touches upon this in his book Prospects of Power: Tragedy, Satire, the Essay and the Theory of Genre where he states that “Satire consists of literary strategies for gaining moral, social, religious or political ascendancy by reasoned demonstration that its high targets really are what they have been from the start – low” (p. 97). This, according to me, is a unique quality of satire in a society where most power is exercised by people in high positions (government officials, corporate leaders, leaders of big organisations and coalitions etc.) towards the “common man”. In a way, satire is almost exclusively reserved for the common man; it uses jokes and similes that the common man understands and appreciates. What’s more important is that satire almost exclusively aims at targets richer or more powerful than the common person; it aims at celebrities, companies, politicians, rich people and powerful religious leaders. To me, satirists are like Robin Hood-characters with slightly more conventional methods.

Let’s take a look at this example of satire from The Simpsons. Does it agree with John Snyder’s idea of satire as something demonstrating that its “high targets really are what they have been from the start – low”?

Same, same (but different) - Oprah satirized

So far, no example of British satire has appeared on this blog. This is really unpardonable when you consider the great amount of amazing British satire out there. I became aware of this a few hours ago when I was watching a celebrity talk show, featuring celebrities that all spoke of the same thing when interviewed (though, I admit it, they all had slightly different ways of saying the same thing). This made me think of an Oprah-sketch from A Bit of Fry & Laurie (a British comedy show) that I saw a while ago, featuring Stephen Fry as Oprah Winfrey and Hugh Laurie as a celebrity being interviewed by her. This is true satire in that it is “almost indistinguishable from the actual Oprah show” (which is the sketch's most liked comment on Youtube). At least I think so. Watch it for yourselves and see if you agree. 

 

Anyone could do it

I have noticed that a lot of people feel slightly intimidated by the word "satire". Most people seem to agree that they are capable of understanding and using irony and sarcasm, while they regard satire as something that can only be used by professional comedians and writers. I see it as my job to tell you that this is not the case.  In fact, everyone who has ever felt annoyed at something and made fun of it in a way that exposed the stupidity of the said something has used satire in one way or another. Satire does not have to be political; its core lies in it being critical. As an example of this, one could look at this video clip by the Youtube channel Satire, which makes fun of Iphone 5 (i.e. not a very heavy subject): 

However, having said this, you still need to practice in order to be able to write good satire. More importantly, you have to conduct serious research/have real knowledge of what you want to satirize before you can truly satirize it. Jonathan Swift could never have written A Modest Proposal had he not been “exiled” to Ireland. Voltaire would never have written Candide if he had not been exposed to the inequalities of the class system in 18^th century France. In short, you are only capable of achieving great things with your satire if you are really knowledgeable and/or passionate about it. But if you find your passion, gain knowledge and start writing I say you have a pretty good chance of coming up with something great. Satire was made for the masses.