Political and Social Satire

Satire is a form of humor in which the characteristics of an individual, a group of individuals, or even a society are exaggerated, to comic effect, in order that audiences can perceive how foolish they are. In a way, satire can be seen as proof of the old saying that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar - audiences (in theatrical satire) or readers (in literary satire) will more willingly accept painful truths if they're laughing while they're doing it. To look at it in another way, satire is perhaps the equivalent of the once-popular practice of applying so-called "laughing gas" to patients during dental procedures - they don't notice the pain if they're otherwise having a good time. Very often, the ultimate purpose of satire is two-fold - to awaken those who watch and/or read it to those painful...