One man's satire is another man's outrage.

RomanKnows

Wiki defines satire as being a humorous construct with a greater purpose of providing social criticism. Vices, follies and shortcomings are held up to ridicule. Yet good satire can often inspire outrage in those who don't understand it. From the Juvenalian satire of Swift and his A Modest Proposal through Chris Morris and his Brasseye, we have had a section of society who vehemently disagree or misunderstand with the satire being presented.

The reason I ask is that Waterford Whispers News posted an article entitled 5 IRA Atrocities That Will Make You Feel Old. The reaction to it on Facebook has been extraordinary with torrents of abuse being fired at the writer and those who professed to finding it humorous.

Is the outrage a sign that the piece achieved exactly what it set out to do? If people find it offensive, then why so? These atrocities happened. Or is it just deliberately offensive?

waterfordwhispersnews.com/2015/02/09/these-5-ira-atrocities-will-make-you-feel-so-old/

kneemos

Some like the outrage,get a buzz from it or something.

Menas

Some people just think that the death and suffering of others is not something worthy of a joke.

Oh man, we’re starting to feel pretty old right now; the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings in London were 33 years ago! 11 military personnel blown to pieces by nail-bombs , and that’s not counting their horses! That’s so long ago we doubt even senior members of Sinn Féin remember it, or if they do, they sure don’t mention it that often.

Nucular Arms

Offence is taken, not given.

You don't have control over what anyone else in the world says or does, all you can really control is your own response to it.

The WW site is pretty lame in general, their satire is fairly amateurish. Most people (with half a brain) would be able to easily identify something as satirical or not, provided it conforms to the norms of the medium.

I would imagine it was just that the quality of the writing / material there that has people misunderstanding it.

kjl

I think the absolute king of satire is Stephen Colbert

It's not that popular over here and now he has finished up but I don't think there will ever be someone as good as him for taking the crazy things they say in the news and putting a satirical spin on it.

Ben D Bus

Trigger Happy wrote: »

Some people just think that the death and suffering of others is not something worthy of a joke.

But satire isn't simply a joke, it's commentary.

The two kids caught in the blast would have been 26 and 35 now, if they hadn’t been killed!

TheBeardedLady

Satire has to be done properly e.g. the aforementioned Brasseye but that Waterford Whispers thing is not funny. The Slate (remember The Slate?) was funny satire. WW tries too hard. The Onion it is not and never will be.

valoren

I think the point of the piece is "Lest we forget", and is a pointed dig at certain party leaders who have never been involved with these type of activites.

The satirical-trollish way of communicating it means it will be spread as wide as possible.

4zn76tysfajdxp

Whenever I see people talking about satirists, I always imagine these really plummy-voiced jokesters patting each other on the back after submitting yet another perfectly crafted, but cutting, quip going "Well done, chaps, let's see the Prime Minister worm his way out of this one!"

TheBeardedLady

Rosalyn Large Martian wrote: »

Whenever I see people talking about satirists, I always imagine these really plummy-voiced jokesters patting each other on the back after submitting yet another perfectly crafted, but cutting, quip going "Well done, chaps, let's see the Prime Minister worm his way out of this one!"

.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxXW6tfl2Y0

Harry Palmr

Sure many will already be feeling old when recalling the events of 9th November 2001.

Capt'n Midnight

RomanKnows wrote: »

From the Juvenalian satire of Swift

There's one thing we aren't sure of about Juvenal, the political climate at the time. Was satire something the Romans liked warts and all or was he taking a risk ?

For me one of the most amazing pieces of satire has to be Eisenstein's film Ivan the Terrible. There's a time and place to do satire about Stalin.



Here's another thing that might make you feel old, Gerry has been president or vice-president of SF since 1978.

Venus In Furs

Satire can still be done crappily (applicable in this case IMO) and come across as more like trying to be outrageous than in any way clever or subtle or providing a commentary.