"Satire" isn't "funny things"; satire indeed is social criticism posing as art. Satire may often employ humour, but neither is necessary for the other. Unfortu

"Satire" isn't "funny things"; satire indeed is social criticism posing as art. Satire may often employ humour, but neither is necessary for the other. Unfortunately, in recent times, large sections of the English-speaking world (or maybe just English-speaking Internet; I'm not sure) have taken the word "satire" to mean "something that shouldn't be taken seriously". I think it can be partly blamed on the fact that English speakers are introduced to "satire" via Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal; which indeed extensively employs exaggeration, irony and black humour and isn't meant to be taken literally. But this is not a defining characteristic of satire. There are plenty of works that can just as rightly be called satire, and contain hardly any of these. Animal Farm is a satire of communism. Brave New World is a satire of consumerism. Black Mirror is a satire of technological progress (or rather, humanity's irresponsible use thereof). In neither of these works humour is a major element; you may find a few gags here and there, but the message of each work would have stayed intact if those had been cut out. I think this semantic shift creates a situation where the average person's natural response to something being called "satire" is to stop taking it seriously, or thinking about it at all. Which is another way satire can fail. It's been worrying me a lot lately. PS. Relevant — DFW on irony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKdZU9Db6fk&t=2m33s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKdZU9Db6fk&t=2m33s