This is a satire piece that I found recently. Usually I’m not one for satire. Hey, I’m sarcastic all the time: “wow all my friends are sooooo cool!” (it’s sarcastic because no friends…that’s how satire works, right?) If it’s a type of joke that everyone makes all the time, it doesn’t strike me as a fantastically good joke.
But sure, satire can be good if it’s done well. I’m not saying this is done well, but it is a funny idea to me. I like the funniness of it more than I like what it’s actually trying to say.
My main problem with satire is not that it’s an “easy” joke, but that it often comes with a political position or “cause.” For me humor is simpler than that. If you’re trying to do something or evoke something besides laughter, you’re over-thinking it. You’re just using humor as a tool. I think humor is good for humor’s sake. And to me, the best humor is humor alone and nothing more.
This piece does seem to be “trying to do more.” It quite sarcastically claims that, amidst all the terrorist hubbub, that white males are the really scary thing in this country: they’re the ones who have been shooting down all the schools. Funny, but I don’t like to read into it too much. Form your own opinion, I guess!
Mark Sundeen is an author and writer for Salon.
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