How to Write Satire About Current Events

You can satirize technology by wearing a suit made of computer keys.

Satire is a sharp-edged art form. A satirist uses irony, exaggeration or ridicule to demean the people and situations she doesn't like. Yes, it can be mean-spirited and grouchy, but the best mean-spirited grouches can be a lot of fun to read. That's why Mark Twain and Kurt Vonnegut are such popular authors. While not everyone can be in their league, anyone can write satire if he starts with an understanding of his subject and a strong opinion about it.

Instructions

1. Find a topic that makes your blood boil. This should be easy enough whatever your political or social views. Look for subjects that involve discord, radical opinions and extreme behavior.

2. Find a quote from someone at the heart of the topic that makes your blood boil. Even though public figures and their representatives sometimes speak off the record (and responsible journalists refer to them as unnamed sources), plenty of high-profile people are still publicly shooting themselves in the foot every day.

3. Put words in this person's mouth. For best results, begin with a direct quote from her and take it in a new direction. Exaggerate the person's words to the point of being ridiculous. Consider your victim's background; imagine what someone with similar greed, fear or dogma might actually think, and complete the actual quote with those words.

4. Stir more public figures into the mix if you want to create a more complex piece of satire. They could be people who interact with each other daily (the president and the speaker of the House, for example) or people whose paths would never have crossed in reality (Bono and Queen Victoria).

5. Predict an outcome to the situation you've set up. Nihilists and mean-spirited grouches might see nothing but disaster, while reformers and optimists might see this little fiction as a teaching moment. So spotlight your world view, whatever it is.

6. Move on after you've had your say. Goring the same ox over and over will eventually make you less interesting as a satirist. Broaden your range of targets.

Tips & Warnings

• Unless your work has great literary merit, timely satire has a brief shelf life -- issues come and go, and styles of humor change. Jonathan Swift wrote in the 18th century and is still considered a master of the form, but this is unusual among satirists.

• Although the First Amendment protects some defamatory speech about public figures, there's still a legal gray area around whether statements made in "actual malice" can be prosecuted as libel. If you use fictitious names, keep enough resemblance for your readers to understand who your character is supposed to be. As a satirist, you'll walk a thin line between infamy and obscurity, so beware.

References

• TeacherWeb: How to Write Parody and Satire
• Virtual Salt; The Purpose and Method of Satire; Robert Harris