Satire—the act of ridiculing human vices
and follies, often with the intent of
correcting, or changing, the subject of the
satiric attack
Subject of scorn, laughter or ridicule
In literature, it’s when a character’s flaws are
exaggerated or ridiculed. SNL and Jon Stewart
often single out political figures and mock the
way they handle situations.
Mocking imitation of a known person, literary
work, movie, or event
Ex: The movie Scary Movie,
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,
many South Park episodes
Imitation of the literary epic and its style by
exaggeration and distortion and by elevating the
trivial to a higher level than it deserves
“The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope
is an example of mock-heroic verse.
Pope's poem was inspired by Lord Petre's
cutting of a lock of Miss Arabella Fermor's
hair without her permission.
A double meaning; saying one thing and
meaning another
Ex: Our school library is simply overflowing with
books!
Exaggeration by saying more than you mean to
say—all hyperbole is a form of overstatement
Overstatement in William Shakespeare's Macbeth:
 In Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, in order to gain
the crown, Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, have
plotted to successfully murder King Duncan. Yet,
Macbeth immediately begins to feel the guilt of his
deed when he holds up his hand, with Duncan's blood
on it, and asks Lady Macbeth:
 "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood /
Clean from my hand?" (Act 2, Scene 2).
Implying the opposite by saying less than you mean
to say
Ex: You don’t have your senior project on its due date
and your advisor tells you: “No worries… It’s only a
diploma.”
Understatement in William Shakespeare's Macbeth:
Shakespeare is using an obvious overstatement in the
last frame that nevertheless encompasses the
magnitude of the Macbeths's crime of murder. Of
course, the blood can easily be washed off with a
small amount of water. In fact, Lady Macbeth makes
this point, while also understating the murder: "A
little water clears us of this deed."
Going quickly from the sublime or serious to
the ridiculous or to over sentimentalize
(melodramatic)
Ex:"O Moon, when I gaze on thy beautiful face,
Careering along through the boundaries of space,
The thought has often come into my mind
If I shall ever see thy glorious behind."
(A Housemaid Poet, quoted by D.B. Wyndham
Lewis and Charles Lee in The Stuffed Owl: An
Anthology of Bad Verse, 1930)