The Role of Political Satires in a Polarized World

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between satire and truth in the increasingly polarized, complex, and quite frankly ridiculous, political landscape we live in. Yet a well-written satire is an absolute gem, offering a form of commentary that manages to both entertain and inform the audience, serving to be a crucial tool in modern democracy. 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines satire as a “literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn.” Essentially, satires work like a funhouse mirror, distorting or exaggerating certain truths to reflect the absurdities of the world we live in. For this reason, good satire is so hard to find or write: at least a kernel of truth must be present to provide critique, yet often gross misrepresentations create a strawman’s satire, failing to truly represent the situations at hand.

Some famous political satires have been done by popular shows like “Saturday Night Live,” cooking up satires of political events in less than a week. Satires of political debates, like the debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and court hearings have become well-loved clips on YouTube, garnering over 30 million views each. 

These satirical sketches don’t just mock political figures through impersonations, but capture certain attributes of a politician’s character or policy stances. Satires have the ability to reveal truths that straight reporting might miss. While Donald Trump may not have actually pranced around the podium hurling childlike insults, he still did willfully ignore the moderator and obstructed the debates with rather un-presidential antics. 

Satires can also serve as an entryway into the world of politics for younger generations. In an age where politics have layers of discourse and multiple different analyses, satire has the ability to break down more complex issues into bite-sized, easier-to-digest forms. Traditional politics isn’t necessarily known for being entertaining nor understandable, so satirical sketches occupy a niche of being both political and entertaining. The accessibility of political satire is absolutely crucial in fostering a well-informed youth electorate.

And perhaps most importantly, satire acts as a check on power. Political satires, by mocking those in positions of power, reminds both the public and the rich and powerful that no one is above scrutiny. While in a healthy democracy the freedom of speech to criticize these figures of authority would be well-available, in more limited environments, satire takes the spot of traditional commentary. In places where free speech is repressed, satires, often spontaneously, emerge as art and literature to subvert authority and challenge the status quo. 

For example, “Animal Farm” is a satirical novella published in 1946 as a result of the author, Geroge Orwell, being extremely unhappy with the temporary alliance between England and the USSR causing British intelligences to hold Stalin in high regard. The novella, while a fable of farm animals overthrowing a human farmer to achieve a utopia finding themselves once again in a tyranny, alludes to the Russian Revolution and the consequent Stalinist era of Russia. While a direct critique of the USSR would not have been published under wartime alliances and censorship, the seemingly simple narrative of “Animal Farm” persevered, and was published after a few delays. The book became an immediate hit after publication, and helped mold public and international opinion during the Cold War. 

While political satires at times do oversimplify complex issues or reinforce existing biases, the merits of satire ultimately lie in its potential to stimulate critical thinking. Because a good satire not only mocks the subject at hand, but provides an alternative point of view that prompts readers to question the issues themselves after having a good laugh. And in our current media landscape, where misinformation and bias run rampant, satires can cut through the noise to highlight absurdities and inconsistencies, encouraging us viewers to think and form opinions for ourselves.