Poisoning The Well: How Satire and Spoof Have Become The New Way of Spreading Disinformation

by Nomad

Another casualty of the 2016 presidential campaign, besides civility and sanity, has been the meaning of the word, satire. Today, satirical or fake news sites function as disinformation sources.  

 

When Every Day is April Fool's

Satire, sarcasm's helpful cousin, is a constructive form of mockery, "aimed at ridiculing those whom it is directed to." The dictionary tells us that its purpose is to "employ humor to instigate people towards positive change."

It's been around in one form or another since the earliest days of theater, back in ancient Greece. In fact, the first comedies were mainly satirical and mocked men in power for their vanity and foolishness. 

Men who took themselves too seriously. Men whose ignorance begged to be called out. In other words, men very much like Donald Trump. 

Later, Roman satire became "a vehicle for biting, subversive social and personal criticism." The key word here is "subversive." It was never normally the propaganda tool of the ruling class, but a sharp stick to poke at the social elites and the people in power. 

There's a famous story from the historian Suetonius, about the Roman emperor Vespasian who enjoyed his court jester making satirical jokes about the pompous men of society. The emperor said "What about me? Make a joke at my expense."

The wit, picking up on Vespasian's perpetual grimace and furrowed brow, said, "Oh I will.. as soon as you finish relieving yourself."

In modern times, satire has been a very effective tool to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society. A kind of social commentary through ironic humor. 

Of all the things that this election has torn asunder, one thing that has had little coverage has been the death of satire. That's an odd thing too since there has been a rise in the number of news spoof sites.