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Definition and Examples

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Satire, artistic form, chiefly literary and dramatic, in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, parody, caricature, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to inspire social reform.

Satire is a protean term. Together with its derivatives, it is one of the most heavily worked literary designations and one of the most imprecise. The great English lexicographer Samuel Johnson defined satire as "a poem in which wickedness or folly is censured," and more elaborate definitions are rarely more satisfactory. No strict definition can encompass the complexity of a word that signifies, on one hand, a kind of literature-as when one speaks of the satires of the Roman poet Horace or calls the American novelist Nathanael West's A Cool Million a satire-and, on the other, a mocking spirit or tone that manifests itself in many literary genres but can also enter into almost any kind of human communication. Wherever wit is employed to expose something foolish or vicious to criticism, there satire exists, whether it be in song or sermon, in painting or political debate, on television or in the movies. In this sense satire is everywhere.

In literary works, satire can be direct or indirect. With direct satire, the narrator speaks directly to the reader. With indirect satire, the author's intent is realized within the narrative and its story. Although this article deals primarily with satire as a literary phenomenon, it records its manifestations in a number of other areas of human activity as well.

The nature of satire

Historical definitions

The terminological difficulty is pointed up by a phrase of the Roman rhetorician Quintilian: "satire is wholly our own" ("satura tota nostra est"). Quintilian seems to be claiming satire as a Roman phenomenon, although he had read the Greek dramatist Aristophanes and was familiar with a number of Greek forms that one would call satiric. But the Greeks had no specific word for satire, and by satura (which meant originally something like "medley" or "miscellany" and from which comes the English satire) Quintilian intended to specify that kind of poem "invented" by Gaius Lucilius, written in hexameters on certain appropriate themes, and characterized by a Lucilian-Horatian tone. Satura referred, in short, to a poetic form, established and fixed by Roman practice. (Quintilian mentions also an even older kind of satire written in prose by Marcus Terentius Varro and, one might add, by Menippus and his followers Lucian and Petronius.) After Quintilian's day, satura began to be used metaphorically to designate works that were satirical in tone but not in form. As soon as a noun enters the domain of metaphor, as one modern scholar has pointed out, it clamours for extension, and satura (which had no verbal, adverbial, or adjectival forms) was immediately broadened by appropriation from the Greek satyros and its derivatives. The odd result is that the English satire comes from the Latin satura, but satirize, satiric, etc., are of Greek origin. By about the 4th century ce the writer of satires came to be known as satyricus; St. Jerome, for example, was called by one of his enemies "a satirist in prose" ("satyricus scriptor in prosa"). Subsequent orthographic modifications obscured the Latin origin of the word satire: satura becomes satyra, and in England by the 16th century it was written satyre.

Elizabethan writers, anxious to follow Classical models but misled by a false etymology, believed that satyre derived from the Greek satyr play: satyrs being notoriously rude, unmannerly creatures, it seemed to follow that the word satyre should indicate something harsh, coarse, rough. The English author Joseph Hall wrote:

The Satyre should be like the Porcupine,
That shoots sharpe quils out in each angry line,
And wounds the blushing cheeke, and fiery eye,
Of him that heares, and readeth guiltily.

The false etymology that derives satire from satyrs was finally exposed in the 17th century by the Classical scholar Isaac Casaubon, but the old tradition has aesthetic if not etymological appropriateness and has remained strong.

In the prologue to his book, Hall makes a claim that has caused confusion like that following from Quintilian's remark on Roman satire. Hall boasts:

I first adventure: follow me who list,
And be the second English Satyrist.

But Hall knew the satirical poems of Geoffrey Chaucer and John Skelton, among other predecessors, and probably meant that he was the first to imitate systematically the formal satirists of Rome.

By their practice, the great Roman poets Horace and Juvenal set indelibly the lineaments of the genre known as the formal verse satire and, in so doing, exerted pervasive, if often indirect, influence on all subsequent literary satire. They gave laws to the form they established, but it must be said that the laws were very loose indeed. Consider, for example, style. In three of his Satires (I, iv; I, x; II, i) Horace discusses the tone appropriate to the satirist who out of a moral concern attacks the vice and folly he sees around him. As opposed to the harshness of Lucilius, Horace opts for mild mockery and playful wit as the means most effective for his ends. Although I portray examples of folly, he says, I am not a prosecutor and I do not like to give pain; if I laugh at the nonsense I see about me, I am not motivated by malice. The satirist's verse, he implies, should reflect this attitude: it should be easy and unpretentious, sharp when necessary, but flexible enough to vary from grave to gay. In short, the character of the satirist as projected by Horace is that of an urbane man of the world, concerned about folly, which he sees everywhere, but moved to laughter rather than rage.

Juvenal, more than a century later, conceives the satirist's role differently. His most characteristic posture is that of the upright man who looks with horror on the corruptions of his time, his heart consumed with anger and frustration. Why does he write satire? Because tragedy and epic are irrelevant to his age. Viciousness and corruption so dominate Roman life that, for someone who is honest, it is difficult not to write satire. He looks about him, and his heart burns dry with rage; never has vice been more triumphant. How can he be silent ( Satires, I)? Juvenal's declamatory manner, the amplification and luxuriousness of his invective, are wholly out of keeping with the stylistic prescriptions set by Horace. At the end of the scabrous sixth satire, a long, perfervid invective against women, Juvenal flaunts his innovation: in this poem, he says, satire has gone beyond the limits established by his predecessors; it has taken to itself the lofty tone of tragedy.

The results of Juvenal's innovation have been highly confusing for literary history. What is satire if the two poets universally acknowledged to be supreme masters of the form differ so completely in their work as to be almost incommensurable? The formulation of the English poet John Dryden has been widely accepted. Roman satire has two kinds, he says: comical satire and tragical satire, each with its own kind of legitimacy. These denominations have come to mark the boundaries of the satiric spectrum, whether reference is to poetry or prose or to some form of satiric expression in another medium. At the Horatian end of the spectrum, satire merges imperceptibly into comedy, which has an abiding interest in human follies but has not satire's reforming intent. The distinction between the two modes, rarely clear, is marked by the intensity with which folly is pursued: fops and fools and pedants appear in both, but only satire has a moral purpose. And, although the great engine of both comedy and satire is irony, in satire, as the 20th-century critic Northrop Frye claimed, irony is militant.

Nicolas Boileau, Dryden, and Alexander Pope, writing in the 17th and 18th centuries-the modern age of satire-catch beautifully, when they like, the deft Horatian tone. However, satire's wit can also be sombre, deeply probing, and prophetic, as it explores the ranges of the Juvenalian end of the satiric spectrum, where satire merges with tragedy, melodrama, and nightmare. Pope's ends with these lines:

Lo! thy dread Empire, Chaos! is restor'd;
Light dies before thy uncreating word:
Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall;
And Universal Darkness buries All.

It is the same darkness that falls on Book IV of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, on some of Mark Twain's satire- The Mysterious Stranger and "To the Person Sitting in Darkness"-and on George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four and, in a more surrealist vein, Joseph Heller 's .

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Satire, artistic form, chiefly literary and dramatic, in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, parody, caricature, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to inspire social reform. Satire is a protean term.

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When a family or friend chooses the wrong decision

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Definition and Examples

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Cliché Definition

Cliché refers to an expression that has been overused to the extent that it loses its original meaning or novelty. A cliché may also refer to actions and events which are predictable because of some previous events.

All examples of Cliché are expressions that were once new and fresh. They won popularity in public and hence have been used so extensively that such expressions now sound boring and at times irritable due to the fact that they have lost their original color. For instance, the phrase "as red as a rose" must have been a fresh and innovative expression at some point in time but today it is considered universally as a cliché and does not sound good to be used in everyday formal writing.

Expressions that are not Clichés

It is important to keep in mind that constant reuse of expressions does not necessarily create a cliché. Typical expressions that are used almost at all times in formal ceremonies, festivals, courts etc. are not considered cliché examples; rather they befit such occasions and are regarded as more appropriate:

"I second the motion" (Courts)

"I now pronounce you man and wife" (Wedding Ceremony)

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." (Oath taking ceremony)

"Happy Birthday!"

Similarly, certain epithets like "reverend" and "father" are attached to the names of church officials. Besides, people of the royal family are addressed with epithets "Your Grace", "Your Highness" or "Your Royal Highness". Such expressions are part of etiquette and do not fall under the category of clichés.

Common Cliché Examples

Example #1

In describing time, the following expressions have turned into cliché

in the nick of time - to happen just in time

only time will tell - to become clear over time

a matter of time - to happen sooner or later

at the speed of light - to do something very quickly

lasted an eternity - to last for a very long time

lost track of time - to stop paying attention to time

Example #2

In describing people, these expressions have turned into cliché

as brave as a lion - a cliché to describe a very brave person

as clever as a fox - a cliché to describe a very clever person

as old as the hills - a cliché to describe an old person

a diamond in the rough - a cliché to describe someone with a brilliant future

fit as a fiddle - a cliché to describe a person in a good shape

as meek as a lamb - a cliché to describe a person who is too weak and humble

Example #3

In describing various sentiments, a number of expressions have turned into cliché e.g.

frightened to death - to be too frightened

scared out of one's wits - to be too frightened

all is fair in love and war - to go to any extent to claim somebody's love

all is well that ends well - a happy ending reduces the severity of problems that come in the way

every cloud has a silver lining - problems also have something good in them

the writing on the wall - something clear and already understood

time heals all wounds - pain and miseries get will with the passage of time

haste makes waste - people make mistakes in a rush

Example #4

Below is a list of some more common clichés:

They all lived happily ever after.

Read between the lines

Fall head over heals

Waking up on the wrong side of the bed

The quiet before the storm

Between the devil and the deep blue sea

Function of Cliché

Anton C. Zijderveld, a Dutch sociologist, throws light on the function of a cliché in the following extract taken from his treatise "On Clichés":

A cliché is a traditional form of human expression (in words, thoughts, emotions, gestures, acts) which-due to repetitive use in social life-has lost its original, often ingenious heuristic power. Although it thus fails positively to contribute meaning to social interactions and communication, it does function socially, since it manages to stimulate behavior (cognition, emotion, volition, action), while it avoids reflection on meanings.

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Cliché - Examples and Definition of Cliché

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Cliché refers to an expression that has been overused to the extent that it loses its original meaning or novelty. A cliché may also refer to actions and events which are predictable because of some previous events. All examples of Cliché are expressions that were once new and fresh.

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Showing how many people can show up with one problem happening

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Family Guy - French Guy and a Black woman     National Geographic

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FAMILY GUY is a 20th Century Fox Television production. Seth MacFarlane is creator/executive producer. Mark Hentemann and Steve Callaghan serve as executive producers/showrunners, while Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild are executive producers.

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Definition and examples

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slapstick, a type of physical comedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous, usually violent action. The slapstick comic, more than a mere funnyman or buffoon, must often be an acrobat, a stunt performer, and something of a magician-a master of uninhibited action and perfect timing.

Outrageous make-believe violence has always been a key attraction of slapstick comedy, and, fittingly, the form took its name from one of its favourite weapons. A slapstick was originally a harmless paddle composed of two pieces of wood that slapped together to produce a resounding whack when the paddle struck someone. The slapstick seems to have first come into use in the 16th century, when Harlequin, one of the principal characters of the Italian commedia dell'arte, used it on the posteriors of his comic victims.

The rough-and-tumble of slapstick has been a part of low comedy and farce since ancient times, having been a prominent feature of Greek and Roman mime and pantomime, in which bald-pated, heavily padded clowns exchanged quips and beatings to the delight of the audience.

The Renaissance produced the athletic zanies of the commedia dell'arte and even rougher clowns, such as the hunchbacked, hook-nosed, wife-beating Pulcinella, who survived into the 20th century as the Punch of children's puppet shows.

Slapstick reached another zenith during the late 19th century in English and American music-hall entertainment and vaudeville, and such English stars as George Formby and Gracie Fields carried its popularity well into the 20th century. Motion pictures provided even greater opportunities for visual gags, and comedians Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops introduced such classic routines as the mad chase scene and pie throwing, often made doubly hilarious by speeding up the camera action. Their example was followed in sound films by Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, and the Three Stooges, whose stage careers predated their films and whose films were frequently revived beginning in the 1960s and were affectionately imitated by modern comedy directors. The best of the slapstick comedians may be said to have turned low humour into high art.

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Slapstick | Definition, History, & Facts

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Slapstick, type of physical comedy characterized by broad humor, absurd situations, and vigorous, often violent action.

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Chases and physical comedy gives you a good laugh

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This video clip is from family gut s 10 ep 22 i don't own tnis