Parody imitates for comedy, while satire mocks without reproducing. Parody movies recreate popular conventions and characters for humor, while satire is subtle and linked to social or political change. The goals of parody and satire differ, with satire seeking to explore anger or frustration with the status quo.
The terms parody and satire are sure to make any English major smile and send the rest of the world scrambling for their dictionaries. The distinction between parody and satire is a complex one and can be complicated by overlapping comic styles. Most definitions consider a parody to be an imitation of an idea, concept or person established for comedy, while satire deconstructs a subject for humor without directly reproducing it.
The difference between the two styles can best be explained through the example. Parody movies have become a popular genre in recent years, with hits like Scary Movie and blockbuster sequels like Date Movie, Epic Movie, and Not Another Teen Movie. These films take popular movie conventions and recreate them for over-the-top humor. These films also create caricatures of famous characters from recent films and character archetypes, such as Harry Potter and Willy Wonka.
Satire is a more subtle concept, involving mockery usually without mimicry. The style is often linked to a desire for social or political change, leading some to call satire the meeting of humor and anger. One of the most famous satirical films is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, a 1964 black comedy about the Cold War by Stanley Kubrick. Satire is easy to get wrong; when dealing with sensitive or personally important matters, many believe that humor should not be applied. Satire requires a certain degree of objectivity or personal detachment, to accept humor in sometimes dangerous or devastating situations.
Parody and satire are often confused or reversed in definition. Part of this may be related to the fact that satire sometimes used parody as a tool to get the humor across. The fake news program The Colbert Report is often described as both parody and satire. Precisely, it’s a parody of news pundits like Bill O’Reilly, used to make a satirical point about real socio-political commentary shows.
An important distinction between parody and satire is the goals they seek to achieve. While both are considered styles of humor, their purpose could be very different. Almost exclusively, satire explores anger or frustration with the status quo, using humor as a tool to make the subject palatable. Parody may or may not have the desire to incite social change and may be used for pure entertainment through extreme depictions of established ideas or characters.
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