Satire is Tough

Most Youtube comedians use the form of satire as their comedy. Satire is basically pretending to support an ideal that you actually criticize by emphasizing it's flaws. This can be absolutely hilarious and extremely effective, which is why it is used by so many people. Some examples of Youtubers who use satire extensively are Ryan Higa, Jack Douglas, and Ian and Anthony from Smosh. They all pretend like they believe outdated or offensive things in order to show the ridiculousness in believing those things. These topics can range from something trivial such as varying pop culture fads or serious topics like homophobia and racism.

The dangerous part of satire is that, when it is taken out of context, performed ineffectually, or merely misunderstood, can be misconstrued that the satirist actually believes those views. For example, if Ryan Higa performed a satire on how some people are inexplicably racist towards asians by being overly offensive and satirical, it might be thought that he actually meant those offensive remarks and was himself, a racist. This might be slightly hard though as Ryan Higa himself is Asian-American.

Still, there are comedians whose careers and personal lives have been ruined by their misunderstood satire. One of the earliest satirists was Swift in his "Modest Proposal" in which, among other offensive remarks, he offered cannibalizing babies as a method to ease the economic troubles. Even today, I have still met people that upon reading Swift's "Modest Proposal" honestly believe that he was condoning and suggesting eating babies as a serious solution.

Even in modern times the misunderstanding of satire can hurt comedian's careers. One of the great comedians/satirists of our day, especially in the political field, is Stephen Colbert, who satirizes the Conservative party. In a segment in which he satirized the racial comments of the Washington Redskins owner he made a racial comment about Asian-Americans. When taken out of context, many saw Colbert's remarks as racist and Suey Park, a "hashtag activist" started the #CancelColbert hashtag. While this was merely a minor hiccup in the career of Stephen Colbert as many others vindicated his joke and showed that is was satirical and not genuine, it could have severely hurt his career if the majority of the population perceived him and his show as racist.

Two pieces of advice come out of this. One, if you are a satirist, make sure you are clear about your actual intentions so that you don't get misunderstood and accused of supporting the belief's that you are condemning. Two, if you are a viewer, try to look at the quote or segment in context before making rash judgement on whether someone is actually being offensive or satirical.

Swift's Modest Proposal - http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html
Cancel Colbert Story - http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/03/twitter-campaign-to-cancel-colbert-report.html