The Evolution Of Satire: Where The Daily Show Is Taking America

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." -1st Amendment of U.S. Constitution. Fortunately for Americans, they have the permission by law to speak their minds under almost any circumstance about almost anyone or anything. Particularly, humorists and comedians have challenged the 1st Amendment freedom of speech and pushed beyond the boundaries of what is appropriate or inappropriate. Satire, a particular form of humor, is a technique that has been used for centuries in order to express ridicule on government and society. However, the satirist of the past and those of today have different motives and purposes to their use of satire. What is being experienced today is a negative and inappropriate use of it. The question must be asked - under which circumstances and where is the line drawn that constitutes what is inappropriate? By moral standards, there will be disagreement between people in America, but as U.S. citizens, they have an obligation to respect and honor the leaders of their country. The political satire used in humor today is a disgrace to the concept of patriotism in society, and honor and morality musts be restored to the government and the American people.

Amendments were created in order to protect citizens and their freedom of speech, but

Stapinski 2

there are circumstances where a line should be drawn about what can and cannot be said in public. In fact, a line has been drawn in the situation where it is illegal to yell fire in a room full of people (when there is not actually a fire). This is because of the seriousness of the issue, and the danger it can create if panic breaks out. The Supreme court has ruled (Near v. Minnesota, 1931) that government officials should punish the abuse of a right and not place prior restraints on the exercise of the right. It is known that yelling fire in a building is punishable, so isn't this in actuality a restraint if there is no way around it? In order to also protect citizens from other dangers, it is too a restraint and is necessary and valuable as well because of what is prevents. Just as in the case where airport security has tightened up its process following 9/11, that questioned the right to privacy, creating certain limitation on liberties is for the benefit of everyone as a whole, regardless of the inconvenience on the individual level.

Humor in any of its forms, from jokes to parodies, has tiptoed the line of what is and is not appropriate from the beginning of its use. However, comedians like Lenny Bruce in the 50s, George Carlin in the 60s, and Richard Pryor in the 70s had actually stepped over that line. Carlin is well known for his stand up act "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" that deliberately uses those words that were known to get him in trouble. Although Carlin may have thought he was just trying to exercise his freedom of speech, he was actually pushing the lines of saying things that were dangerous to some who heard him. Children first off should not be exposed to that material, and not everyone curses and uses the type of language he used. In the US Supreme Court case FCC v. Pacifica Foundation in 1973, it was ruled that Carlin's act was "indecent but not obscene." The difference between the two really is hard to tell. As the years go on, the line is pushed further and further away from what was once considered indecent, and

Stapinski 3

what was once obscene is not inappropriate. Unless a clear line is drawn, how far will comedy go before it become a problem in society? Comedy, and specific forms such as satire, were not intended to break boundaries for the sake of breaking them, but rather, there is specific intentions behind early satire.

Satire was initially intended to be a form of humor set apart from normal comedy that tended to focus on things which can be corrected in order to improve something or someone. Professor Ian Johnston in "AN Brief Introduction to Restoration and Eighteenth Century Satire" defines satire as "a particular use of humor for overtly moral purposes. It seeks to use laugher, not just to remind us of our common often ridiculous humanity, but rather to expose those moral excesses, those corrigible sorts of behaviors which transgress what the writer sees as the limits of acceptable moral behavior (B)." In order to provoke some change in society or government. Satirists in the past have written or spoken in a way that uses burlesque, irony, and parody in order to mock others but for the sake of improvement. Also argued by Johnston, satire can come in many forms, but it is still considered satire as long as the intentions of the writer are to make people laugh while at the same time pointing out flaws in their behavior that is correctable (C).

A satirist's relations with his audience is difficult because he must "persuade and convince, according to author Arthur Pollard of Satire and The Critical Idiom, and the issues the satirist usually addresses "must make his [audience] agree with him in identifying and condemning behavior (1)." In the past, writers have attempted to identify and condemn the behavior of man, including government, in terms of his foolishness or lack of respect or morality. Pollard also makes the point that in order for a satirist to be successful, his society must uphold the same ideals as he does, and in that position, he is very powerful (2). What this

Stapinski 4

means is that what is being said by the satirist is a concept or position that others in the society agree with. If they're weren't, then no one would bother to listen or read what the satirist has to say. In some ways, society, or the audience of the satire can become to believe what to satirist is arguing. However, this can all be very dangerous when the ideals that are being upheld are actually creating more problems in society than they aim to correct. Earlier forms of satire avoided this problem for the most part. They type of satire used in Gulliver's Travels, and the intention Swift had in mind when writing it followed the format of early satire. The first three parts of the story, which describe the societies of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and Laputa, satirize different aspects of eighteenth-century English societyÐ'--its politics, its wars, and its new science. The use in Gulliver's Travels was purposeful and was designed to focus on something that could be changed in society.

Satire