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Good Topics for Satires

Satire takes a look at hot, current issues and criticizes people, ideas or events by looking at them from an often outrageous, alternative viewpoint that is convincing but unworkable. " A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift exemplifies good use of the technique. His essay, a comment on the attitude of the wealthy to the starving Irish during the famine, suggests that poor people sell their children at a meat market and thus reduce the population and solve economic problems. Politics, news and the media are all good sources of satirical topics.
  1. Politics

    • Politics and satire have a long-running relationship. Political parties, politicians and changes in the law all provide good pickings for the satirical writer. Read newspapers and watch the news regularly for events. Immigration, changes in the health service and gun control are evergreen topics for satire. The Daily Satire website is a good guide for the prospective satire writer and covers Europe and and Canadian political topics as all as American.

    Religion

    • Extreme religious views that threaten to impinge on society are legitimate satirical topics. The Landover Baptist church website satirizes fundamentalist Christian views so convincingly that new readers are often convinced that the outrageous view published on the site are genuine. The site´s purpose highlights the dangers that some religious views present to sectors of society, such as homosexuals, women and followers of other faiths. The key to good satire, especially when religion is the topic, is to keep it tasteful. It is possible to criticize extreme views without being offensive.

    Science

    • Most weeks a scientist somewhere in the world announces that something is bad for us. The scientist´s view is sometimes reversed, or at least other scientists argue about it. Many of the prohibited foods seem harmless, or at least humans have been eating them for so long that the fact they are suddenly harmful seems absurd. Life on other planets is another possible topic that a writer might use as the basis of a satirical comment on life on Earth, such as views on population control.

    The Media and Celebrities

    • Reality television shows of every kind are ideal for satire. From entire shows devoted to cops chasing cars to the daily confessional shows, where audiences watch individuals expose their emotionally harrowing secrets as a form of entertainment, there is plenty of material for a satire on the current media influnce on society. Celebrities, and the way the public and media treat them, is also a subject for satire.

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