Suggestions For Identifying Satire

It is becoming problematic to identify satire these days. We all laugh when someone mistakes satirical news articles for real ones, except when we didn’t notice it was satirical ourselves. I think part of this is that there are so many satire sites out there these days that we don’t immediately pick up on satirical sites that we aren’t already familiar with. Worse, the actual news is sometimes so absurd these days that even the satirical articles sometimes seem completely possible.

Just think about how many satirical sites there are out there. I don’t think anyone is familiar with them all. I know The Onion, The Daily Currant, The Lapine, and The Borowitz Report. I’m sure there are others. We won’t even talk about how many teacher friends tell me that their students got mad when they didn’t realize that the assigned reading, Swift’s A Modest Proposal, was satire.

Whether understandable or not, there is a chance that this can happen to anybody. It happened to me at least once, I admit it. However, there are some things we can do when we find an article that seems really, really wild in order to not look like idiots when someone calls us on it for assuming it was real:

- If the website has an ‘about’ section, read it real quick. Sites like The Lapine mention that they are satire in their ‘about’ page.

- Look at their other articles. One of the other articles may make it clear that the site is satire. For example, you can be pretty sure Scalia didn’t try to burn down the Supreme Court building. Context can help when a particular article is so close to absurd reality as to seem possible itself.

- Check to see if there are other news articles about the subject. If something really wild did happen, the site you found won’t be the only news source reporting on it. Reporters can sometimes get an exclusive, but other news sources will make some kind of report if it’s actual news.

- Do a quick search for the name of the site and ‘satire.’ Someone else may clue you in that the site you have found is a satire site.

Do I remember to do these things myself all the time? No, sometimes I still make mistakes. However, when I remember them, I usually realize what’s really going on. Then I don’t look quite as dumb. Given the state of the world, satire is sometimes hard to identify these days.