A few words about satire

From Jonathan Swift to Saturday Night Live and The Onion -- and, now, absrd COMEDY -- writers have used satire to offer what Wikipedia (see below) describes as “constructive social criticism.” In other words, food for thought, wrapped in humor.
Since first discovering the genre, in freshman English, I have loved satire, both for its potential to make people laugh and its power to prompt serious thought about real-life social, cultural, political and international issues. I began writing satire myself while editor of my high school newspaper and I continued in college, after which I got a “real” writing job. My satire fizzled, at least on the written page.
So imagine my delight when I discovered absrd COMEDY earlier this year. Actually, I discovered Jeff Dwoskin’s absrdNEWS Twitter account first. Open-sourced, anyone could contribute. I started to. Jeff was already thinking web site when I and others encouraged him to take the plunge. He did. I wrote some of the earliest entries for absrd COMEDY -- specifically, The Cave Timesand Real Putin News, which I continue to write, along with posts under my own name.
Jonathan SwiftSome people spend their few spare minutes in the busy day playing Angry Birds or Candy Crush, or noodling around on Facebook or arranging their spice shelves or whatever. I write these snippets of satire. Whether they’re funny and thought-provoking or not -- well, you be the judge.
Under Jeff’s stewardship -- he calls himself Chief Creative Officer (I like that one!) -- absrd COMEDY has continued to grow and grow. I am happy to be part of things. One of my acquaintances in college was the great humorist Jim Downey, who went from Harvard and the Harvard Lampoon to become one of the legendary writers (and occasional actor) for Saturday Night Live. And two of my college friends were the late Mark O’Donnell and his Emmy-winning twin brother Steve, marvelous comedians and satirists themselves. I am hardly in their league, of course, nor in the rarefied place held by New York Times satirist Gail Collins, whose columns never fail to hit the mark. And I mean never.
But I am having fun, with my modest little contributions to a genre of literature whose roots are in ancient Greece --but which has never been more relevant than in today’s mixed-up crazy world.
From Wikipedia:Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government or society itself, into improvement.[1] Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon and as a tool to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.
Read more about satire's long history here.