Pages

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Satire

For some reason there are people out there, both Christian and non-Christian, under the misimpression that satire is unchristian.

This is due, in part, to the fact that many people don’t know their way around the OT at all, while their command of the NT is sketchy at best.

But satire is a regular feature of the Bible. There’s a lot of light-hearted satire in Proverbs and the Book of Jonah, while Amos and Mat 23 are studded with satirical barbs.

There is also a satirical genre known as the taunt-song, which you find in both Testaments:

Exod 15:1-18
Num 21:27-30
Judg 5
1 Sam 17:45-47
1 Kgs 18:27
Ps 2
Ps 115:2-8
Ps 135:15-18
Isa 14:3-21
Isa 44:9-20
Jer 10:1-16
Jer 38:22
Ezk 27-28
Hab 2:18-20
Rev 18-19

There are also some brain donors who equate satire with bearing false witness.

Needless to say, bearing false witness has contextual reference to perjurious testimony in a court of law. It has nothing to do with satire.

If someone accuses a satirist like Juvenal, Voltaire, Erasmus, Swift, Cervantes, Alexander Pope, or Mark Twain of “lying,” then this accusation says a good deal less about the character of the accused than it does about the mental ability of the accuser.

5 comments:

  1. Good point. Plenty of people can't stand satirizing another person. I guess they feel it's condescending. To me I think it's funny.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You agree, Mr. Lofty? Well then, you shouldn't take any offense when I call you a girly man... or that your testosterone level is as low as your IQ... or that you're dating life is so bad dating services pay you at the end of each date... etc.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I gave Scott Ott of Scrappleface a Four-"Dude!" Award for his satire.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good points, Steve. I don't know how many times I have shaken my head over allegations that I was "lying" when I spoofed this: http://www.ntrmin.org/CAISpoof.htm

    By the way (SHAMELES PLUG WARNING), I'm back blogging again, http://www.ntrmin.org/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your sarcastic "ouch" proves you didn't take my satire offensively. Thanks for being a sport.

    ReplyDelete