Chaucer's Use Of Satire In The Onion By Hillary Clinton

Satirical Reality

The human race is forever going to be imperfect by nature; the entire population makes mistakes of different types and category. Everyone has denounced someone for a mistake of some kind, the use of satire makes it more enjoyable. When someone uses sarcasm, irony, or exaggeration those in combination are a form of satire. People have used satire for decades to mock problems in the world. Things to look for while identifying satire are irony, sarcasm, and exaggeration with a pinch of humor. For many years, people have been using satire to bring issues to the attention of the public. From the criticism of character in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, to the mocking of Hillary Clinton’s illegal maneuver to delete her classified

emails that was put to a catchy beat of a Michael Jackson hit, satire has changed how we view life events, and sheds light on our interpretations of society.

In “The Onion’s Tips for Applying to College,” The Onion list exaggerated tips that mock how in-depth the college applications require your answers to be.

“The Onion” writes these tips to amuse the reader in a humorous bash on college application requirements. By doing so, they also bring to the attention of the reader that the college requirements are too invading and demanding. For example, when “The Onion” wrote the tip, “Most college applications do not specify whether a stool sample is mandatory, so it’s best to call each school’s admissions office and ask,” they’re implying that the schools demand too much personal information(“The Onion’s Tips for Applying to College”). The mockery embedded in this quote is pointed towards the unnecessary detail required in the application process. Within the article,”The Onion” suggests the outlandish idea that it would be okay to misspell the name of the school and lie about the things you have done in your life, all just for a good laugh. “The Onion” also suggests that you should, “Show that you have a sense of humor by misspelling the name of the school and lying about your accomplishments.” This quote is sarcastically saying you should disrespect the school you want to go to and then on top of that lie about what you have accomplished. Using horational satire “The Onion” reinforces the fact that if your last name is boring the colleges will not even look at your application. They said that, “boring last names will put your

application on the bottom of the pile. Try using one like “Baggins,” or “Gamgee,” or “Took” for extra pizzazz.” (“The Onion’s Tips for Applying to College”). Which is completely absurd because your name is your legal name. The type of satire used in this article was horational because it was a light hearted and was more of a general sarcasm towards all colleges resumes. In the article “The Onion” uses two types of literary techniques; sarcasm and reversal. The article advises you to, “Show that you have a sense of humor by misspelling the name of the school and lying about your accomplishments” (“The Onion’s Tips for Applying to College”). In this quote “The Onion” suggests that you should lie about what you have done with yourself over the past years in high school. In the real situation you should never lie about your achievements because they will find out eventually that it was all a lie. The use of sarcasm and reversal of the orthodox answer to this question is clearly represented within this quote.

People nowadays are so caught up in our fashion, according to author Lyle Humes.

In his satirical article, “I Would Have Been Considered Very Attractive in the Middle Ages” he expresses his opinion on the matter. During the article Lyle Humes explains that he is not a very attractive guy according to today's standards, but back in the Middle Ages he would have been considered a fairly attractive male. Within the article he explains that, “I, even in my present state, would have been quite the catch eight or nine centuries ago. Shouldn't that count for something?” (Lyle Humes). Lyle Humes expresses his personal feeling on the matter of how people are viewed as attractive and how people were once viewed as an attractive. He talks about how he has features and qualities that in today's world would be considered disgusting and vulgar, but back in the 1300s, he would have one of the more attractive people compared to the hygiene of the Middle Ages. The situational irony of the article is displayed through the fact that back in the 11-century a lot of people had been infected with STDs and other such diseases, so the fact that he himself obtained a couple of diseases that would not have been a big deal. Humes explains his thoughts by saying, “And it's true, I have syphilis, as well, but who didn't back then... For 1,000 years ago, I'm in my prime!”(Lyle Humes). In today's day in age if you have syphilis, god forbid, you are automatically singled out as a pariah, but him saying

he would have still been in the action, back in the 11-century, is ironic compared to today's standards. Within the article Lyle Humes uses Horatianal satire to show the audience his point of view by using himself as the satirical target in a light hearted and comedic way. Humes describes himself, by saying, “I might be sweaty and jowly, but you can't accuse me of being sooty or excrement- befouled. People in those days were lucky if they bathed once a year—many didn't at all. I do the deed every week to 10 days, so that definitely gives me a leg up on the competition” (Lyle Humes). Not once in the article does Humes bring up another specific person, he just used himself as a constant in the comparison between the middle age and the 21st century. Taking that into consideration shows that he is just writing this in a general manner to bring to the attention of the reader his argument. Two literary devices were shock and self-reduction. Humes used self reduction a lot within this article one prime example of both device is when he wrote, “This mouthful of crooked, yellowing teeth jammed willy-nilly in a bloody bed of abscessed gums would've turned more than a few wenches' heads back in 1350. After all, I still have about 65 percent of them, which would have been way ahead of the curve for that time” Lyle Humes. When Humes uses the words “bloody bed of abscessed gum” really throws you in a spiral of disgusting mental images containing blood and human gums. Also, throughout this entire quote he is denouncing his physical appearance the entire quote. Satire being so different depending on the way it is written or displayed. Lyle Humes chose to write an article of satire, but Demand The Outdoors (the creators of the “Delete It” Video) chose to make a video that poked fun at Hillary and her scandal.

The music video about Hillary Clinton uses satire to bring her recent scandal regarding 33,000 emails that went missing even when the FBI subpoenaed them. Considering the fact that the emails went missing, the director of the video is trying to bring to your attention the criminalistics ways of Hillary and deleting her emails by putting it to the chorus of a famous Michael Jackson hit. The chorus of the parody mocks Hillary by reading, “Delete it Delete it so nobody else can see it” (Demand The Outdoors). One thing that Hillary is known for and confronted about is her email scandal. This song parody was written to expose the scandal through a comedic song. Since the actors in the parody where dramatizing her actions it will be considered dramatic irony. When the actor is posing as Hillary Clinton on the fake interview where she avoids answering the question by say she does not remember, which is dramatizing her actions in the real congressional hearing. Since it was a parody, the directors needed to spice things up to make it interesting and satirical for the viewers. This video is horatianal because it just pokes fun at Hillary and her scandal. In the song they never used vulgar language only funny little lines involving Hillary and the facts on her scandal. The literary device used in this satire video was a parody because the actor acted as if they were actually Hillary Clinton deleting the emails off of her private server.

Satire has been around since the Greek times and throughout that time it has brought many issues to the eyes of the public. Although Satire is written with an underlying message, the underlying message usually only reaches the percentage of the audience that already understands and agrees with it. So if you understand satire and how it is designed, then the writers can have an actual effect on society. A lot of the time, if someone does not understand the object of satire they just think that the satirical piece is just crude, disrespectful, or funny. So the fact of the matter is, is that if you are able to understand the way satire was designed to reach the public view, then people would be more open to the underlying message. Satire is not all about kicks and giggles, but is created to go much deeper than just the basic humor that is first uncovered. Satire is a strategic method of challenging the status quo, and it helps the reader rethink what they assume they understand.