Satire

Satire is the art of exposing human vice and folly. It can be seen in literature as in the Work of Jonathan Swift and in other art forms such as editorial cartooning. Satire is sometimes, but not always humorous. A novel such as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four can scarcely be thought of as funny.

Satirists on satire

Jonathan Swift

• Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.
  • The Battle of the Books, preface (1704)