There is a large amount of television shows and movies today that are labeled by fans as "satire." Some of these include Emmy award winning The Colbert Report as well as crass and offensive cartoons like South Park. How then, can these very different shows be considered successes within the same genre? The answer can be found by analyzing pieces of written satire to see what makes a work satirical. A Modest Proposal, written by Jonathan Swift in 1728, is considered to be a classic work of satire (The Carolina Reader, 409). I Am Sorry That I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece, written by Wendy Molyneux in 2009, is a work of satire that was selected as the Best American Unrequired Reading of 2010 (The Carolina Reader, 416). Both of these works are considered great pieces of satire, though written over two centuries apart. By comparing and contrasting the two works, the reader gets an understanding of what defines a satire piece.

Though both are satire pieces, A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift and I Am Sorry That I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece by Wendy Molyneux differ greatly in their content and context. A Modest Proposal is a satire piece framed as a solution for "preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country" (Swift, 409). From the beginning Swift states his supposed purpose of finding a way to make poor children useful, hinting at the satirical nature of the work. Wendy Molyneux begins her essay by framing it as a story in which she unsuccessfully attempts to write a comedy piece for a website (Molyneux, 416). Molyneux employs various stereotypes about women through the work, hinting at the satirical tone she takes regarding the female inability to be funny. The difference in the author's stated purpose between the two works shows that they aim to cover very different topics. This can be attributed to the author's beliefs on the topic and what they hope to achieve with their work. Johnathan Swift was an Irish satirist who lived in England in the early 1700's and resented English policies towards the Irish at time (Rutgers.edu). A Modest Proposal, written in 1728 (The Carolina Reader, 409), is meant to mock English policies for the Irish by suggesting and defending a new solution to the "problem" of poor Irish children: selling them and eating them (Swift, 410). Wendy Molyneux is a 21st century female comedian, writer, and voice actor. In 2009, she published I Am Sorry That I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece online in response to a series of articles detailing why women were not as funny as men (The Carolina Reader, 416). Being a female comedian herself, it is not surprising that she would be opposed to the idea that she will never be as funny as her male counterpart. When examining the writers and the context in which they wrote their pieces in, the reader can predict that the pieces will head in very different directions. Swift's work does discuss the poor Irish population, with a focus on children, in a very formal tone. In contrast, Molyneux tells a story in which she fails to write a comedy piece, coming off as very ditsy and incompetent. The reader can see that the two works seem to share very little in common due to the differing content of the works and how the authors present this content. However, in their differences the two works still find common ground by being able to use extremes in a humorous fashion in order to entertain the reader.

Both A Modest Proposal and I Am Sorry That I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece use extreme logic and situations in order to entertain the reader with ideas that seem ridiculous. In A Modest Proposal, Swift says that a large amount of poor mothers and fathers in Ireland are unable to work a job because they have to beg for food for their children (Swift, 410). In doing so, he places the blame for poverty on children, an illogical and ridiculous notion. However, Swift continues and presents his idea for the solution to poor children and the poverty they cause: to sell them for 10 shillings and then eat the children as food (Swift, 410). This "solution" is meant to initially shock the reader and grab their attention. The idea of cannibalizing children in order to solve poverty is more than likely one the reader did not expect to read. This surprise, coming from Swifts ridiculous proposal, is meant to entertain the reader in the form of humor. Molyneux does not present an argument or an idea of any sort, but rather tells a story. Within this story, she unable to write a comedic piece because she keeps distracting herself with activities that are stereotypical of a woman. Within the story Molyneux eats chocolate, tries on clothing, and cries a lot, ultimately giving up on the comedic piece after referencing the article she is responding to that claims women are not funny. The reader does not expect any of these to happen after Molyneux expresses her intent to write the comedy piece and is meant to be entertained by the ending in which she surprises the reader by "giving up" on the comedic piece she has written through her story (Molyneux, 417). The common ground that these two pieces find is that they both are intended to humor readers with the surprises they contain within them. The reason the authors include these humorous surprises for the reader is to entertain them but to also mock the arguments they are pretending to take. Upon reading A Modest Proposal, the reader would see that Swift's idea is ridiculous and entertaining, but that Swift is clearly pretending to be someone who thinks lowly of the Irish poor. Molyneux, a female writer, means to entertain readers with her story but also mocks the argument that women aren't funny by including all of the stereotypes about women she does in her work. By entertaining readers with ridiculous ideas and situations, the authors are able to suggest that the real ideas and arguments they mock are as ridiculous as the works themselves. This is something that the pieces have in common as a genre despite their differences in context ant content.

The mocking of faulty logic that both of the works use to entertain reader relies heavily on select rhetoric and diction to poke fun at the arguments they mock. In A Modest Proposal, Swift uses various phrases and words that are related to eating and to death. He does this to keep hinting back to the solution he proposed at the beginning of the work to sell and eat poor children. As Swift continues to satirically defend his idea, he states that "I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for Landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the Parents, seem to have the best Title to the Children" (Swift, 411) In this example and other like it throughout the work, Swift chooses his words carefully in order to poke fun at people that already "feed" on others. By doing so, Swift entertains readers with some dark humor while taking a jab at landlords. This is an important aspect of satire that makes it pleasant to read at the same time that it ridicules the arguments that it mocks. Molyneux also does this in I Am Sorry That I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece, but instead uses phrases in order to support her humorous mocking. Molyneux uses phrases like "I totally started to cry again", "Oh there I go again", and "probably somebody said that" (Molyneux, 417) in order to portray the speaker of the story as sensitive, unintelligent, and unsure of herself. The effect that Molyneux's choices have is that they create a caricature to mock stereotypes held about women. As the reader sees Molyneux's character be constantly distracted by stereotypical activities, the reader interprets that most of these stereotypes have to be fiction like the character that personifies them. This is important within a satire piece because it entertains the reader with its rapid fire use of stereotypes while making the reader come to a realization: no real woman actually behaves like this. Swift and Molyneux differ in the rhetoric and diction they employ within their works, but share a common ground in how they use rhetoric and diction. Both works use rhetoric and diction to strengthen their mocking of the subject within a satirical work. In doing so, both works use satirical humor to entertain readers and poke fun at the ridiculous thoughts and beliefs the works set out to mock.

When comparing and contrasting A Modest Proposal and I Am Sorry That I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece, it is possible to gain a new understanding about the genre of satire. Molyneux and Swift are very different writers that composed very different pieces. Within these pieces they conveyed different tone, used different diction and mocked different arguments. The only things that these pieces have in common is their use of extreme logic and diction in order to mock and entertain. Despite the differences, these unifying characteristics might be the onlynecessary components that a work is required to have to be considered "satire." This gives a new understanding about the incredibly diverse genre that satire can be.

By analyzing successful written satire in A Modest Proposal and I Am Sorry That I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece, readers can gain a new understand of what a work requires for it to be satire. Despite any differences that works may have in content or context, they become satire by taking an argument or idea and mocking it in order to entertain the reader. With this understanding of written satire, it is not unrealistic to think that television shows can do the same with their viewing audiences. Under the diverse genre that satire can be, renowned shows like Saturday Night Live can accomplish the same things that South Park hopes to do with their audiences.

