Satire is defined as, “a way of using humor to show that someone or something is foolish, weak, bad” (Webster). Authors, such as Jonathan Swift, often use satire when they want to prove a point without being too direct, while also poking fun at it. In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift uses satire to prove that the economy needs to be changed to help people live a better life. Although his use of satire is not immediately seen by many people, it does become very obvious as the piece of literature continues. According to Charles A. Knight, “to perceive the identity of satire we must begin with its disguises or formal appearances” (Knight 1). By having Swift wait until later in his passage to reveal his true intentions, of the author deposits A Modest Proposal into the category of satire. It becomes obvious that Swift’s piece is written with a satirical lens when he talks about eating babies as a solution so they can “contribute to the feeding” and not be a burden to the poor and hungry (Swift 515). “Michael Seidel, sees satirists as chroniclers of the corruption in which they themselves participate” (Knight 1). This is true for Swift because he finishes out his piece with a double negative to show that he does wish he could participate yet he cannot. Swift has “not the least person interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work” of selling children off to help fix the economic problems found in Ireland (Swift 520). Swift’s piece, A Modest Proposal, at first seems not to fall into the genre of satire but end with multiple pieces of evidence to depict its true lens. 

Wendy Molyneux uses satire in a more obvious way than Jonathan Swift to inform her readers of the true purpose of her piece. In, I am Sorry that I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece, Wendy Molyneux uses satire to prove that women can be funny.  “Satire has been known to incorporate other elements like irony and ridicule to denounce something morally wrong, … through means of … comedic techniques” (Satire Comedy). Molyneux uses irony as a key factor in her argument that women can be funny. She starts using irony immediately in her piece, starting with her title, and continues the trend throughout her argument. Molyneux uses basic girly stereotypes to fight the stereotype of low level of comedy that women can actually produce. She uses basic stereotypes such as seeing a baby and “crying again because [she did not] have a baby” and “opening her pink Mac laptop” to defend herself (Molyneux 521). Molyneux picks very obvious and easy to understand stereotypes to help people understand that she is not being serious. Molyneux makes fun of her and the rest of the female gender to prove that she not only can take a joke but she can also make one. In the end so is blatantly ironic to just drive her point home, she claims she “would have been terrible at it anyway” (Molyneux 523). Molyneux does this just to spite the people who claim women cannot be funny after she just took the time to write a comedy piece.
