In The Power of Ridicule: An Analysis of Satire, author Megan LeBoeuf explains how the traditional satire is used as a tool for evoking social and political change during times of distress or discomfort. She explains that satirical literature was used long before people even deemed it a genre of writing. The original genre associated with satire was used to target a more confined audience due to challenges of spreading the message in a time of literature being monitored by governments and publishers/distributors (LeBoeuf 1). One example of tradition satire is A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift. In Swifts writing he applies satire in order to voice his outrage toward the Irish governments neglect for the impoverished population of the country. Swift expertly demonstrates his knowledge of the genre by disguising his personal opinions behind absurd suggestions like the idea of eating impoverished children to combat famine. Behind this humor, Swift can manipulate his audience into subliminally realizing the larger problem at hand, and his audience can acknowledge the fact that the government is to blame. If enough of the Irish population rallies around his cause, then the countries leadership must abandon this indifference towards the poor in order to save the country from implosion. Therefore, the satirical format used by swift creates the idea that the common people of Ireland must rise as protagonists in order to combat the injustice shown by the countries elite. Swifts piece is a strong example of how the traditional layout for a satirical essay.

The modern day form of satire has changed quite exponentially due to today’s modern forms of technology and social media. People can challenge social and political stigmas with a few keyboard clicks that send any message worldwide in a matter of seconds. Key societal figures have more power today in sculpting the values of viewers than ever before in the past. In the satirical essay I’m Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece, by Wendy Molyneux, the often muted societal belief that women are not as funny as men is challenged. Molyneux uses overly dramatic stereotypes to fabricate her writing process for the paper. Through use of her cheesy persona, she is trying to display that women’s comedy is more complex than “watching Grey’s Anatomy alone”, or “having cats that symbolize loneliness”. Molyneux’s satirical genre differs from Swifts in the fact that her writing is more opinion based, and her targeting a societal belief could end up being rejected if it people did not find her to be funny. One could even create an argument saying that in the modern world of political correctness it is even harder to pull off a successful satirical piece. And the effect that technology has had on the whole situation is that the larger number of people that have access to a satirical piece creates a larger opposition towards the writing. In today’s technological age criticism towards writers really affects the genre as a whole. Therefore, when Molyneux attacks a societal belief that women aren’t funny, the chances are that the people holding this belief will not change their mind. Whereas, when Swift uses satirical writing he can incite the impoverished to rally behind his opinion, and enact change. 
