Dean Poling

Tough times for satirists.

The unemployment figures for satirists must be high, though as much as I scan labor department reports, I can’t find the numbers.

But they have to be out of work, right?

How can anyone find work creating satire in this day and age?

Current society isn’t satire proof. Rather, current society is beyond satire.

Way beyond satire.

Oxford Languages defines satire as “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.”

What do you do when so much of what people are saying is already absurdly funny? Already ironic? Already beyond exaggeration? So ridiculous that stupidity and vices are more than already exposed, but flaunted?

What’s a satirist to do but go on the dole?

I had intended giving examples of such behavior but I don’t need to give examples.

More than likely, readers are already thinking of examples.

People on both sides of the political aisle or on the multi-faceted sides of society are already thinking of examples of people on the opposing side of the aisle or in one of the other facets of society that is not occupied by their particular facet of society as being examples of being satire personified.

However, they think this of the other side without looking in the satirical mirror for the flaws on their own side, which makes these folks as much of a walking, talking part of being a society beyond satire as the people whom they consider to be the epitome of satire.

So, if I gave examples, I would merely fall into the trap of appearing to mock one side as being beyond satire without admitting another side is also beyond being satired which would make me an example of being beyond satire as much as the ones whom I claim are beyond satire.

Except if it’s really happening, is it really satire?

If people actually act this way then it’s not satire, it’s real. And if it’s real and people recognize it as real then it ain’t satire.

What would Jonathan Swift do?

Swift wrote “Gulliver’s Travels,” which true is a book about a regular man who is a giant among the tiny Lilliputians then a thimble-sized fellow in the gigantic land of Brobdingnag, and other things in other places.

But if you ask the internet what’s the main ideas behind “Gulliver’s Travels,” there’s no mention of tiny people or giant people, instead unacademy.com states, “’Gulliver’s Travels’ main idea is the inherent amusement of human tradition and habit, as well as the relative nature of ethics and society dependent on historical precedent. ‘Gulliver’s Travels,’ like so many of Jonathan Swift’s works, is primarily a satire of British monarchy and imperialism.”

Most biographical details of Swift rank him as a satirist above author, poet, essayist and Anglican cleric. In today’s world, given satire fueled his job descriptions as author, poet and essayist, he would have likely just been a bitter cleric, which even with the satirical ability to let off steam by poking holes in societal norms, he was anyway.

Swift is so closely identified with satire that another synonym for satire is to claim a work is “Swiftian.”

But choosing satire as a profession today will just get folks a swift trip to the unemployment line, or a job scribbling columns in the local newspaper.

Dean Poling is an editor with The Valdosta Daily Times and editor of The Tifton Gazette.