Dark Satire is the Greatest Form of Satire

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   Santi Salinasposted 4 years ago

   Satire, for those who don't know, are art forms that aim to highlight the flaws in society and present them in a way that is comical while at the same time asks the viewer, "are you proud of this?" Some satires include SNL, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreations, South Park, and The Simpsons. Satire can also be in a literary form, one example is Mark Twain's controversial novel Huckleberry Finn. While satires are funny and attention grabbing overall, the dark satires are the ones the invoke the most change.
   
   Dark satires utilize dark humor or dark content overall to present the flaws in society to cause change. South Park is the best example of a dark satire because many of the episodes that have aired have dark content in it that make it hard to watch at times. One example of this dark content is when one of the shows characters, Butters, is assumed to be gay when his father catches him and Cartman having oral sex. As an over-exaggerated reaction, Butters' father sends him to a conversion therapy camp to "cure" him of his gay nature. There in the camp, the viewers hear many gunshots and witness the children of the camp committing suicide in the most grotesque forms. This episode, when it aired, really highlighted the dangers and negative affects of these so-called therapy camps. One camp was actually brought to legal justice when the camp's supervisors, Gary and Meaghan Wiggins, were arrested and charged with human trafficking of young boys who attend their camps along with child abuse and child molestation. Following their conviction, the camps that were associated with them have been shut down and banned from operating on a national scale.
   
   In addition, Mark Twain's novel, Huckleberry Finn, is also a form of dark satire in literary form. Telling the story of a young boy named Huck traveling with a runaway slave named Jim, Twain highlights important racial inequalities and inequities that can still be seen to this day. The novel was actually so dark, that it has been banned from libraries and bookstores in 7 states.
   
   Dark satire actually accomplish the mission of raising awareness of societal flaws and invoke change to fix them even better than lighter satire.
   
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