As a freelance writer who specializes in geek culture – particularly the anime/manga niche – I come across a lot of random anime-related articles via my Google alerts. One such alert sent me to the Oregon Daily Emerald, where I read a column about how anime was destroying American society.
It was clear to me that the article was written as satire, although it didn’t seem likely to make its author a contender for The Onion any time soon. I got a chuckle out of seeing the piece in a relatively local paper (I live in Portland), so I posted it to my blog and moved on.
To my surprise, a couple of days later I came across another article on the Emerald via Google alerts, this one titled “Columnist uninformed about anime.” When I went to the site, I spotted a SECOND such article: “Claims about anime ridiculous.” Both of these articles took the original seriously, and neither was particularly well-written, either. Since it appears that some readers of the Emerald don’t understand the concept of satire, I will now offer a quick “Satire 101.”
Satire is a literary device “…in which human or individual vices…or shortcomings are held up to censure…the purpose of satire is not primarily humour but criticism.” (Thanks, Wikipedia.) Before you go thinking that satire is something you would only see in a literature class, consider this excellent example: “The Colbert Report.” On the show, Stephen Colbert takes on the persona of a harsh political news commentator – and takes it over the top, holding up a mirror to both news commentators and society as a whole.
A more classic example is Jonathan Swift’s 1729 essay “A Modest Proposal,” in which Swift takes the stance of an indifferent bureaucrat and again, takes his argument over the top by suggesting that the impoverished Irish should sell their children as food to the wealthy in order to make money.
The result is a slicing criticism of said bureaucrats and attention paid to the plight of the Irish. And perhaps most importantly, Swift did not ACTUALLY believe that Irish children should be sold and eaten.
So, let’s jump back to the original article. Admittedly, it is not over the top enough to be spotted as satire at first glance – but surely anyone who would write a counter-article would fully read that which they were trying to counter, right? So let’s look at this line: “No matter who you are – whether you’re black, white, Asian, Latino, even Canadian – I don’t judge you by the color of your skin.” The inclusion of “even Canadian” at this list is the dead giveaway of satire to me; it reads like a joke. It even reads like the kind of joke you might hear on the Colbert Report.
Other lines that make the satire obvious include: “[Rugrats’ Tommy Pickles] was like a Che Guevara for the MTV generation.” “Shows like ‘Flavor of Love’ and ‘Hogan Knows Best’ are watched by people who have already been stupid for years, even decades.” “This issue transcends politics, even religion. It’s the ethical dilemma of our day and age.”
So readers, before you jump to anger, think it over. Not everything you read in the paper or online is meant to be taken at face value.