The Best Satirical Songs, Books, and Films
The Best, 1/18/18
Top Stories
Explosive Growth: “The Wildest Startup Story You’ve Never Heard Of — Until Now” — This is the introduction from Cliff Lerner’s new book, Explosive Growth — A Few Things I Learned Growing To 100 Million Users & Losing $78 Million. Cliff is offering the book for FREE today on Amazon, so be sure to grab yourself a copy!
11 Signs You Have the Grit You Need to Succeed — “Grit is that ‘extra something’ that separates the most successful people from the rest. It’s the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.”
3 Ways to Make Reading a Regular Habit — Reading regularly is one of the most important habits you could ever commit to. Getting started on that habit, however, can seem a bit daunting. Here are 3 ways to tackle the task and make reading a daily habit.
Satire (noun) — the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices.
Satire is arguably one of the most entertaining creative forms to consume and dissect. It presents itself in different ways across different mediums but always aims to achieve one goal: identify a problem point in a culture, a society, or an individual.
What follows is a short list of some of our favorite satirical content. It would be impossible to include all the amazing satire out there, but feel free to share your favorite works in the comments below!
Reading
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
“I am assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London; that a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food; whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled, and I make no doubt, that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or ragout.”
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
And of course, we’d be amiss not to mention one of the most entertaining humor and satire writers: Kurt Vonnegut.
“And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes.”
How nice — to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.
In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in His cosmic loneliness.
And God said, “Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done.” And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close to mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. “What is the purpose of all this?” he asked politely.
“Everything must have a purpose?” asked God.
“Certainly,” said man.
“Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this,” said God.
And He went away.
Listening
The M.T.A. Song
Watching
From TV: South Park
Some people love South Park. Some people can’t stand it. (For me, it really just depends on the episode.) Personal preferences aside, one can’t not appreciate their ability to use humor to highlight weird cultural norms or growing societal issues.
Recent Film: Thank You for Smoking
This is a film based off of Christopher Buckley’s satirical novel about a spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies.
Older Film: Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator
DIY
Create your own satire with this handy how-to:
