Satire

Literary Devices
SATIRE
1. Humor:
  * Exaggeration or overstatement: Something that does happen, but is exaggerated to absurd lengths. This is the most common type of satire. For example, a caricature, the formalized walk of Charlie Chaplin.
  * Understatement: A statement that seems incomplete or less than truthful given the facts. Think sarcasm with the intentions of evoking change. For example, Fielding’s description of a grossly fat and repulsively ugly Mrs. Slipslop: “She was not remarkably handsome.”
  * Incongruity: A marked lack of correspondence or agreement.
  * Surprise: Twist endings, unexpected events

  2. Sarcasm: A sharply mocking or contemptuous remark. The term came from the Greek word “sarkazein” which means “to tear flesh.”
Sarcasm is one kind of irony; it is praise which is really an insult; sarcasm generally invovles malice, the desire to put someone down, e.g., "This is my brilliant son, who failed out of college."

  3.   Irony: Literary device conveying the opposite of what is expected; in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what one says or does, and what one means or what is generally understood. It is lighter, less harsh in wording than sarcasm, though more cutting because of its indirectness.
The ability to recognize irony is one of the surest tests of intelligence and sophistication. Irony speaks words of praise to imply blame and words of blame to imply praise. Writer is using a tongue-in-cheek style. Irony is achieved through such techniques as hyperbole and understatement.
  * Verbal Irony: Simply an inversion of meaning
  * Dramatic Irony: When the words or acts of a character carry a meaning unperceived by himself but understood by the audience. The irony resides in the contrast between the meaning intended by the speaker and the added significance seen by others.
  * Situational Irony: Depends on a discrepancy between purpose and results. Example: a practical joke that backfires is... [continues]

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