Dryden & Satire

Anybody that picks up a book with Dryden’s poetry, might find it challenging to understand his satirical writing. For example, in Mac Flecknoe, he references authors, plays, and ideas of his time, that are not popular today. This lack of knowledge makes it difficult for the casual reader to understand his jokes, comparisons and other mechanisms he used to make fun or criticize his contemporaries. Although it is difficult to understand every single idea he wrote, one thing is clear; he knew how to cleverly insult, criticize someone. This idea of satire still exists today, but I think it has change in how it is deliver. Most people today are not going to pick up a book of poetry to read how someone is making fun of someone else. For the majority of people, poetry is not the preferred method to be satirical. Instead, they will produce music videos, write blog posts, create memes, film movies and do any other creative project they feel will transmit their messages. A few examples of these are: Weird Al Yankovic’s music videos, The Onion (blog), Bad Luck Brian memes, Borat (movie). All of these examples carry different messages and are targeted to different audiences, but they all have one thing in common. What they share, is their desire to transmit a message through humor. Sometimes their message is deep and meaningful and sometimes they just want to make fun of situations. Regardless of how the message is delivered, the idea of being satirical is present in their creations. However, one thing that has changed is that today’s satires are very obvious and less clever. Instead of imitating the subtleness of Dryden’s, these modern works are very direct with their messages. I cannot help but to wander how the delivery of satirical ideas is going to change in the next 20 years. New delivery vehicles are going to be invented, but I think that the main essence of satire is not going to change.