the.com/satirist
Someone who tells the truth badly disguised as a joke, so it slides past the ego.
means A writer or performer who mocks vice, folly, or power by exaggerating it, usually to expose it rather than just to amuse.
from Traces back to Latin 'satira' (originally 'satura'), meaning a medley or 'full dish' — as in 'lanx satura,' a platter heaped with mixed fruits offered to the gods. The word first described a mixed-genre poem stuffed with miscellaneous observations and jabs, and only later narrowed to mean the mocking, moralizing style we call satire. The folk link to Greek 'satyr' (the goat-footed woodland creature) is a popular but false trail — the two words aren't related, despite satire's often wild, mischievous spirit matching the satyr's reputation.
- core trick
- exaggerate reality until it confesses
- risk
- often hated by the powerful it mocks
- misconception
- being funny; actually being accurate
- patron saint
- Jonathan Swift, who suggested eating babies