Dr. Suess, Huckleberry Finn, Shrek, What's the Difference?

Satire is a funny thing, literally. Definition wise it is an exaggeration, ridicule, or irony about a real person, place or thing. Some examples are parodies, jokes, songs, books, and other things like that; it's a technique to create humor.
      There's quite a few techniques of satire- exaggeration, incongruity, parody, and reversal. Some of these were already listed above. Exaggeration is to increase beyond the normal for effect. Ever hear a little kid who didn't want to do something that their parent asked them, so they just whined and made up any and every illness they could think of to get out of? Well, that was exaggeration. Incongruity is when two unlike people or objects are together in a story. I can't think of a random example of that one so think of one yourself, lazy. A parody is to imitate (seriously) in order to make fun of something. If you feel you absolutely must see a parody of rap battles from history, click on this link here. If you do, I warn you, the language isn't completely friendly, but isn't overly vulgar either. Another, kinder link is right  here. Ever read doctor  Reversal is a sudden, observable switch of fortune in the story. Go buy a new, expensive sports car with all the money you won from the lottery last week. That would make you happy, yay! Be careful, because as soon as you drive out of the parking lot, you will be smashed by a semi truck. Now that my friends, is reversal.
       The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain so very long ago. That whole novel is satirical in that it uses all four of those techniques. If you've read it, you would know that Tom Sawyer has a vivid imagination. He thinks that himself and the boys are robbers and part of a cult when really, they're just pretending to steal things. The difference between Huck and Jim- where to start? First of all Huck is a white boy who goes to school and is taught about the Bible. He's still innocent and immature. Jim on the other hand is an African American slave. He has seen human cruelty and torture which has made him learn the evils of the world. He is also uneducated and extremely superstitious. This difference shows the incongruity between them. The so-called "duke and king" are odd characters. At one of the towns they travel to, they put on a play of Shakespeare's. The whole act is a parody because they mock out the play. Last but not least, when Huck went from the widow to the wild, that was a HUGE reversal. He was originally at a nice, safe place where people took care of him to trying survive on his own.
       Now for the fun part of this blog. Shrek the movie has so many satirical components. Characters like Cinderella, Snow White, Pinoccio, Three Blind Mice, Big Bad Wolf, Gingy, and such are parts of real fairy tales. In Shrek, they are satirized with parody. None of the characters actually did those things in their fairy tales, but it did make a funny movie. Incongruity is when Shrek finds Fiona. They fall in love, but they have such drastically different personalities that it doesn't seem like it would work. But it does because, as we all know, Fiona is an ogre too. SPOILER ALERT! Hope I didn't ruin that for anyone, but come on. It's been out for 10 years now, you should already have seen it. Last but not least: Here's my favorite scene from Shrek with Gingy in a parody. Enjoy!