ABSTRACT
Satire usually denotes some comic form of ridicule with a corrective purpose. At its best, satire aims at both shaming with laughter and restoring with love. The good satirist hopes to ameliorate society's ills, not simply vent his spleen. Satire employs various forms of caricature and ridicule to taunt, scoff, mock, gibe, spoof, tease, blame, shame, scour, and puncture, all to improve society. Its use of wit and humor has a purpose: to reform some vice or folly or stupidity. And within the history of the Christian Church, vice, folly, and stupidity reign with popes and bishops, pilgrims and Baptists. Two basic criteria underlie satire. The first, and most necessary, is that it acknowledges some standard, a reasonable norm against which audiences or readers can measure what is good and right. Second, satire is usually leavened with a sense of humor or wit.
