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From: mat@mtx5a.UUCP (m.terribile)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.sci,net.jokes.d,net.women,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Satire for the masses
Message-ID: <1261@mtx5a.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Mar-86 03:02:45 EST
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Posted: Thu Mar 27 03:02:45 1986
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> A lot of people seem to be having trouble recognizing satire. . . .
> >but the lack of smiley faces and the poor spelling may indeed indicate that
> >he was serious. 
. . .
> Lesson #1: SMILEY FACES DO NOT MAKE FOR GOOD SATIRE.  Ever.

Sorry, weemba, the problem is not with good satire.  Art Buchwald and
Andy Rooney write good satire and humor.  They don't need to use smiley
faces.  Their articles smile for them.

Few of us command the language with such authority.  Our articles are free with
words but reluctant to give the reader any facial expression at all.  This
is bad, because it means that our bad satire is taken as non-satire.  And THIS
is very bad.  Very, very bad because it can cause some awful hurt feelings.
Did you see the ``We're out to get you, Cheryl'' article?  Satire MUST be read
as satire, even if it is not written as satire.  Hence the need for the smiley.

If you can write satire with the sick leer of a Buchwald, you have my
permission to omit the smiley and save net bandwidth. :-)
-- 

	from Mole End			Mark Terribile
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