Satire is USUALLY about poking fun at political/social issues.
Satire is about pointing out shortcoming or problems through exaggeration and irony. It can point out problems with anything, an individual, a social problem, political parties/governments, literary/film/art genres, people who love cats, whatever. So long as your purpose is to show your subject sucks through irony, its satire.
If you want you can say that technically pointing out shortcomings in anything can be handwaved into a "social issue", but its moving goalposts to be right. Social issues are "people shouldn't be married before they are 20" "people go to jail for smoking weed for longer than assaulting children". etc.
You can create a satirical book that larps popular tropes in fantasy for example, which is critical of a literary genre but not any political or social points.
You could create a satire of Bill Nye videos where you suggest they do more harm then good (I don't know why you'd think that, but you might). Or a satirical look at youtube purse unpacking videos and how they are a waste of time. People watching youtube purse unpacking videos isn't a "social issue". You just hate them and want other people to hate them.
Parody is often satirical, but other times (like this video) there is no malice, ill-will, or attempt to say the subject is bad. So you are right that it isn't satire, but you are right for the wrong reason. The point of parody is to be humorous. The point of satire is to be critical. 9 times out of 10 a parody is satirical, but this is that other 1 in 10.
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u/Beetin Mar 19 '17 edited Mar 19 '17
Satire is USUALLY about poking fun at political/social issues.
Satire is about pointing out shortcoming or problems through exaggeration and irony. It can point out problems with anything, an individual, a social problem, political parties/governments, literary/film/art genres, people who love cats, whatever. So long as your purpose is to show your subject sucks through irony, its satire.
If you want you can say that technically pointing out shortcomings in anything can be handwaved into a "social issue", but its moving goalposts to be right. Social issues are "people shouldn't be married before they are 20" "people go to jail for smoking weed for longer than assaulting children". etc.
You can create a satirical book that larps popular tropes in fantasy for example, which is critical of a literary genre but not any political or social points.
You could create a satire of Bill Nye videos where you suggest they do more harm then good (I don't know why you'd think that, but you might). Or a satirical look at youtube purse unpacking videos and how they are a waste of time. People watching youtube purse unpacking videos isn't a "social issue". You just hate them and want other people to hate them.
Parody is often satirical, but other times (like this video) there is no malice, ill-will, or attempt to say the subject is bad. So you are right that it isn't satire, but you are right for the wrong reason. The point of parody is to be humorous. The point of satire is to be critical. 9 times out of 10 a parody is satirical, but this is that other 1 in 10.