This is from a decnt broad strokes article about satire as a genre and some of its history that I am finding worth reading. From the Britannica article:
“The 20th-century American critic Kenneth Burke summed up this paradoxical aspect of satire’s relation with the law by suggesting that the most inventive satire is produced when the satirist knowingly takes serious risks and is not sure whether he will be acclaimed or punished.”
I would even go so far as to say treading that line as a satirist can be invigorating. Serious question: is there a serious difference between a satirist and an edge lord? Gonna need some more thinking on what makes up the essential character of each.
Tim B.
Same source:
“Nearly all satirists write apologies, and nearly all the apologies project an image of the satirist as a plain, honest person, wishing no harm to anyone worthy but appalled at seemingly ubiquitous evil and forced by conscience to write satire.”
Tim B.
“The reader laughs at the mad logic of Catch-22—and, as the reader laughs, the reader learns. This is precisely the way satire has worked from the beginning.”