In ancient Greece there were three kinds of plays: the Tragedy - where the end usually involves the death of the main character, or at least severe consequences (and was not without humor); the Comedy - where the purpose of the play is to cause laughter in the audience and plot is irrelevant; and the Satyr - also called the tragicomedy, which the comedy comes at the expense of the tragedy, that is making fun of the plight of the character’s tragedy, or simply where the play makes fun of itself.

Now obviously we are not in ancient Greece. Yet these definitions can hold true.

There is comedy.

Then, there is satire.

Brace yourselves, info dump coming.

It is undisputed that Terry Pratchett was the paramount satire writer in living memory, coming out at the end of the postmodern movement. For those of you who don’t know: 1) His 2011 Discworld novel Snuff became the third-fastest-selling hardback adult-readership novel since records began in the UK, selling 55,000 copies in the first three days and 2) was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s.

Of course, besides Pratchett there are other notable authors such as Douglas Adams and his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, and the lesser known Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, both adapted to film and television, the former having sold 15 million copies before Adams’s death in 2001. For an American example there is William Goldman adapted The Princess Bride and it instantly became a cult classic and adapted into an even more successful movie.

What I am trying to say is that satire sells, when done right.

And there are indeed ways to do it wrong.

Most people think all they have to do is make fun of something or someone, and Bob’s your uncle. Yet there is a subtle art to satire, plainly put by Pratchett: “Satire is meant to ridicule power. If you are laughing at people who are hurting, it’s not satire, it’s bullying.” The definition of the Greek satyr is indeed making fun of the plight of the character’s tragedy, and you might be thinking ‘T K? Doesn’t that contradict what Pratchett said?’. The keyword here is making fun of the plight, the plot itself. We are not making fun of the character.

To put it clearly, the key to a good satire is going to make fun of the genre. For an example we can look at The Princess Bride. Where do you see Goldman making personal attacks on the Buttercup? Instead, the humor around her consists of the trope, making fun of the romance between her and Westly with him constantly saying ‘as you wish’ when doing anything she requests, like falling down a hill. In Hitchhiker’s the jokes revolve around always having a towel and the improbability drive and dolphins. This is simply because when you begin to make fun of an individual's actions, you might accidentally begin to make fun of your reader. And you cannot sell books when you alienate your reader.

So if you’re writing satire, stick to making fun of the plot and the tropes. Stick to having a sassy character who breaks the fourth wall occasionally and has an opinion or two on how much a beer should cost.

Anything other than that, it’s like salt on a wound.