“Satire lies about… men when they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.” -Voltaire
A quick perusal of social media posts today yields the most mundane pranks–marriage, pregnancy, sudden sickness, or just a radical change in character–which of course, paradoxically speaks the obvious: We reserve this day to all kinds of jokes imaginable. Humor, at the end of this day, is the sigh of a humorless world where problems are getting more serious every day.
So we in Fullcourtfresh.com tinkered upon the idea of having an April Fool’s special for young sport aficionados. But instead of conceiving humorous articles just for humor’s sake, we opted to stay true to the real spirit of satire, that is, to report the inherent contradictions of sport. And, to some extent, life at large (if it may be viewed this way). After all, sport is the physical exhibition of humanity’s will power against obstacles.
Satire is not just a literary or journalistic form that aims to tickle a reader. The common pitfall of young satirists is that, in Mark Twain’s words, they “overwhelm the satire with the extraneous interest of the travesty.”
It has been proven as a potent weapon to expose contradictions and prejudices in an indirect manner. In a world where direct exposition of contradictions is viewed with disdain (due to human nature’s disdain of seeing the “ugly truth”), indirection is an art developed by satirists to expose the true issues of society by tickling their inherent prejudices, making them realize that their consciousness have imbibed the spirit of society’s contradictions.
Perhaps the greatest writer who used satire to expose the biggest issue of his time is Mark Twain, who relentlessly satirized America’s “benevolent assimilation” of the Philippines, him being America’s pioneering advocate against his own government’s imperialist goal of plundering our country.
Another great satirist is the late senator Ninoy Aquino. In a manner that is diametrically different from the radical Left’s overly direct “agit-propaganda,” Ninoy effectively employed mockery in narrating anecdotes about the Martial Law regime of President Marcos. His stirring anti-dictatorship speeches do not contain jargons and “-isms” but humorous stories about the regime, making his audience relate to the horrors of dictatorship, emphasizing the fact that living under Martial Law was a “human experience,” the travesty of living under it was shared by all.
We in Fullcourtfresh.com are no Twains or Ninoys, but our debut April Fool’s edition is an attempt to return to the roots of satire. If you find it boring or corny, it’s because we are generally serious reporters of Philippine sports.
