1. Satire That which attempts to correct, censure, and ridicule the follies and vices of society – a kind of protest, a sublimation and refinement of anger and indignation

2. Mockery To make fun of something

3. Mockery example: “Man is the only animal that blushes – or needs to.” - Mark Twain

4. Sarcasm A harsh, personally directed comment; to use praise to mock someone

5. Sarcasm example: to refer to a 98 lb. Weakling as a “real he-man”

6. Hyperbole Overstatement – to say more than you mean to say; to exaggerate

7. Hyperbole example: “I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse!”

8. Understatement To say less than you mean to say

9. Understatement example: Mount Everest is not small

10. Understatement example: Mr. Collins was not a sensible man. From Pride and Prejudice

11. Parody Mockery of a specific, known person, literary work, movie, event, etc.

12. Parody example: General MacArthur said, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” Parodies: “Old blondes never fade, they just dye away” “Old soldiers never die, but young ones do”

13. Irony To say one thing, yet to mean another When there is a difference between appearance and reality

14. Irony example: In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo & Juliet, when Romeo tells Mercutio that his wound is slight, Mercutio says, “No, it’s not so deep as well, nor so wide as a church door; but ‘tis enough, ‘twill serve.” It’s not that deep, but deep enough to kill him.

15. Irony examples (according to A. Morisett) It’s like rain on your wedding day It’s a free ride, when you’ve already paid It’s a free advise, that you just can’t take It’s a death row pardon, two minutes too late It’s meeting the man of your dreams, and meeting his beautiful wife

16. Zeugma A figure of speech in which a verb or an adjective is applied to two nouns, though appropriate only to one of them

17. Zeugma example: in Henry V, Fluellen says, “Kill the poys and the luggage.” The verb “kill” cannot apply to luggage.

18. Zeugma example: from The Rape of the Lock by A. Pope “One speaks the glory of the British Queen, And one describes a charming Indian screen;” by describing the gossip – it makes the gossip about the queen equal to that of the screen – trivializing all of the gossip

19. Zeugma example: from The Rape of the Lock by A. Pope “When husbands or when lap dogs breathe their last” by combining the death of the lap dog and the husband, it trivializes the death of the husband

20. Mock Epic Imitates, yet exaggerates and distorts, the literary epic and its style

21. Mock Epic example: “The garbage man, tall and strong, lifted his glittering can of rubbish high, as if it were a feather, and with the strength of Thor, hurled it into the dumpster.”

22. Invective Speech or writing which is denunciatory, abusive, or vituperative

23. Invective example: Swift’s writing denouncing the English nobility in Gulliver’s Travels

24. Reversal Peripeteia – the reversal of fortunes, a fall

25. Reversal example: In drama, usually the sudden change of fortune from prosperity to ruin; but it can be the other way about

26. Wit Suggests intellectual brilliance and ingenuity; verbal deftness. It is commonly verbal. Most definitions point to the element of surprise in wit, which often induces laughter. It has been considered, since 1600, to be one of the principal sources of comedy.