Two guys in a park, both of them Ryan George.
GEORGE #2: Wow, this 'sexual intercourse' sounds hard.
GEORGE #1: It sure is. Hey, did you hear about that thing?
GEORGE #2: What thing?
GEORGE #1: You know, the really important thing everyone's talking about?
GEORGE #2: Oh yeah, I heard something about that.
GEORGE #1: Don't you think it would be, like, super-funny if everyone involved with the thing was made to look ridiculous?
GEORGE #2: You mean by playing up their culpability to suggest the inherent flaws at the heart of the human condition?
GEORGE #1: Yes, sir, I do.
GEORGE #2: Okay, I'm into that.
GEORGE #1: Well, get this: the Biden administration denying we're in a recession is like the captain of the Titanic saying the ship's not sinking, they're just turning it into a swimming pool.
GEORGE #2: ...Is that satire?
GEORGE #1: Excuse me, 'satire'-?
GEORGE #2: Yeah, I decided that rhetorical humour intended to highlight human vice needed a name that satiated the speaker's objective.
GEORGE #1: Wow. When did you... when did you think of that?
GEORGE #2: About ten seconds ago.
GEORGE #1: Very sharp.
GEORGE #2: Thank you!
GEORGE #1: I dunno, though... 'Satire' sounds too close to 'satyr'.
GEORGE #2: You mean the lascivious, drunken woodland gods of Greco-Roman mythology?
GEORGE #1: That's right, except the Romans depicted them as shy, unassuming creatures compared to their rowdy, calculating Greek forebears.
GEORGE #2: But you are drunk right now, right?
GEORGE #1: Oh yeah.
GEORGE #2: Well, anyway, whimsical digressions aside-
GEORGE #1: And horny.
GEORGE #2: Ewww.
GEORGE #1: Sorry, go on.
GEORGE #2: I was saying I have questions about this satire thing. What if people don't agree with the topical barbs you're making?
GEORGE #1: You mean what if people object to figures and ideologies they support being transformed into absurd parodies of themselves?
GEORGE #2: That's it, yeah.
GEORGE #1: Actually, that's super easy. Barely an inconvenience.
GEORGE #2: Oh really?
GEORGE #1: Yeah, you just tailor your material so it's playful and less likely to cause offence.
GEORGE #2: What, so it adheres to the Horatian model?
GEORGE #1: Horatian-?
GEORGE #2: Yeah, I kinda figured if someone was gently trying to send-up human follies and foibles they'd have a really heroic name like Horace.
GEORGE #1: Okay, that could work.
GEORGE #2: And conversely, if you really wanted to stir things up in an abrasive and contemptuous way you'd be invoking the Juvenalian principle.
GEORGE #1: Oh, because 'Juvenal' sounds like 'juvenile'-?
GEORGE #2: No, Hank Juvenal - that drunk at the bar who's always calling everyone a worthless piece of shit.
GEORGE #1: Hey, I think we're really losing sight of who's meant to be the one explaining this satire thing here.
GEORGE #2: Yeah, it's tough keeping track of a conversation when both people talking are actually you.
GEORGE #1: I hear me, brother.
GEORGE #2: But say you wanted to monetise this hilarious conceit; how would you go about that?
GEORGE #1: Well, you could appear on a late-night live show broadcast on NBC on Saturday nights, but that would require regurgitating thinly-disguised, partisan, CNN-style talking points likely to insult the audience's intelligence.
GEORGE #2: Oh, that's no good.
GEORGE #1: No, but the money you make will compensate for the inevitable loss of self-respect and creative integrity you'll experience.
GEORGE #2: Isn't there any other way?
GEORGE #1: Well, you could start a blog that mocks-up BBC News web pages, message boards, parodies the latest TV shows and takes long-winded jabs at otherwise harmless social media personalities, but there's no money in that apart from those suckers on Patreon whose contributions are barely enough to support a drinking habit. But, plus side, you get to stick it to butthurt liberals.
GEORGE #2: Oh, sticking it to butthurt liberals is tight!
GEORGE #1: Oh, dear God...
GEORGE #2: What about YouTube?
GEORGE #1: That's kinda like the live show option but you've gotta make everything you put out super general.
GEORGE #2: You mean, like, make it so broad that it barely even qualifies as satire?
GEORGE #1: Yeah, you know, like, observational comedy that touches on the more bizarre aspects of human behaviour but doesn't really say anything or offend anybody.
GEORGE #2: And you think that'll get clicks and make money?
GEORGE #1: Only one way to find out...
Cut to:
-fin-
