Satire is not a tone. It is a mechanism. The goal is not to make the audience laugh and move on — it is to push a belief, excuse, category convention, or cultural trend far enough that it becomes indefensible, while appearing, on the surface, to take it entirely seriously. The moment the execution winks at the audience, the mechanism fails. Sincerity is the delivery system. Absurdity is what gets delivered.
Here are five tactics from the Parody Engine that make accepted logic collapse under its own weight.
- Satirise the Opposing Trend
- Exaggerate the Workaround
- Satirise the Excuse
- Fake Product, Real Indictment
- Fake Service, Broken System
1. Satirise the Opposing Trend
Identify the cultural trend running against your brand — and position hard against it with humour.
Clean Eating Burger · KFC · Mother London · 2017 · UK
KFC's position for the Dirty Louisiana burger is unapologetic indulgence. The opposing trend was clean eating culture at its most evangelical. Mother London created a posh wellness vlogger presenting a virtuous cauliflower burger recipe with complete sincerity — careful technique, wholesome ingredients, the full lifestyle register — then crashed it with an ad for the Dirty Louisiana. The move delighted its loyal fan base who couldn't wait to get stuck in to the limited time offer.
