Editing Satire (section)

====Targeting the victim====
Some critics of [[Mark Twain]] see [[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (novel)|''Huckleberry Finn'']] as [[racist]] and offensive, missing the point that its author clearly intended it to be satire (racism being in fact only one of a number of Mark Twain's known concerns attacked in ''Huckleberry Finn'').<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Leonard | first1 = James S | first2 = Thomas A | last2 = Tenney | first3 = Thadious M | last3 = Davis | title = Satire or Evasion?: Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn | publisher = [[Duke University Press]] |date=December 1992 | page = 224 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fdrBtpSSCisC&q=hemingway+%22huckleberry+finn%22+%22green+hills%22&pg=RA1-PA116 | isbn = 978-0-8223-1174-4}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | first = Shelley Fisher | last = Fishin | title = Lighting out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture | place = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1997}}</ref> This same misconception was suffered by the main character of the 1960s British television comedy satire ''[[Till Death Us Do Part]]''. The character of [[Alf Garnett]] (played by [[Warren Mitchell]]) was created to poke fun at the kind of narrow-minded, racist, [[little Englander]] that Garnett represented. Instead, his character became a sort of [[anti-hero]] to people who actually agreed with his views. (The same situation occurred with [[Archie Bunker]] in American TV show ''[[All in the Family]]'', a character derived directly from Garnett.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}})

The Australian satirical television comedy show ''[[The Chaser's War on Everything]]'' has suffered repeated attacks based on various perceived interpretations of the "target" of its attacks. The "Make a Realistic Wish Foundation" sketch (June 2009), which attacked in classical satiric fashion the heartlessness of people who are reluctant to donate to [[Charitable organization|charities]], was widely interpreted as an attack on the [[Make a Wish Foundation]], or even the terminally ill children helped by that organisation. [[Prime Minister of Australia|Prime Minister]] of the time [[Kevin Rudd]] stated that The Chaser team "should hang their heads in shame". He went on to say that "I didn't see that but it's been described to me. ...But having a go at kids with a terminal illness is really beyond the pale, absolutely beyond the pale."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-06-04/hang-your-heads-rudd-tells-chaser-boys/1703862 |title='Hang your heads' Rudd tells Chaser boys | publisher = [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=June 4, 2009|access-date=June 5, 2009}}</ref> Television station management suspended the show for two weeks and reduced the third season to eight episodes.