Why true satire is becoming a dying breed

There are so many different forms that a satirical piece of art can take, but for the purposes of this I will be focusing on live performance. In particular the worlds of theatre and comedy, which are worlds that both I, and my work inhabit.

Satire can be traced back to the start of time.  For as long as we’ve had structures and people in positions of power, artist have always found a way to cleverly and creatively needle them. 

Criticising and poking fun at society. It’s structures, it’s norms and it’s quirks. Allowing audiences to see themselves reflected in work which shines a light on universal truths and at times, harsh and controversial realities. 

But in my opinion, (And please do note this is just my opinion), true satire is becoming harder and harder to find. And what is replacing it is something that presents on the surface as satire, but when you look at it for more than a fleeting second, you begin to see it as quite frankly rather shallow and self serving.

Wait, who the f**k is this guy? I hear you cry as you lightly choke on your oat flat white. Why is he speaking on this?

Hi, my name’s Aarian Mehrabani I’m an actor, writer and (recently) a stand up comedian. I am probably best known for co-founding the international touring company FlawBored. Our debut show was called “It’s a MotherF**king Pleasure”, which we opened at VAULTS festival in February 2023 after receiving a lot of very generous support from partners like CPT. 

Since then it’s been a bit of a whirlwind ride. We went straight from VAULTS into a 3 week run at Soho Theatre, before winning the untapped award and going up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2023 where the show enjoyed a sold out run, rave reviews and I, along with the other 3 writers, were named by The Stage as one of their “Fringe Five: Five artists who smashed the fringe”.  

We then took the show all over the world. From a 3 week run off-Broadway in New York, a night in Oslo, and a 6 week US Tour. +the show has been published. 

If you are unfamiliar with the show, in a nutshell it was a dark, satirical comedy which poked fun at the monetisation of identity. And in particular the anxiety felt by most people when interacting with people with disabilities both in every day life and in the workplace. 

Oh shit…I forgot to mention that I’m also blind. That might have been helpful. Yes, both myself and one of the other writers (Sam Brewer) are blind and so an awful lot of the show came from our lived experience. 

The Times in their 5 star review, called it “A scathing, hilarious satire on the monetization of identity politics which spares no one”. 

The show was praised for it’s sharp wit and satire, and I found myself being frequenly asked about my opinion on the state of comedy and in particular satire. 

So I began developing my own thesis about the current state of how “satire” often manifests itself in the modern day. 

Now, before I go into this, I am very cautious that this should not be taken as a criticism of any art or artist in particular. Nor is it in any way a critique of the wonderful breadth and diversity of voices on our stages.  I am fully fully behind every artist having a voice, and I’m a strong believer that there needs to be work which audiences of all backgrounds see themselves in and are able to connect to. 

I am after all, a Queer, Middle Eastern man who lives with a disability. And not as you may be picturing, a 45 year old straight, white, bauld reform voter.

Okay…breathe out…my opinion, is that a lot of modern comedy and what is often termed satire can be exemplified through what I term the camp gay male comedian trope.  Stay with me here. 

This involves a quite camp gay man walking onto stage and telling a joke about grindr, or bottoming or cruising. Now this is usually a line or story that warrants a light titter from the audience. But what you will instead hear is howling from the crowd. Whooping and screaming, paired with a knee slap, foot stamping in their seat and general uncontrollable hysterics. 

Now these audience members are not laughing at what has been said or done on the stage. No. What these people are doing is loudly trying to broadcast to the rest of the crowd that they understand the joke. “I get it, I use grindr too!”, “I have kinky sex too!”, “I douche too!”.

It’s a performance. And that’s the key, when people in the crowd begin performing for their friends and the rest of the room.

And this absolutely isn’t just gay men talking about sex. It happens with everything.

Someone starts talking about doing hard drugs. Howling from the crowd, “I’m cool! I do cocaine in pub toilets too! Look at me!”

Or a personal pet peeve for me is the whooping which tells everyone “I went to drama school too! I’m a struggling actor too! I get all these references cos I’m in the cool club and if you aren’t laughing as loud as me then you’re just a loser who’s not in the club!(Pokes tongue out)YOU’RE A LOSER!”

We get it! You get it! Now can you please stop screeching at the mear mention of bottoming. 

But what I believe makes for true satire which actually says something and shines a light on universal trues that we all hate to admit that we recognise. Is when something is said or done on stage, and people in the audience recognise it. They really recognise it. It’s so true, it’s an irrefutable fact. It strikes them to their very core how much they recognise and relate to what they’re watching. 

But the key, is that rather than needing everyone around you to know that you recognise it. You actually want the complete opposite. No one can know that that’s something I do or say all the time. I need to hold in this laugh and fight with my face to not show anyone around me how much I recognise what is happening on stage. 

That, for me, is when satire is at it’s finest. 

And please don’t get me wrong, this isn’t dead. There are tons of artists making exceptional work that does this so well. Work that holds a mirror up to the audience and forces them to confront things that they may have never thought about because they’re so second nature. 

Now after saying all of that, I’m quite scared to promote my show. But what the hell. I am taking my debut stand up show, “How’s Your Head?”, up to the Edinburgh Fringe this year. And I’m so excited to be doing my second Work in Progress show at Camden People’s Theatre at 9pm on the 14th of April. 

It’s gonna be a lot of fun. Plus I’m over the moon that the hilariously funny Rosie Wood will be opening for me.

How's Your Head? (WIP) will perform on Tues 14 April at 9pm.

Click here to book