Coyote vs. Acme: A Valuable Lesson for Anyone Wanting to Learn the Art of Writing Satire

Satire may be a lost art and it may be what closes on Saturday night in relation to Broadway, but it's still the greatest possible comedic achievement. Yes, we'll all have a good laugh at a rich snob slipping on a banana peel, but that laugh is enriched exponentially if you can place the slapstick within the realm of satire. (One of the funniest scenes in movie history is when George C. Scott falls over backward in the War Room in Dr. Strangelove. It's funny enough as pratfall, but the humor is deepened as a result of the satire of Scott's character's position.) One of the finest examples of satirical literature of the past few decades is Coyote v. Acme by Ian Frazier. Coyote v. Acme is a short piece that takes the form of a legal brief being brought by the famous Warner Brothers cartoon character Wile E. Coyote as he files a lawsuit against the infamous manufacturer of those negligent products sold by Acme Corp. Anyone who has watched a Warner Brothers Roadrunner cartoon is familiar with the long history of poor Wile E. Coyote and his purchase of product after product from Acme that never delivers on their promise to help him catch the Roadrunner.