Banksy

 Any piece of work is Satire when it uses humor, irony, or exaggeration to highlight an issue going on within society. In this image, we can see Bansky portraying something rather unusual and somewhat humorous, as it seems like the elderly are being carried across the street by the young. This single piece of art consists of many characteristic moves that make it a great form of Satire. For starters, it employs the use of exaggeration since we all know that this image would never happen in real life since it shows the elderly riding the backs of adolescents across the street and inflicting pain on them. However, the exaggeration used in this piece of art brings light to an issue in society: The elderly being too dependent on the young, and as a result, hurting the younger generation. I think this art-work is trying to show how the elderly benefit through programs like Medicare and Social Security, but the people paying for these funds are tax-payers. These tax-payers are working individuals, typically belonging to the younger and able generation. If these working-class individuals, however, are facing financial hardships, coughing up the money needed to pay their taxes, which greatly fund these entitlement programs, will harm these individuals. Another humorous aspect of this picture is that we can see that the adolescent’s backs are in an extremely awkward position when supporting the elderly, which causes future long-term back problems, common among the elderly. Therefore implying that this whole process is a cycle--the adolescents experience the negative effects of supporting the elderly, their backs get bent out of shape, and as a result, they will be the ones needing help from future generations. This cycle will repeat itself throughout history. The tone established in this art-work is something we need to look at as well. The blue skies in the background seem to indicate nothing is wrong with this image at all, and everything seems to be ordinary. Possibly indicating that this issue often goes overlooked, establishing the tone of false innocence. The red border used in this design could signal a tone of malice since the color red is often associated with the color of blood and other elements of the same category. Overall, I think this piece by Bansky succeeds at delivering the message to the intended audience through using Satire as the main element.