Lampoon

A lampoon is a piece of writing, either prose or verse, which attacks, e.g., a person, an institution, a literary work, a particular state of affairs, etc., by holding him, her, or it up to ridicule. The words lampoon and satire are usually interchangeable, though satire is by far the more common word. Lampoon is also used as a verb: to lampoon means ‘to ridicule, to attack in a lampoon, to satirise’.

Among the first examples of lampoons in European literature are two comedies by the Greek playwright Aristophanes (?450-?385 BCE), who lampoons the philosopher Socrates (469-399 BCE) in The Clouds and the playwright Euripides (?485-?406 BCE) in The Frogs. More recent examples of lampoons include Mac Flecknoe (1682) by John Dryden (1631-1700); A Modest Proposal (1729) by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745); and Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain (1835-1910).

Etymological note: Lampoon comes from the French lampons, ‘let us drink’, which often formed (part of) the refrain in scurrilous poems or drinking songs.