History Literature / AModestProposal

%%* BlackComedy
%%* BlackComedyCannibalism: Possibly the ur-example.

%%* EatsBabies: The whole point.

%%* PeopleFarm: It's the whole point.

%%* RefugeInAudacity

%%* SarcasticTitle

* HaveAGayOldTime: To Swift's contemporaries, the label "American" would suggest a barbaric person.

%%* BreadEggsMilkSquick: It ''starts out'' normally enough...

* HypocriticalHumor: Swift regrets that he cannot contribute to these scheme, as his youngest child is nine, and his wife is already past her childbearing years.
** A friend suggested the selling and eating of children between twelve and fourteen, and Swift decided that this suggestion may be bordering on cruelty, which he is ''strictly'' against.

Needless to say many people found Swift's little joke about [[BlackComedy how the poor could sell their children to the rich for food]] to be [[{{Pun}} in poor taste.]] [[DudeNotFunny Others were shocked and appalled]]. [[StealthParody Some thought it should be seriously considered]]. [[PoesLaw Those two didn't get the joke.]]

* BlackComedy
* BlackComedyCannibalism: Possibly the ur-example.
* BreadEggsMilkSquick: It ''starts out'' normally enough...
* DontExplainTheJoke: Completely averted.
* EatsBabies / ImAHumanitarian: The whole point.
* GetTheeToANunnery / HaveAGayOldTime: [[PlayingWithATrope Something like that]] - to Swift's contemporaries, the label "American" would suggest a barbaric person.

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: Part of the reason some people miss the satire is that Swift precedes the eponymous proposal with an elaborate insistence that he's [[BlatantLies totally super serial, guys]].
* PeopleFarm: It's the whole point.
* PoesLaw: Perhaps the TropeMaker. Swift's over-the-top satire was taken at face value and discussed as an earnest and feasible solution for the Irish poverty problem.
* RefugeInAudacity
* SarcasmMode: Near the end, Swift lists out a series of efficient, intelligent measures that would ''actually'' help the entire Irish economy (and the English economy, come to that), and adds that of course these are entirely too outlandish to ''ever'' work. A possible example of FridgeBrilliance, in that Swift himself had seriously proposed every one of these measures at some point, and nobody in the administration had paid any attention.
* SarcasticTitle: One of the earliest examples.
* StealthParody: So intricate that it wasn't recognized as such for some time. It helped that the British reading public was so convinced of its correctness in disdaining the Irish that they couldn't see that Swift was attacking that very conviction.
** Many of Swift's satires were like that. Read Gulliver's Travels with that in mind and consider each facet of English society he was mocking.
* WhamLine: You have to start reading from the beginning to get the full impact of the line quoted in the introduction.

* SarcasmMode: Near the end, Swift lists out a series of efficient, intelligent measures that would ''actually'' help the entire English economy, and adds that of course these are entirely too outlandish to ''ever'' work. A possible example of FridgeBrilliance, in that Swift himself had seriously proposed every one of these measures at some point, and nobody in the administration had paid any attention.

* DeadBabyComedy: Literally.

Needless to say many people found Swift's little joke about [[BlackComedy how the poor could sell their children to the rich for food]] to be [[{{Pun}} in poor taste.]] [[DudeNotFunny Others were shocked and appalled]]. [[PoesLaw They didn't get the joke.]]

* BabyFactory: Technically baby farms, but the same basic idea.

* BlackComedy: ''A Modest Proposal'' is satire.

* SarcasmMode: Near the end, Swift lists out a series of efficient, intelligent measures that would ''actually'' help the entire English economy, and adds that of course these are entirely too outlandish to ''ever'' work.

** A friend suggested the selling and eating of children between twelve and fourteen, and Swift decided that this suggestion may be bordering on cruelty, which he is "strictly" against.

Needless to say many people found Swift's little joke about [[DeadBabyComedy how the poor could sell their children to the rich for food]] to be [[{{Pun}} in poor taste.]] [[DudeNotFunny Others were shocked and appalled]]. [[PoesLaw They didn't get the joke.]]

* DeadBabyComedy: ''A Modest Proposal'' is satire.

* PeopleFarm: its the whole point

Needless to say many people found Swift's little joke about [[DeadBabyComedy how the poor could sell their children to the rich for food]] to be [[AWorldwidePunomenon in poor taste.]] [[DudeNotFunny Others were shocked and appalled]]. [[PoesLaw They didn't get the joke.]]

*** [[FridgeBrilliance It was probably a subtle hint that the narrator didn't know what he was talking about]]

-->"A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout."

''A Modest Proposal'' (full title: ''A Modest Proposal For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Publick'') was written in 1729 by Irish satirist JonathanSwift. It starts off like a modern essay detailing the hardships of the Irish people who are living in poverty and how the current means of fixing the problem are inadequate. Then Swift presents his own idea, ostensibly relayed from an "American friend":

---> Swift

''A Modest Proposal'' (full title: ''A Modest Proposal For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Publick'') was written in 1729 by Irish satirist JonathanSwift, . It starts off like a modern essay detailing the hardships of the Irish people who are living in poverty and how the current means of fixing the problem are inadequate. Then Swift presents his own idea, ostensibly relayed from an "American friend":

* GetTheeToANunnery / HaveAGayOldTime: [[PlayingWithATrope Something like that]] - the Americas had not yet been discovered when Swift wrote this, and to his contemporaries the label "American" would suggest a barbaric person.

Written in 1729 by Irish satirist JonathanSwift, ''A Modest Proposal'' (full title: ''A Modest Proposal For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Publick'') may be considered English Literature's first instance of {{trolling}}. It starts off like a modern essay detailing the hardships of the Irish people who are living in poverty and how the current means of fixing the problem are inadequate. Then Swift presents his own idea, ostensibly relayed from an "American friend":

* {{Troll}}: Swift can certainly be considered one of these for releasing this thing into the public in the first place.

* EatsBabies: The whole point.

* ImAHumanitarian: The entire point.

[[WMG: A Modest Proposal provides examples of:]]

* DeadBabyComedy: At the heart of AModestProposal is satire- it's making jest at the horrendous conditions of the poor.