The Smattering style guide: eight rules we write by
Satire looks effortless when it works. Behind every piece are a few rules that keep the joke sharp and the reader on our side.
We publish short political satire, and we try to do it with the discipline of a real newsroom. Here are the rules every piece goes through before it reaches your inbox.
1. Write it straight
Every story is written in the voice of a wire report. Datelines, attributions, sober paragraphs. The joke is in the content, never in the tone.
2. One step past reality
Our premises start from something that really happened and take it exactly one step further. If a reader cannot recognize the starting point, the piece is not satire. It is fiction.
3. Aim up
We write about people and institutions with power: politicians, parties, agencies, networks, billionaires. We do not write jokes whose target is a group of people who did nothing except exist.
4. Invent the small people, not the big quotes
When a story needs an aide, a consultant or a spokesperson, we make one up and give them a name like “Vinnie.” We are careful about putting invented words in real mouths in ways that could be mistaken for reporting.
5. Escalate by paragraph three
A reader who stops after two paragraphs should get the joke. A reader who continues should get a second, bigger one.
6. End on the kicker
Every piece ends with a short “at press time” line. It is a newsroom habit we borrowed and then refused to give back.
7. Label everything
Each article carries a satire label, and our About page says plainly what we are. Satire is only satire if it can be recognized.
8. Keep it short
Most of our pieces run between three hundred and five hundred words. If the joke needs a thousand, it is probably two jokes.
