Ever have a story idea you wanted to write (think a parody/satire) along the vein of the Grand Theft Auto franchise*, but felt it was too mean-spirited? Like I've toyed with the idea of writing a parody of Christianity (my religion) wherein a little girl (who symbolizes blind ignorance/naivety) takes everything the priest and her parents say literally, and when she finds a sliver of wood, she thinks she's found the True Cross and the priest believes her automatically. That's it. That's her whole character. A parody/critique of fanatical Christianity. That said, I don't want to just copy GTA and be all 'ha ha lol they suck so let's laugh at them'. These two videos, for instance, have much more subtle barbs. The Simpsons mocking about the BBC documentaries - YouTube Margaret Thatcher Out For A Meal With Her Cabinet Lol - YouTube So, how do you write satire/parodies? What makes a good satire/parody to you?
As you've already said, you can take a mean-spirited approach or a more gentle one, it's up to you, You need to get yourself in the right mindset for either one. If you're having some mean-spirited ideas and those are infecting the story you really want to write, maybe you need to get them out of your system first. Write up a little super-mean satire first, not intended for publication or anything. Just write out all the ideas that want to come out. Once you've done that it might clear the way and then you can get into the gentler mindset to write the one you want.
For me, the best parodies are those with some degree of affection for, or at least understanding of, the subject matter. Those intended as two-dimensional "hur hur this is stupid" start getting cringeworthy pretty quick. And secondly, they're funny in their own right. Ideally, a parody can get even someone who sincerely likes the subject matter to crack a smile and admit "Yeah, that bit is kind of funny."
I agree. It's what I hope to do in my non-fiction ideas about Christianity and the history of the USA. Kind of tounge-in-cheek parody self-mocking.
Satire, for me, is always at it's best when it's mocking those in power. So maybe get into the church leaders using the girl's blind faith to solidify their power, cynically determining what about the situation will benefit them?
Read Catch-22 if you haven't already. Exhaustive amounts of gags. Like one every 11 words or so. And like @Azuresun said, very detailed subject material (WWII in this case). It's not a super awesome book IMO, but very "important," as Stephen King one quipped regarding Joseph Heller.
If you're worried that a character may come off as too mean toward a particular group, like Christians, you can always balance them out with someone who's similar, but more rational and/or likeable. That shows that what your mocking is not the belief, but the extreme that the first character takes it to. This works for any kind of fiction, not just satire. In Ken Follett's novel "The Pillars of the Earth," the main villains are a corrupt, ambitious priest and a vicious noble who kills and rapes and then runs back to confess his sins to the priest for forgiveness (He'd actually fit into your story pretty well with his cartoonish fear of hell and the way the priest uses it to control him). Taken by themselves, they paint a pretty ugly picture of Christianity, but they're balanced out by a genuinely good, humble priest and other religious characters who, of course, win in the end.
