means the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize foolishness or vice, especially in politics and society

from From Latin satira, an earlier form of which was satura, meaning a 'medley' or 'mixed dish' — the phrase lanx satura referred to a platter heaped with assorted fruits offered to the gods. Roman satire began as just such a jumble: a varied mix of poetic verses on miscellaneous topics. Later the Romans, fond of a pun, linked it loosely (and wrongly) to the Greek satyr — those lewd, mocking goat-men of myth — which lent the word its modern sting. So the dish of mixed fruit slowly soured into the art of mixed mockery.