Obituaries – where satire meets sarcasm

“Colleen McCullough, Australian’s best-selling author was a charmer. Plain of feature, and certainly overweight, she was, nevertheless, a woman of wit and warmth.” – ‘The Australian’ newspaper

Now, readers of this blog will know that I love a good obituary and I regard this is a modern classic for its use of ‘nevertheless’; i.e. essentially ‘No offence, but….’ lurking in disguise.

Damned by faint praise

Following its publication, there was a rush of imitation obituaries, with many people writing their own:

“Although his beard looked like someone had glued it on and his hair would have been more convincing as a wig, he married a rockstar.” – Neil Gaiman

“He had a stiff upper lip, though one certainly hard to see behind that eerily neat moustache. Nevertheless, George Orwell gave satire a red hot go.” – George Orwell (note – he is dead and this wasn’t written for him at the time)

“Not pretty or industrious enough to be effortlessly slutty, Cooke found with relief she was often drunk enough for journalism.” – An Australian cartoonist on social media

Revenge – a dish best served cold

In a final delicious irony though, it was later revealed that the obituary had been written some years ago by a male writer who had recently died himself.

I suppose that’s the ultimate comeback – where satire meets sarcasm?