The "Power" of Satire

This is a brilliant piece in the Baffler about the explosion of satire in this country. This is a pretty good thesis paragraph, taken from about 2/3 through the piece...

We often hear talk of satire’s devastating impact on its targets. But this age of humorous excess has shown that satire, even when delivered in the sharpest and most unforgiving forms, hardly makes a dent. The proliferation of satirists has multiplied the amount of funny material out there. But it has diminished the belief that satire, political or otherwise, can serve any real purpose beyond amusing us.