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"Humor makes it possible to make serveral statements at once." -The Function of Humour in Roman Verse Satire, Maria Plaza

I've been reading some theory on Roman satire for a presentation on satiric representations of warfare for my Classical Warfare class. Another useful idea is the position of the author and the position of the satiric persona, which the author uses as a mask, relative to the object of the satire. Where does Ishmael stand? Also, that there is a didactic (teaching) function to satire, and that the humor isn't just there to make some moral go down more easily - the humor itself teaches.