Stratton Oakmont Satire

The Oxford English Dictionary defines satire as the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

But why would a director use satire in a movie? What is the purpose of ridicule?

The British journalist Robert Harris shows that satire intends to be corrective and tries to expose vice and hypocrisy, but also demonstrates the pernicious effects such vices have when allowed to continue. Therefore it can be assumed that satire points out a certain problem without lecturing a person, which makes it very effective, as most people hate it to be lectured and directly start to get angry if done so.

That is why Martin Scorsese uses the power of ridicule, as he speaks of his viewers as victims, who need to get a certain moral message in order to put pressure on politics: ”It's not pleasant, and the ability to see humour in situations that are atrocious is part of our defense mechanism. That's why we laugh at things like this.”

When Stratton Oakmont is being introduced, it seems like a serious and respectable firm and Belfort even clarifies, that for him, Stratton Oakmont is America. Scorsese then hard-cuts to a dwarf-tossing competition and shows Stratton’s real face: Stratton Oakmont is just a bunch of drugged adults behaving like little children. This is America and these children are going to destroy it, if the people do not try to do something against it. This can be underlined with a statement of DiCaprio, who says in an interview: "He (Belfort) was a minnow in the bigger scheme of things - there are much more powerful people trying to rob America, like all the financial institutions."