Farm Satire and Humor
How to Write Farm Satire and Humor: A 2,222-Word Guide for the Barnyard Bard
So you want to write farm satire? You want to tickle the funny bone of a chicken, outwit a goat, and wrangle a few laughs from people who think a manure spreader is a dating app? Saddle up, partner. Whether you’re a city slicker trying to fake your way into the Farm & Tractor Monthly newsletter or a fourth-generation soybean whisperer with a dark sense of humor, this guide will walk you through every corn-row and cow-pie of the genre known as Farm Satire and Humor.
Why Farm Satire Matters
Farming is sacred, serious, and deadly important. Which is exactly why it’s also hilarious. It’s hard work, generational trauma, and diesel fumes… but it’s also roosters who think they’re in charge, cows who sit like dogs, and an endless parade of neighbors who believe WD-40 is a cure-all.
Satire gives farmers the power to laugh at the absurdity of agricultural policy, TikTok tractor influencers, $200K combines that still won’t start, and every romanticized depiction of farm life written by someone who thinks “hay” grows on trees.
Farm satire is how we make sense of:
- Government subsidies for alpacas but not soybeans.
- Urban vegans who believe corn is handpicked by monks.
- Romantic novels where shirtless farm boys have six-pack abs and no visible farmer’s tan.
- Ag-tech startups run by kids whose only dirt experience is potting succulents in Brooklyn.
The Comedic Tools of the Farm Satirist
Exaggeration
Make everything bigger than life. That 4H cow? She weighs 17,000 pounds and eats a vegan diet of stolen kale. That rooster? He runs the barn like a mafia boss with feathers.
“Our irrigation system is so high-tech it sends an alert to our phones when the clouds are being lazy.”
Wordplay
Puns are the fertilizer of farm satire — overused, groan-worthy, and somehow still effective.
“The cornfield threw a party. It was absolutely a-maize-ing.”
“The farm was haunted by the ghost of a chicken who never crossed the road.”
Irony
Farmers know irony better than most — after all, they’re told they’re “independent business owners” while being price-fixed by global markets, crushed by weather apps, and ghosted by the USDA.
“We used to be stewards of the land. Now we’re subcontractors for Big Corn’s Instagram strategy.”
Stereotyping (with care!)
There are archetypes ripe for parody:
- The know-it-all ag extension officer.
- The influencer farmer who owns more drones than cows.
- The rural libertarian who hoards seeds, AR-15s, and Bitcoin.
- The neighbor who thinks “organic” just means you yell at the bugs instead of spraying them.
Just remember: satire punches up, not down. Make sure you’re lampooning systems, not struggling folks.
15 Humorous Observations for Writing Farm Satire
1. Every farm has one animal that is definitely plotting something.
Usually a goat. Possibly a chicken. Never the dog. The dog is innocent but complicit.
2. Tractor envy is real and socially corrosive.
If your neighbor’s combine has GPS and yours has a broken cupholder, you’re not friends anymore.
3. Farm kids are raised like Spartans.
They know how to back a trailer at 10 but will cry if you take away their Paw Patrol blanket.
4. Ag influencers are the televangelists of modern farming.
“Smash that like button if you believe wheat is God’s carbohydrate!”
5. Nothing grows faster than rumors in a small farm town.
Except possibly zucchini.
6. “Local food” now means blueberries airlifted from Chile to Brooklyn by guilt-powered drones.
7. Roosters have absolutely no concept of time.
“3:12 AM? Sounds like dawn to me! COCK-A-DOODLE-DOOOO!”
8. The government will pay you NOT to grow crops, but will not pay to fix your gravel road.
Ah, capitalism.
9. City folks think ‘farm to table’ is new.
Farmers call that “Tuesday.”
10. Farmers have more weather apps than social media accounts.
But we still trust Old Jim’s arthritic knee more than any Doppler radar.
11. There is no such thing as “retiring” from farming.
Just… slowly dying while handing things to your grandson.
12. Cows only break fences at 3:00 a.m., in the rain, during marital disputes.
It’s science.
13. Farmers pray more for rain than they do for forgiveness.
But they pray hardest that their kids won’t move to Austin and become DJs.
14. Modern ag-tech companies are just Silicon Valley trying to invent farming… again… but badly.
“We created an app that helps you identify pig squeals using blockchain!”
15. If it’s not nailed down, tied up, or fenced in — it’s gone.
Probably to your neighbor’s field.
How to Structure a Farm Satire Piece
Headline: Tease with Absurdity
“Farmer Arrested for Planting Truth in Field of Lies”
“Tractor Identifies as Tesla, Demands Charging Station”
“Rural Man Discovers TikTok, Becomes Amish Out of Shame”
Introduction: Create a Comedic Hook
Set up a ridiculous premise with a straight face.
“In a groundbreaking move, the USDA has approved emotional support goats for lonely scarecrows.”
Development: Pile on the Irony, Absurdity, and Satirical “Facts”
Bring in fake experts:
- “Dr. Opal Hensley, Chicken Behavioral Therapist…”
- “According to a 2023 survey by the National Association of Tractor Psychics…”
Use logic that spirals out of control.
“Since cows emit methane, and methane causes climate change, the solution is obvious: give all cows Beano.”
Include mock polls:
“72% of farmers believe their rooster is gaslighting them.”
Personal Anecdotes: Fake or Real, Make ’Em Funny
“I once woke up to find my herd of goats in the backseat of my cousin’s Honda Civic. We still don’t know how they got in or where they were going.”
Conclusion: Either a Gut Punch or a Punchline
“Farming is hard. Satire is harder. But laughing about it is how we survive the bugs, the bills, and the bureaucracy.”
“Helpful Content” for Aspiring Farm Satirists
- Always Write What You Know: Even if you don’t live on a farm, visit one. Or better yet, spend a week fixing a barbed wire fence. You’ll write like Faulkner after that.
- Use Plain Language: Rural humor doesn’t need big words. You’re not writing for The Atlantic. You’re writing for the guy who welded his lawn chair to his riding mower.
- Respect the Land, Roast the System: The land is not the punchline. The USDA, Monsanto, or Chad who keeps flying his drone into your barn? Fair game.
- Blend Sincerity with Satire: Real farm life is emotional. Let it show — then flip it upside down.
What the Funny People are Saying
“When you live on a farm, every sunrise is a fresh insult from nature.”
— Ron White
“Farming is like marriage. You’re in it for life, most days are boring, and you can’t tell the cows from the in-laws.”
— Jerry Seinfeld
“I once milked a cow that turned out to be a bull. That’s not a joke, that’s how I learned to run track.”
— Chris Rock
“You don’t know desperation until you’ve tried to internet date with dial-up in a farmhouse.”
— Amy Schumer
Satirical Examples from the Field
1. The Anti-Corn Movement
“In a shocking development, corn has been declared a ‘colonizer crop’ by the Urban Agricultural Justice League. In response, rural farmers across the Midwest burned effigies of tofu.”
2. Rural-Farm TikTok Ban
“The government has banned TikTok on rural farms after a string of tractor-dancing injuries and one barn fire caused by a cow participating in the ‘Milk Jug Challenge.’”
3. Vegan Ghosts Haunt Dairy Barn
“A Wisconsin dairy farmer claims his cows are being haunted by vegan ghosts. ‘They whisper almond milk recipes at night,’ he sobbed.”
Final Thoughts: Why It Works
Farm satire thrives because agriculture is the backbone of society but gets treated like a footnote. It’s the comedy of contradiction — hard labor turned into political talking points, endless responsibility treated with ignorance by coastal elites, and the noble simplicity of work corrupted by bureaucracy, technology, and marketing campaigns.
To satirize it is not to mock it — but to expose the hypocrisy, romance the struggle, and remind people that laughter is the most resilient crop we grow.
Disclaimer
This article was a 100% human collaboration between two sentient beings: one with hay in his boots and the other with a liberal arts degree and an irrational fear of livestock. No goats were harmed in the making of this satire, but one did steal our truck keys.
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