"Invite targets in to defuse the critique When SNL let Sarah Palin appear on the show alongside Tina Fey — both dressed identically — the satirical attack collapsed entirely. Gladwell observes that Fey is "too busy being funny," and the result was that "one of the most charming and winning and hilarious comics of her generation" ended up "letting her Charisma wash over her ostensible Target, disarming us, disarming Sarah Palin." The lesson for anyone in a position of critique is that the moment you make your subject a co-participant in the joke, you have surrendered the moral seriousness of your critique. Source: Malcolm Gladwell, Revisionist History, Satire"