The lyrics are a mild satire on the style and antics of the players involved: "old Willie Thorne; his hair's all gone" for example.

Altman stated, "It is a very mild satire," offending no one.

What is surprising is that with all its predictability and stock characters, this mild satire manages to be both charming and entertaining.

The housewife is the smartest character, she finds the murderer and the film allows some mild satire of a certain kind of pretentiousness and glitz.

The paper concluded, "the mild satire of Pinafore is entertaining because it is universal".

It is a genre depicting monkeys apeing human behavior, often fashionably attired, intended as a diverting sight, always with a gentle cast of mild satire.

These matters are handled with an unfocused combination of mild satire and solipsistic sincerity.

Abbott's world of Flatland included a mild satire on the rigidities of the Victorian class system.

Reviewers eagerly praised the mild satire of their own territory, delighting in the wit with which Brooke-Rose vividly portrayed its types.

It is a slow-starting mild satire of television, which becomes an energetic and congenial farce.