I wonder what age. I got read it (in class) during my sophomore year of high school. I got to the second page and began to think he couldn’t be serious and I was 100% certain of the satire by the end. But some kids did have trouble seeing it as such as quickly.
But the teacher asked the class at what point they got to before realizing it was satire. (Very bitter satire)
I guess pretty much the same thing happens today with many Onion articles.
Junior year, so age 16-17. I would point out that at that time none of us had the cultural background to be aware of what Swift was commenting on, essays by the other writers he was mocking, or the history of the British-Irish relationship. If we had any cultural reference at all, it was the Irish potato famine – which actually happened more than a century later.
For anyone who still doubts it’s possible to take AMP seriously, I’d simply refer them to any number of threads here where posters from one country simply can’t understand how “X” can be an offensive word or term to posters from another country, since it isn’t used that way where they come from. No cultural background = no comprehension.
I remember reading it in college and it went totally over my head that it was satire, and I didn’t care. Not that I was all for eating babies or anything, I just thought, “wow, this guy’s really weird to come up with such an idea,” and a small part of me wondered if he was joking. A very small part.
Literally Unbelievable captures a bunch of these. What’s more, people often refuse to get un-offended after having the joke explained. But that might be to save face.