Collins English Dictionary -
So by this definition, which may well be the more usual interpretation than those that allude to ridiculing or criticising, satire may be taken in the sense of a touch of the gentle rapier barb. Satire as employed by the late John Clarke and by Clive James, both over many years of writing and public utterances, was never malicious. Clarke and James have both been great exemplars of good manners. Which of course does not mean, when resorting to satire, that the subject of that satire does not warrant a good sledging. ("It's not so much what you say, as how you say it.")