I used to be a mormon, and I served a mission. People that had been exposed to the absurdity of mormonism were difficult to convert, and people that had never heard of mormonism were relatively simple.
Satire and sarcasm might not convince an anti-vaxxer that vaccines are good, but they might convince an uninformed person of the ridiculousness that the anti-vaxxer position is. It can stop the conversion.
It's possible that's exactly what it is, in a cultural-transmission sense.
(Suggest discussing this one, rather than reflexively downmodding. The use of sarcasm and mockery as legitimate rhetorical tools has previously been brought up by people like Sam Harris. I thought it was a pretty interesting point when I first encountered it.)
I agree. The whole concept of memes that evolve and spread like genetic material is a useful tool (hell, that's where the 'viral' comes from). It's useful to talk about memetic immunity in individuals and groups. If sarcasm helps you defend against harmful memes, then that's exactly what it is - a vaccine.
And if you convince the large amount of uninformed people that anti-vaxxers are ridiculus, then it's easy to pass laws that mandate vaccination for schools, it's harder for anti-vaxxers to get a platform on TV.
If we consider memes, satire and parody could be ways to prevent certain ideas from being able to take hold in a person's mind. Once you realize the absurdity of a particular viewpoint (taken to its logical extreme), it's harder to be convinced of even more moderate takes on that idea/philosophy/whatever.
Consider people who grew up or lived under authoritarian regimes now living in countries like the US or UK. Seeing the current surveillance trends (well, not current it's been going on for a while), they may be less likely to consider what's happening as a positive. While those who grew up in the US or UK may have a harder time recognizing the negatives because they lack the relevant experience (and, hell, given how little of history my younger coworkers seem to know they won't even have the benefit of second-hand experience).
Satire and sarcasm might not convince an anti-vaxxer that vaccines are good, but they might convince an uninformed person of the ridiculousness that the anti-vaxxer position is. It can stop the conversion.