The article analyzes the structure of the image of the author and the character in satirical magazines published in Orenburg in the early 20th century. The study shows that creation of a literary «mask» and the dialogization of main characters speech are the key methods to reflect the authors position, who is forced to maneuver between the reader and voluntary censorship. Parody, being an integral part of the arsenal of satirical poetics, contributes to effective intervention in the inconsistencies of modern reality, their correction or eradication. However, the external layer of tests, thanks to the malicious, ambivalent irony, preserves a completely noble and emotionally neutral form of appeal to contemporaries discussing everyday problems. It focuses on the hidden mechanisms of modern reality, affecting consciousness, worldview and social position of an individual and the stages of its development. Parodying the speech of representatives of various social classes, the author, using specific vocabulary and stylistics, clearly delineated the boundaries. It was possible to go beyond them only for a representative of a journalistic community that owned a palette of diverse means and techniques. They stylized characteristic noble metaphorization, merchant and bureaucratic symbolization, masking the lack of both spirituality and reason for existence in the description of peasants life, striking by its terrifying reality. The editorial policy of magazines is clearly reflected in the selection of materials for their distribution on the page. After accusatory materials relevant to the political and public life of the city, everyday genre paintings of national disasters and oppression are placed. It strengthens the readers need for change.