What societies could be targeted by Vonnegut's satire in "Harrison Bergeron"?

"Harrison Bergeron" satirizes several types of societies or governments.  First, it obviously mimics the dominating control of a totalitarian regime, where citizens have no rights, and the government sees and controls all. The H-G men coming to take young Harrison away from his parents without any resistance on their part is a good example of this. Moreover, The General Handicapper's execution of Harrison at the story's end is similar to Stalin's mass execution or imprisonment of anyone who dared to oppose him.

Vonnegut, like he does in many of his stories, also mocks some aspects of American society, not so much its government, but more so the conformity that is encouraged in American society through mass marketing/communication.  George and Hazel's watching the TV constantly illustrates this criticism on Vonnegut's part.  The author tries to warn Americans that some technology or messages from large corporations or the government strive to "equalize" America.  Ironically, since the story was first published, America has actually become closer to the society portrayed in "H.B."  A constant effort to make everyone equal with no winners or losers, to encourage people to dress alike by following the latest trends, or to buy the same items as everyone else is common in American culture.

How is "Harrison Bergeron" a satire?

In addition to pointing out human flaws or missteps, satire uses sarcasm, irony, and other literary devices in order to compel us to change or to remedy whatever problem or vice is being illuminated in the text.

The story makes use of irony when George calls the time before—when "everybody [was] competing against everybody else" because people could use their natural talents and gifts fully—the "dark ages." It defies expectation to think of such an era as "dark" when we see that people, in the time in which the story is set, are prevented from using their superior intellect or heightened grace or atypical beauty in the name of fairness. Such irony helps to illuminate the idea that we often place fairness ahead of progress and common sense.

Hazel says, of the speech-impaired news announcer, "He tried to do the best he could with what God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard." Rather than hire someone who can do the job well, a man who cannot possibly perform well is given the position, and then he is praised for doing poorly because he tried. The irony here is that Hazel says that the announcer is doing what he can with what God gave him, and yet others with superior abilities or qualities are prohibited from doing what they can with what God gave them.

No one is allowed to excel or be better at something than anyone else; everyone caters, then, to the lowest common denominator, so to speak. All are mediocre. Vonnegut's use of irony helps to identify this as a satire as does the distinct mood of warning: if we take this obsession with "fairness" too far, he seems to say, we will end up stripping human beings of everything that makes us individual or unique.

It may be painful to know that there is someone who is smarter than you, more attractive than you, more talented, but if the alternative is this insipid sameness and meaninglessness, it would be better to endure the pain and still reap the pleasures life too. The illumination of this error as well as a warning against continuing to make it help to characterize this text as a satire.

How is "Harrison Bergeron" a satire?

According to dictionary.com, satire is defined as “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices.”  “Harrison Bergeron” is a short story by Kurt Vonnegut that exposes what could happen if the individual gives up his personal freedoms to a government.  The Bergerons are just one family in the story who have been convinced to suppress their individuality and strengths to a government that claims everyone should be equal and no better than anyone else.  The government “handicaps” people’s strengths to bring everyone down to the same level.  For Harrison who is a strong, young teenager, the government weighs him down with bags of sand to weaken him.  George, Harrison’s father, gets blasted in the ears with a loud noise when he begins to think too much. 

Vonnegut is using satire to point out how we as humans are often stupid enough and willingly enough give up our individuality to be like everyone else.  We give in to peer pressure or societal rules to not stick out and to blend in.  In the case of the short story, the citizens give up these rights to an oppressive government that claims everyone should be the same.  Written in 1961 during the Cold War, the story could also be a comment on communism and its political theories of a collective society where everyone is equal and works for each other. 

All in all, “Harrison Bergeron” is a story about a dystopian society that feels everyone should be equal in talents and abilities, and it is up to the individual, like Harrison, to rebel and protest the oppression enforced by the government.  Vonnegut is pointing out the stupidity of conformity and man’s need to fit in at all costs.

How does "Harrison Bergeron" expose societal flaws through satire?

In his famous essay "Self-Reliance," Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote,

Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater.

This opinion was written almost a century before Vonnegut's story, yet it describes the society in which Harrison Bergeron finds himself. His is one of forced equality, even to the point of making everyone mediocre. Society is certainly in conspiracy against those with superior abilities in Vonnegut's satire. With black humor, Vonnegut depicts buzzers going off in people's ears, masks being worn to cover beautiful faces, lead weights inserted into clothing to weigh down those too athletic, and handicaps on the heads of the brillant.

Perhaps one of the most salient of examples of the ridiculousness of forcing everyone to be "equal," comes with the ridiculous Hazel, who is too limited naturally to have to wear handicaps.

"Who knows better' n' I do what normal is?" said Hazel.

Right," said George. He began to think glimmeringly about his abnormal son...but a twenty-one gun salute in his head stopped that."  

Hazel's complete acceptance of the forced equality of everyone comes because many like Hazel are inadequate themselves. When an announcer with  a terrible voice and speech impediment tries to say, "Ladies and gentlemen," he has to give up because he cannot do it. The dull Hazel says words that echo those of some people today,

"That's all right--...he tried. That's the big thing. He tried to do the best he could with what God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard."

At the end of the story, Hazel has seen her son shot, but she cannot clearly remember, so George consoles her, "Forget sad things."

Vonnegut satirizes the superficialty that results in a society when one's natural talents are not developed, when competition no longer exists, when someone cannot be "better" than someone else...when a genius like Harrison Bergeron is not appreciated and is even killled so that everyone will be mdeiocre.