Frequently, for example, the dialogue gives way to a pointed anecdote (old or current, invented or factual), such as the story of Jack of Leyden in Observator No. 1, or the following from a later dialogue, humorously satirizing the dour William Prynne and the Puritans' strange concepts of sin:
Trimmer: A Gentleman that had Cut-off his own hair on the Saturday, came the next day to Church in his first Perriwig. The Parson (that was already Enter'd into his Sermon) turn'd his Discourse presently, from his Text in the Holy Bible, to the Subject of Prynnes Unloveliness of Lovelocks; and Thrash'd for a matter of a Quarter of an hour, upon the Mortal Sin of Wearing False Hair. The Gentleman, finding that he would never give him over, 'till he had Preach'd him into a Flat State of Reprobation, fairly took off his Perriwig, and Clapt it upon One of the Buttons at the Corner of the Pew. The Poor Man had not One word more to say to the Perriwig; and was run so far from his Text, that he could not for his heart find the way home again: So that to make short on't; He gave the People his Blessing, and Dismiss'd the Congregation.
(II, No. 21)
Frequently, also, L'Estrange satirizes by means of parody or ludicrous examples of his enemies' rhetoric or behavior, as in the case of the "Dissenting Academies" in Observator No. 110. But most important of the techniques for entertaining are his creation of carefully delineated speaker-personae and his "Characters," again both borrowed from the literary tradition.
After the first twenty-nine Observators, which are experimental in that "Q" and "A" have shifting personalities (as in Nos. 1 and 13), L'Estrange manipulates "Whig" and "Tory" for 171 papers, changes to "Whig" and "Observator" for 33 papers, briefly (six papers) shifts to "Whig" and "Courantier," and finally settles down to "Trimmer" and "Observator" for the remaining 692 papers. In all these, the Tory satirist (whether he be "Tory" or "Observator") is presented as the conventional "snarling dog" described by Robert C. Elliott,[17] with appropriate outbursts of polemic, invective, bitter irony, and railing humor. Even the traditional crudity is there, although compared to, say, the Popish Courant, L'Estrange manifests a Victorian restraint. "Whig," on the other hand, is presented as a naive, credulous, not-too-bright individual whose main fault is not so much that he is a Whig but that he is a Whig because he has no mental capacity for discrimination. The "A" speaker of No. 13 (apparently a humorous thrust at John Eachard, author of Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy) with his preference for Prynne, Baxter, and Smith over Tacitus, Livy, and Caesar, is typical of the later "Whig" persona. Humorless, misguided, and chronically given to believing even the most outrageous gossip, "Whig" cuts a foolish and therefore amusing figure when pitted against the sophisticated, trenchant-minded "Tory." "Trimmer" is quite different. L'Estrange here creates a much more intelligent opponent, one who is given the liberty of satirizing "Observator" himself and even patronizing him with the nickname "Nobs." Instead of naivete and obvious stupidity, "Trimmer" has the guile and surface morality of the perfect hypocrite, a "pretending friend" as "Observator" notes in Observator III, Nos. 88 and 202. The humor in these later dialogues does not emerge from the "Trimmer" personality but from the frequent self-satire and criticism on the part of L'Estrange. "Trimmer," for example, is allowed to mock the prose style, figures of speech, stubbornness and repetitiveness of "Observator," as "Trimmer's" chiding tone in Observator III, No. 88 suggests. To borrow a term from Robert C. Elliott, the entertainment of these later colloquies resides primarily in the technique of the "satirist satirized."[18] L'Estrange, in short, creates both adversariuses as dramatis personae rather than as simple straw men, a departure from the run-of-the-mill Restoration dialogue evident in the following interruption of his artfully built illusion:
Obs.: For Varieties sake then, we'le to work another way. Do You keep up your Part of Trimmer still: Do Just as you use to do; and be sure to maintain your Character; Leave the Whig and the Tory to Me.
Trimmer: For the Dialogue sake it shall be done.
Obs.: But then you must Consider that there are Severall sort of Trimmers: as your State-Trimmer, Your Law-Trimmer....
Trimmer: And You shall Suppose Mee to be a Statesman.
Obs.: But of what Magnitude? A Lord? A Knight?...
Trimmer: Why truly Nobs, if they be all of a Price, I don't care if I be a Lord.
Obs.: We are over that Point then; And so I am your Lordships most Humble Servant.
But this role playing within role playing is discarded at the end of the paper, the role of Lord being apparently too cumbersome:
Trimmer: No more of your Lordships, as you love me, Nobs; for I am e'en as weary as a Dog of my Dignity.
(No. 242)
The "Character," however, is not only L'Estrange's favorite satiric tool but perhaps the literary form most frequently used in the Observator. L'Estrange himself attests to his partiality in his parting comment at the close of the Observator: