Criticism of people, customs or institutions through ridicule, exaggeration or irony.
In The Magic Mountain
I have arrived at the very firm opinion that you are, secretly, one of ours and would end up realizing this, as so many others did who came here to amuse themselves, studied the atmosphere, turning up their noses, and one fine day found out that it would be convenient for them [...] to abandon their attitude of careless curiosity and spend an extended stay here
Behrens describes, with good nature, the visitor who arrives "to amuse himself," turns up his nose, and ends up with "an extended stay." The portrait mocks a sanatorium that turns the curious into patients, and the doctor speaks of it as a habit of the house.
Chapter IV: The Sense of Time, Hippe and the Thermometer, Dr. Behrens