Ancient Egypt showing a cat guarding geese, , Egypt One of the earliest examples of what might be called satire,
The Satire of the Trades, is in Egyptian writing from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The text's apparent readers are students, tired of studying. It argues that their lot as scribes is not only useful, but far superior to that of the ordinary man. Scholars such as Helck think that the context was meant to be serious. The
Papyrus Anastasi I (late 2nd millennium BC) contains a satirical letter which first praises the virtues of its recipient, but then mocks the reader's meagre knowledge and achievements.
Ancient Greece The Greeks had no word for what later would be called "satire", although the terms cynicism and parody were used. Modern critics call the
Greek playwright Aristophanes one of the best known early satirists: his plays are known for their critical political and
societal commentary, particularly for the
political satire by which he criticized the powerful
Cleon (as in
The Knights). He is also notable for the persecution he underwent. Aristophanes' plays turned upon images of filth and disease. His bawdy style was adopted by Greek dramatist-comedian
Menander. His early play
Drunkenness contains an attack on the politician
Callimedon. The oldest form of satire still in use is the
Menippean satire by
Menippus of Gadara. His own writings are lost. Examples from his admirers and imitators mix seriousness and mockery in dialogues and present parodies before a background of
diatribe. As in the case of Aristophanes plays, menippean satire turned upon images of filth and disease.
Ancient China Satire, or fengci (諷刺) the way it is called in Chinese, goes back at least to
Confucius, being mentioned in the
Book of Odes (Shijing 詩經). It meant "to criticize by means of an ode". In the pre-Qin era it was also common for schools of thought to clarify their views through the use of short explanatory anecdotes, also called yuyan (寓言), translated as "entrusted words". These yuyan usually were brimming with satirical content. The
Daoist text
Zhuangzi is the first to define this concept of Yuyan. During the Qin and Han dynasty, however, the concept of yuyan mostly died out through their heavy persecution of dissent and literary circles, especially by
Qin Shi Huang and
Han Wudi.
Roman world The first Roman to discuss satire critically was
Quintilian, who invented the term to describe the writings of
Gaius Lucilius. The two most prominent and influential ancient Roman satirists are
Horace and
Juvenal, who wrote during the early days of the
Roman Empire. Other important satirists in ancient
Latin are Gaius Lucilius and
Persius.
Satire in their work is much wider than in the modern sense of the word, including fantastic and highly coloured humorous writing with little or no real mocking intent. When Horace criticized
Augustus, he used
veiled ironic terms. In contrast,
Pliny reports that the 6th-century-BC poet
Hipponax wrote
satirae that were so cruel that the offended hanged themselves. In the 2nd century AD,
Lucian wrote
True History, a book satirizing the clearly unrealistic travelogues/adventures written by
Ctesias,
Iambulus, and
Homer. He states that he was surprised they expected people to believe their lies, and stating that he, like them, has no actual knowledge or experience, but shall now tell lies as if he did. He goes on to describe a far more obviously extreme and unrealistic tale, involving interplanetary exploration, war among alien life forms, and life inside a 200 mile long whale back in the terrestrial ocean, all intended to make obvious the fallacies of books like
Indica and
The Odyssey.
Medieval Islamic world Medieval
Arabic poetry included the satiric genre
hija. Satire was introduced into
Arabic prose literature by the author
Al-Jahiz in the 9th century. While dealing with serious topics in what are now known as
anthropology,
sociology and
psychology, he introduced a satirical approach, "based on the premise that, however serious the subject under review, it could be made more interesting and thus achieve greater effect, if only one leavened the lump of solemnity by the insertion of a few amusing anecdotes or by the throwing out of some witty or paradoxical observations. He was well aware that, in treating of new themes in his prose works, he would have to employ a vocabulary of a nature more familiar in
hija, satirical poetry." For example, in one of his
zoological works, he satirized the preference for longer
human penis size, writing: "If the length of the penis were a sign of honor, then the
mule would belong to the (honorable tribe of)
Quraysh". Another satirical story based on this preference was an
Arabian Nights tale called "Ali with the Large Member". In the 10th century, the writer
Tha'alibi recorded satirical poetry written by the Arabic poets As-Salami and Abu Dulaf, with As-Salami praising Abu Dulaf's
wide breadth of knowledge and then mocking his ability in all these subjects, and with Abu Dulaf responding back and satirizing As-Salami in return. An example of Arabic political satire included another 10th-century poet Jarir satirizing Farazdaq as "a transgressor of the
Sharia" and later Arabic poets in turn using the term "Farazdaq-like" as a form of political satire. The terms "
comedy" and "satire" became synonymous after
Aristotle's
Poetics was translated into
Arabic in the
medieval Islamic world, where it was elaborated upon by
Islamic philosophers and writers, such as Abu Bischr, his pupil
Al-Farabi,
Avicenna, and
Averroes. Due to cultural differences, they disassociated comedy from
Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with
Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as
hija (satirical poetry). They viewed comedy as simply the "art of reprehension", and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or troubled beginnings and happy endings, associated with classical Greek comedy. After the
Latin translations of the 12th century, the term "comedy" thus gained a new semantic meaning in
Medieval literature.
Ubayd Zakani introduced satire in
Persian literature during the 14th century. His work is noted for its satire and obscene verses, often political or bawdy, and often cited in debates involving
homosexual practices. He wrote the
Resaleh-ye Delgosha, as well as
Akhlaq al-Ashraf ("Ethics of the Aristocracy") and the famous humorous fable
Masnavi Mush-O-Gorbeh (Mouse and Cat), which was a political satire. His non-satirical serious classical verses have also been regarded as very well written, in league with the other great works of
Persian literature. Between 1905 and 1911,
Bibi Khatoon Astarabadi and other Iranian writers wrote notable satires.
Medieval Europe ", the third story in
Geoffrey Chaucer's
The Canterbury Tales, contains the first appearance in English literature of a common humorous device across all forms of media, the comedic use of
dialect. In the
Early Middle Ages, examples of satire were the songs by
Goliards or
vagants now best known as an anthology called
Carmina Burana and made famous as texts of a composition by the 20th-century composer
Carl Orff. Satirical poetry is believed to have been popular, although little has survived. With the advent of the
High Middle Ages and the birth of modern
vernacular literature in the 12th century, it began to be used again, most notably by
Chaucer. The disrespectful manner was considered "unchristian" and ignored, except for the
moral satire, which mocked misbehaviour in Christian terms. Examples are
Livre des Manières by (~1178), and some of Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales. Sometimes
epic poetry (epos) was mocked, and even feudal society, but there was hardly a general interest in the genre. In the
High Middle Ages the work
Reynard the Fox, written by Willem die Madoc maecte, and its translations were a popular work that satirized the class system at the time. Representing the various classes as certain anthropomorphic animals. As example, the lion in the story represents the nobility, which is portrayed as being weak and without character, but very greedy. Versions of Reynard the Fox were also popular well into the early modern period. The Dutch translation
Van den vos Reynaerde is considered a major medieval Dutch literary work. In the Dutch version De Vries argues that the animal characters represent barons who conspired against the Count of Flanders.
Early modern western satire 's 1568 satirical painting
The Blind Leading the Blind Direct
social commentary via satire returned in the 16th century, when texts such as the works of
François Rabelais tackled more serious issues. Two major satirists of Europe in the
Renaissance were
Giovanni Boccaccio and
François Rabelais. Other examples of Renaissance satire include
Till Eulenspiegel,
Reynard the Fox,
Sebastian Brant's
Narrenschiff (1494),
Erasmus's
Moriae Encomium (1509),
Thomas More's
Utopia (1516), and
Carajicomedia (1519). The
Elizabethan (i.e. 16th-century English) writers thought of satire as related to the notoriously rude, coarse and sharp satyr play. Elizabethan "satire" (typically in pamphlet form) therefore contains more straightforward abuse than subtle irony. The French
Huguenot Isaac Casaubon pointed out in 1605 that satire in the Roman fashion was something altogether more civilised. Casaubon discovered and published Quintilian's writing and presented the original meaning of the term (satira, not satyr), and the sense of wittiness (reflecting the "dishfull of fruits") became more important again. Seventeenth-century English satire once again aimed at the "amendment of vices" (
Dryden). In the 1590s a new wave of verse satire broke with the publication of
Hall's
Virgidemiarum, six books of verse satires targeting everything from literary fads to corrupt noblemen. Although
Donne had already circulated satires in manuscript, Hall's was the first real attempt in English at verse satire on the Juvenalian model. The success of his work combined with a national mood of disillusion in the last years of Elizabeth's reign triggered an avalanche of satire—much of it less conscious of classical models than Hall's — until the fashion was brought to an abrupt stop by censorship. Another satiric genre to emerge around this time was the satirical
almanac, with
François Rabelais's work
Pantagrueline Prognostication (1532), which mocked astrological predictions. The strategies François utilized within this work were employed by later satirical almanacs, such as the
Poor Robin series that spanned the 17th to 19th centuries.
Ancient and modern India Satire (
Kataksh or
Vyang) has played a prominent role in
Indian and
Hindi literature, and is counted as one of the "
ras" of literature in ancient books. With the commencement of printing of books in local language in the nineteenth century and especially after India's freedom, this grew. Many of the works of
Tulsi Das,
Kabir,
Munshi Premchand, village minstrels,
Hari katha singers, poets, Dalit singers and current day stand up Indian comedians incorporate satire, usually ridiculing authoritarians, fundamentalists and incompetent people in power. In India, it has usually been used as a means of expression and an outlet for common people to express their anger against authoritarian entities.
Age of Enlightenment The
Age of Enlightenment, an intellectual movement in the 17th and 18th centuries advocating rationality, produced a great revival of satire in Britain. This was fuelled by the rise of partisan politics, with the formalisation of the
Tory and
Whig parties—and also, in 1714, by the formation of the
Scriblerus Club, which included
Alexander Pope,
Jonathan Swift,
John Gay,
John Arbuthnot,
Robert Harley,
Thomas Parnell, and
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. This club included several of the notable satirists of early-18th-century Britain. They focused their attention on Martinus Scriblerus, "an invented learned fool... whose work they attributed all that was tedious, narrow-minded, and pedantic in contemporary scholarship". In their hands astute and biting satire of institutions and individuals became a popular weapon. The turn to the 18th century was characterized by a switch from Horatian, soft, pseudo-satire, to biting "juvenal" satire.
Jonathan Swift was one of the greatest of Anglo-Irish satirists, and one of the first to practise modern journalistic satire. For instance, In his
A Modest Proposal Swift suggests that Irish peasants be encouraged to sell their own children as food for the rich, as a solution to the "problem" of poverty. His purpose is of course to attack indifference to the plight of the desperately poor. In his book ''
Gulliver's Travels he writes about the flaws in human society in general and English society in particular. John Dryden wrote an influential essay entitled "A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire" that helped fix the definition of satire in the literary world. His satirical Mac Flecknoe was written in response to a rivalry with Thomas Shadwell and eventually inspired Alexander Pope to write his satirical Dunciad''.
Alexander Pope (b. May 21, 1688) was a satirist known for his Horatian satirist style and translation of the
Iliad. Famous throughout and after the
long 18th century, Pope died in 1744. Pope, in his
The Rape of the Lock, is delicately chiding society in a sly but polished voice by holding up a mirror to the follies and vanities of the upper class. Pope does not actively attack the self-important pomp of the British aristocracy, but rather presents it in such a way that gives the reader a new perspective from which to easily view the actions in the story as foolish and ridiculous. A mockery of the upper class, more delicate and lyrical than brutal, Pope nonetheless is able to effectively illuminate the moral degradation of society to the public.
The Rape of the Lock assimilates the masterful qualities of a heroic epic, such as the
Iliad, which Pope was translating at the time of writing
The Rape of the Lock. However, Pope applied these qualities satirically to a seemingly petty egotistical elitist quarrel to prove his point wryly. Other satirical works by Pope include the
Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot.
Daniel Defoe pursued a more journalistic type of satire, being famous for his
The True-Born Englishman which mocks
xenophobic patriotism, and
The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters—advocating
religious toleration by means of an ironical exaggeration of the highly intolerant attitudes of his time. The pictorial satire of
William Hogarth is a precursor to the development of
political cartoons in 18th-century England. The medium developed under the direction of its greatest exponent,
James Gillray from London.
Ebenezer Cooke (1665–1732), author of "The Sot-Weed Factor" (1708), was among the first writers of literary satire in
Colonial America.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) and others followed, using satire to shape an emerging nation's culture through its sense of the ridiculous.
Satire in Victorian England Several satiric papers competed for the public's attention in the
Victorian era (1837–1901) and
Edwardian period, such as
Punch (1841) and
Fun (1861). Perhaps the most enduring examples of Victorian satire, however, are to be found in the
Savoy Operas of
Gilbert and Sullivan. In fact, in
The Yeomen of the Guard, a jester is given lines that paint a very neat picture of the method and purpose of the satirist, and might almost be taken as a statement of Gilbert's own intent: :
"I can set a braggart quailing with a quip, :
The upstart I can wither with a whim; :
He may wear a merry laugh upon his lip, :
But his laughter has an echo that is grim!" Novelists such as
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) often used passages of satiric writing in their treatment of social issues. Continuing the tradition of Swiftian journalistic satire,
Sidney Godolphin Osborne (1808–1889) was the most prominent writer of scathing "Letters to the Editor" of the London
Times. Famous in his day, he is now all but forgotten. His maternal grandfather
William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland was considered to be a possible candidate for the authorship of the
Junius letters. Osborne's satire was so bitter and biting that at one point he received a public censure from
Parliament's then Home Secretary Sir
James Graham. Osborne wrote mostly in the Juvenalian mode over a wide range of topics mostly centered on British government's and landlords' mistreatment of poor farm workers and field laborers. He bitterly opposed the
New Poor Laws and was passionate on the subject of the British government's botched response to the
Great Irish Famine and the mistreatment of
British soldiers during the
Crimean War. A number of works of fiction during this time, influenced by
Egyptomania, used the backdrop of Ancient Egypt as a device for satire. Some works, like
Edgar Allan Poe's
Some Words with a Mummy (1845) and
Grant Allen's ''My New Year's Eve Among the Mummies'' (1878), portrayed Egyptian civilization as having already achieved many of the Victorian era's advancements (like the
steam engine and
gaslamps) in an effort to satire the notion of progress. Other works, like
Jane Loudon's The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century, satirized Victorian curiosities with the afterlife. In 20th-century literature, satire was used by English authors such as
Aldous Huxley (1930s) and
George Orwell (1940s), which under the inspiration of
Zamyatin's Russian 1921 novel
We, made serious and even frightening commentaries on the dangers of the sweeping social changes taking place throughout Europe.
Anatoly Lunacharsky wrote 'Satire attains its greatest significance when a newly evolving class creates an ideology considerably more advanced than that of the ruling class, but has not yet developed to the point where it can conquer it. Herein lies its truly great ability to triumph, its scorn for its adversary and its hidden fear of it. Herein lies its venom, its amazing energy of hate, and quite frequently, its grief, like a black frame around glittering images. Herein lie its contradictions, and its power.' Many social critics of this same time in the United States, such as
Dorothy Parker and
H. L. Mencken, used satire as their main weapon, and Mencken in particular is noted for having said that "one horse-laugh is worth ten thousand
syllogisms" in the persuasion of the public to accept a criticism. Novelist
Sinclair Lewis was known for his satirical stories such as
Main Street (1920),
Babbitt (1922),
Elmer Gantry (1927; dedicated by Lewis to H. L. Mencken), and ''
It Can't Happen Here (1935), and his books often explored and satirized contemporary American values. The film The Great Dictator'' (1940) by
Charlie Chaplin is itself a parody of
Adolf Hitler; Chaplin later declared that he would have not made the film if he had known about the
concentration camps. Modern
Soviet satire was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s. This form of satire is recognized by its level of sophistication and intelligence used, along with its own level of parody. Since there is no longer the need of survival or revolution to write about, modern Soviet satire focused on the quality of life. In the United States 1950s, satire was introduced into American
stand-up comedy most prominently by
Lenny Bruce and
Mort Sahl. Prominent satiric stand-up comedian
George Carlin acknowledged the influence
The Realist had in his 1970s conversion to a satiric comedian. A more humorous brand of satire enjoyed a renaissance in the UK in the early 1960s with the
satire boom, led by comedians including
Peter Cook,
Alan Bennett,
Jonathan Miller, and
Dudley Moore, whose stage show
Beyond the Fringe was a hit not only in Britain, but also in the United States. Other significant influences in 1960s British satire include
David Frost,
Eleanor Bron and the
television program That Was The Week That Was.
Joseph Heller's most famous work,
Catch-22 (1961), satirizes bureaucracy and the military, and is frequently cited as one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century. Departing from traditional Hollywood
farce and
screwball, director and comedian
Jerry Lewis used satire in his self-directed films
The Bellboy (1960),
The Errand Boy (1961) and
The Patsy (1964) to comment on celebrity and the star-making machinery of Hollywood. The film
Dr. Strangelove (1964) starring
Peter Sellers was a popular satire on the
Cold War. Sellers and the British satire boom had a direct influence on the comedy troupe
Monty Python.
Empire magazine called ''
Monty Python's Life of Brian'' (1979) "an unrivalled satire on religion".
Severino "Nonoy" Marcelo's 1978 Philippine
adult animated comedy film,
Tadhana, presents a satirical, humorous and poignant view of the Philippines' history of
Spanish colonization.
Contemporary satire Contemporary popular usage of the term "satire" is often very imprecise. While satire often uses
caricature and
parody, by no means are all uses of these or other humorous devices satiric. Refer to the careful definition of satire that heads this article.
The Cambridge Companion to Roman Satire also warns of the ambiguous nature of satire: from the British satirical puppet show
Spitting Image Satire is used on many UK television programmes, particularly popular panel shows and quiz shows such as
Mock the Week (2005–2022) and
Have I Got News for You (1990–ongoing). It is found on radio quiz shows such as
The News Quiz (1977–ongoing) and
The Now Show (1998–2024). One of the most watched UK television shows of the 1980s and early 1990s, the puppet show
Spitting Image was a satire of the
royal family, politics, entertainment, sport and
British culture of the era.
Court Flunkey from
Spitting Image is a caricature of
James Gillray, intended as a homage to the father of political cartooning. Created by
DMA Design in 1997, satire features prominently in the British video game series
Grand Theft Auto. Another example is the
Fallout series, namely
Interplay-developed
Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game (1995). Other games utilizing satire include
Postal (1997),
State of Emergency (2002),
Trey Parker and
Matt Stone's
South Park (1997–ongoing) relies almost exclusively on satire to address issues in American culture, with episodes addressing
racism,
anti-Semitism,
militant atheism,
homophobia,
sexism,
environmentalism,
corporate culture,
political correctness and
anti-Catholicism, among many other issues. Satirical web series and sites include Emmy-nominated
Honest Trailers (2012–), Internet phenomena-themed
Encyclopedia Dramatica (2004–),
Uncyclopedia (2005–), self-proclaimed "America's Finest News Source"
The Onion (1988–). and ''The Onion's
Christian conservative counterpart The Babylon Bee'' (2016–). satirically impersonated an
opinionated and self-righteous television commentator on his
Comedy Central program in the U.S. In the United States,
Stephen Colbert's television program,
The Colbert Report (2005–14) is instructive in the methods of contemporary American satire; sketch comedy television show
Saturday Night Live is also known for its satirical impressions and parodies of prominent persons and politicians, among some of the most notable, their parodies of U.S. political figures
Hillary Clinton and of
Sarah Palin.
Colbert's character is an opinionated and self-righteous commentator who, in his TV interviews, interrupts people, points and wags his finger at them, and "unwittingly" uses a number of logical fallacies. In doing so, he demonstrates the principle of modern American political satire: the ridicule of the actions of politicians and other public figures by taking all their statements and purported beliefs to their furthest (supposedly) logical conclusion, thus revealing their perceived hypocrisy or absurdity. In the United Kingdom, a popular modern satirist was the late Sir
Terry Pratchett, author of the internationally best-selling
Discworld book series. One of the most well-known and controversial British satirists is
Chris Morris, co-writer and director of
Four Lions. In Canada, satire has become an important part of the comedy scene.
Stephen Leacock was one of the best known early Canadian satirists, and in the early 20th century, he achieved fame by targeting the attitudes of small-town life. In more recent years, Canada has had several prominent satirical television series and radio shows. Some, including
CODCO,
The Royal Canadian Air Farce,
This Is That, and
This Hour Has 22 Minutes deal directly with current news stories and political figures, while others, like
History Bites present contemporary social satire in the context of events and figures in history.
The Beaverton is a Canadian news satire site similar to The Onion. Canadian songwriter
Nancy White uses music as the vehicle for her satire, and her comic folk songs are regularly played on
CBC Radio. In Hong Kong, there was a well-known Australian
Kim Jong-un impersonator Howard X who often utilised satire to show his support for Hong Kong city's pro-democracy movements and liberation of North Korea. He believed humor to be a very powerful weapon and often made it clear that his imitation of the dictator was done to satirize him, not to glorify him. Throughout his career as a professional impersonator he worked with multiple organisations and celebrities to create parodies and to spark conversations about politics and human rights. Cartoonists often use satire as well as straight humour.
Al Capp's satirical
comic strip ''
Li'l Abner was censored in September 1947. The controversy, as reported in Time'', centred on Capp's portrayal of the US Senate. Said Edward Leech of Scripps-Howard, "We don't think it is good editing or sound citizenship to picture the Senate as an assemblage of freaks and crooks... boobs and undesirables."
Walt Kelly's
Pogo was likewise censored in 1952 over his overt satire of
Senator Joe McCarthy, caricatured in his comic strip as "Simple J. Malarky".
Garry Trudeau, whose
comic strip Doonesbury focuses on satire of the political system, and provides a trademark cynical view on national events. Trudeau exemplifies humour mixed with criticism. For example, the character
Mark Slackmeyer lamented that because he was not legally married to his partner, he was deprived of the "exquisite agony" of experiencing a nasty and painful divorce like heterosexuals. This, of course, satirized the claim that gay unions would denigrate the sanctity of heterosexual marriage. Like some literary predecessors, many recent television satires contain strong elements of parody and
caricature; for instance, the popular animated series
The Simpsons and
South Park both parody modern family and social life by taking their assumptions to the extreme; both have led to the creation of similar series. As well as the purely humorous effect of this sort of thing, they often strongly criticise various phenomena in politics, economic life, religion and many other aspects of society, and thus qualify as satirical. Due to their animated nature, these shows can easily use images of public figures and generally have greater freedom to do so than conventional shows using live actors.
News satire is also a very popular form of contemporary satire, appearing in as wide an array of formats as the news media itself: print (e.g.
The Onion,
Waterford Whispers News,
Private Eye), radio (e.g.
On the Hour), television (e.g.
The Day Today,
The Daily Show,
Brass Eye) and the web (e.g.
Faking News,
El Koshary Today,
Babylon Bee,
The Beaverton,
The Daily Bonnet and
The Onion). Other satires are on the
list of satirists and satires. In an interview with
Wikinews, Sean Mills, President of
The Onion, said angry letters about their news parody always carried the same message. "It's whatever affects that person", said Mills. "So it's like, 'I love it when you make a joke about murder or rape, but if you talk about cancer, well my brother has cancer and that's not funny to me.' Or someone else can say, 'Cancer's
hilarious, but don't talk about rape because my cousin got raped.' Those are rather extreme examples, but if it affects somebody personally, they tend to be more sensitive about it." Satire is also gaining recognition for its value in social science research, particularly when authors are seeking to unpack complex social issues like gendered racism. Satire is regularly used by social movements covering a range of issues to achieve strategic goals. US community organizer and author of Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky, stated, '
Humour is essential to a successful tactician, for the most potent weapons known to [people] are satire and ridicule. ==Techniques==