List of satirists and satires
This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire—humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires.
Early satirical authors
- Aesop – Aesop's Fables
- Diogenes
- Aristophanes – The Frogs, The Birds, and The Clouds
- Gaius Lucilius
- Horace – Satires
- Ovid – The Art of Love
- Seneca the Younger – Apocolocyntosis
- Persius
- Petronius – Satyricon
- Juvenal – Satires
- Lucian
- Apuleius – The Golden Ass
- Various authors – ''One Thousand and One Nights, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ''
Medieval, early modern and 18th-century satirists
- Godfrey of Winchester
- Ubayd Zakani – Akhlaq al-Ashraf
- Giovanni Boccaccio – The Decameron
- James Bramston – satirical poet
- Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales
- Sebastian Brant – Das Narrenschiff ''(Ship of Fools)
- Gil Vicente
- Erasmus – The Praise of Folly
- François Rabelais – Gargantua and Pantagruel
- Various authors – Talking statues of Rome
- Miguel de Cervantes – Don Quixote
- Luis de Góngora
- William Shakespeare – Sonnet 130
- Francisco de Quevedo
- Juan de Tassis, 2nd Count of Villamediana
- Martin Marprelate – Marprelate tracts
- Samuel Butler – Hudibras
- Molière – Le Malade imaginaire
- Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
- John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
- Jonathan Swift – Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Tale of a Tub
- Alicia D'Anvers – Academia, or, The Humours of the University of Oxford, 1691; The Oxford-Act, 1693
- John Gay – The Beggar's Opera
- Alexander Pope
- Voltaire – Candide
- James Bramston
- William Hogarth – Beer Street and Gin Lane
- Nicholas Amhurst
- David Raphael ben Abraham Polido
- Henry Fielding
- Laurence Sterne – The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
- James Beresford – The Miseries of Human Life
- Ivan Krylov
- Jane Austen – ''
- Thomas Love Peacock – Nightmare Abbey, Crochet Castle
- Eaton Stannard Barrett – The Heroine
- Charles Etienne Boniface – De Nieuwe Ridderorde of De Temperantisten
- Giuseppe Gioachino Belli –
- Benjamin Franklin - - Silence Dogood Letters, On Titles of Honor, The Busy-Body Letters, A Witch Trial at Mount Holly, Poor Richard's Almanack, Join, or Die, Felons and Rattlesnakes, The Speech of Polly Baker, ''On the Slave-Trade''
Modern satirists (born 1800–1900)
- Evan Bevan – satirical poetry in Welsh
- Nikolai Gogol – The Government Inspector, Dead Souls
- Edgar Allan Poe – The Man That Was Used Up, A Predicament, Never Bet the Devil Your Head
- William Makepeace Thackeray – Vanity Fair
- Charles Dickens – Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities
- Eugène Edine Pottier
- James Russell Lowell – A Fable for Critics
- George Derby, also known as John P. Squibob and John Phoenix
- Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
- Lewis Carroll – Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass
- Samuel Butler – Erewhon
- Mark Twain – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
- W. S. Gilbert
- Narushima Ryūhoku
- Thomas Nast
- Ambrose Bierce – The Devil's Dictionary
- Anatole France
- José Maria de Eça de Queirós
- Oscar Wilde – The Importance of Being Earnest
- George Bernard Shaw
- Jerome K. Jerome – Three Men in a Boat, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
- Anton Chekhov – The Lady with the Dog
- O. Henry short story writer known for surprise endings, namesake of the O. Henry Award
- Jalil Mammadguluzadeh
- Lakshminath Bezbaroa
- Saki, also known as H. H. Munro
- Trilussa
- Alfred Jarry – Ubu Roi
- Radoje Domanović
- Iraj Mirza
- Karl Kraus
- Will Rogers
- James Branch Cabell
- Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda
- H. L. Mencken – cultural critic and author
- Arkady Averchenko
- P. G. Wodehouse
- Wyndham Lewis
- Jaroslav Hašek – The Good Soldier Švejk
- Oscar Cesare
- Charlie Chaplin – Modern Times, The Great Dictator, Monsieur Verdoux
- Kurt Tucholsky
- Mikhail Bulgakov – Heart of a Dog, The Master and Margarita
- Dorothy Parker satirical writer of humorous short stories, poetry and book reviews
- Vladimir Mayakovsky
- Aldous Huxley – Point Counter Point, Brave New World
- James Thurber – "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"
- Mikhail Zoshchenko
- Josep Pla
- Ilf and Petrov: Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov – The Twelve Chairs, The Little Golden Calf
- Yury Olesha – ''Three Fat Men, Envy''
Modern satirists (born 1900–1930)
- Stella Gibbons – author of comic novel Cold Comfort Farm
- Evelyn Waugh – Brideshead Revisited, Decline and Fall, Scoop
- George Orwell – Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Malcolm Muggeridge
- Dr. Seuss – The Lorax, The Butter Battle Book
- Kurt Kusenberg
- Daniil Kharms
- H. F. Ellis – The Papers of A. J. Wentworth, B.A., 1949
- Jean Effel – cartoonist, author of the cartoon cycle The Creation of the World
- Natyaguru Nurul Momen - pioneer satirist & playwright, author of We are Brothers All, Lest we Forget, Forbidden Pleasures, Bahurupa, Is Law an Ass etc.
- Al Capp
- Arkady Raikin – stand-up comedian
- Aubrey Menen – satirist, novelist and philosopher
- Walt Kelly
- Anthony Burgess – A Clockwork Orange
- Warrington Colescott
- Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle
- Lenny Bruce – stand-up comedian
- Joseph Heller – Catch-22
- Art Buchwald – political humor column in The Washington Post
- Terry Southern – The Magic Christian, Dr. Strangelove
- Günter Grass – The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse
- Stanley Kubrick – Dr. Strangelove
- Harvey Kurtzman
- Tom Lehrer – That Was the Year That Was
- Jules Feiffer – satirical cartoonist who wrote the original play and screenplay for Little Murders
- Ray Bradbury
- William S. Burroughs – Naked Lunch
- Dario Fo
- Flannery O'Connor
- C. Northcote Parkinson
- Anna Russell
- Gore Vidal – Myra Breckinridge
- Mel Brooks – The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein
- Erma Bombeck
- Allan Sherman – musician, parodist, television producer, voice actor
- Stan Freberg – musician, parodist, voice actor
- Brian O'Nolan – At Swim-Two-Birds
- Ephraim Kishon
- Jerry Lewis – comedian, screenwriter, director
Contemporary satirists (born 1930–1960)
- Joey Skaggs - artist and media satirist
- Mordecai Richler
- Tom Wolfe – The Bonfire of the Vanities
- Vladimir Voinovich – The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, Moscow 2042
- Robert Anton Wilson – The Illuminatus! Trilogy
- Barry Humphries – My Gorgeous Life, The Life and Death of Sandy Stone, stage shows
- Jonathan Miller
- Alan Bennett
- Mykhailo Zhvanetskyi
- Dudley Moore
- David Lodge – author of "Campus Trilogy"
- Woody Allen
- Thomas Pynchon – V., The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow
- Richard Ingrams
- John Kennedy O'Toole
- George Carlin – stand-up comedian
- Peter Cook – of the Satire boom, Beyond the Fringe
- Eleanor Bron
- David Frost
- Grigori Gorin
- Frank Zappa – We're Only in It for the Money, Cruising with Ruben and the Jets
- Sergei Dovlatov
- Kioumars Saberi Foumani
- Randy Newman - Sail Away, Good Old Boys
- Neil Innes – former Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band founder and member of The Rutles. Writer of satirical songs and books
- Gennady Khazanov – stand-up comedian
- Luba Goy
- Roger Abbott – sketch comedian.
- Lewis Grizzard
- Sue Townsend – Adrian Mole
- Don Ferguson
- Jonathan Meades – writer, broadcaster and satirist
- P.J. O'Rourke
- Terry Pratchett – humorist and fantasy novelist, The Discworld book series
- Lewis Black – stand-up comic, The Daily Show
- Mikhail Zadornov
- Garry Trudeau
- Jaafar Abbas
- Christopher Guest – This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman
- Georg Schramm – Scheibenwischer, Neues aus der Anstalt, kabarett artist
- Gary Larson – cartoonist
- Fran Lebowitz – The Fran Lebowitz Reader, Public Speaking (film) – NYC public intellectual
- Bailey White
- Joe Queenan
- Steve Bell
- Bill Bryson
- Al Franken
- Douglas Adams – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Mary Walsh
- Phil Hendrie – radio host of The Phil Hendrie Show
- Robert Zubrin
- Christopher Buckley – Thank You for Smoking, The White House Mess
- Carl Hiaasen – Tourist Season, Double Whammy, Basket Case, Skinny Dip
- Stoney Burke
- Louis de Bernières – Latin America Trilogy: The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord, The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman
- Matt Groening – The Simpsons, Futurama
- George C. Wolfe – The Colored Museum
- Howard Stern
- Jaspal Bhatti
- Cathy Jones
- Bill Maher – Real Time with Bill Maher
- Percival Everett
- Ziad Rahbani
- David Sedaris – Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day
- Craig Brown
- Scott Adams – Dilbert
- Stephen Fry
- Christopher Moore
- Victor Shenderovich
- Ebrahim Nabavi, winner of Prince Claus Award
- Bill Watterson – cartoonist, Calvin and Hobbes
- Jello Biafra
- George Saunders – author of CivilWarLand In Bad Decline, Tenth of December and Lincoln in the Bardo.
- Wayne Federman
- "Weird Al" Yankovic
- Hugh Laurie
- Jeffrey Morgan – CREEM, Metro Times
- Denis Leary
Contemporary satirists (born 1960–present)
In alphabetical order :- Jacob M. Appel – playwright
- Michael "Atters" Attree
- Max Barry – author
- Paul Beatty –
- Nigel Blackwell – Half Man Half Biscuit
- Jan Böhmermann
- Charlie Brooker – Nathan Barley
- Bo Burnham – comedian and musician
- Dave Chappelle – stand-up comedian, Chappelle's Show
- David Cross – Mr. Show, Arrested Development
- Sacha Baron Cohen – Borat, Da Ali G Show
- Stephen Colbert – The Colbert Report, The Daily Show
- Sarah Cooper – blogger, vlogger, author, comedian
- Douglas Coupland – Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
- Scott Dikkers – comedy writer and speaker
- Bret Easton Ellis – screenwriter and director
- Will Franken - American character comedian and satirist.
- Ricky Gervais – comedian, creator of The Office (British TV series)
- Sabina Guzzanti – satirist and writer
- Bill Hicks – stand-up comedian
- Mishu Hilmy – Good Morning Gitmo
- Ian Hislop – Private Eye
- Jessica Holmes – comedian and actress
- Armando Iannucci – Brass Eye, The Day Today
- Mike Judge – creator of Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill
- Elnathan John — Be(com)ing Nigerian: A Guide
- Kennedy – radio personality and author
- Hari Kondabolu – stand-up comic and film-maker
- Erik Larsen – "Savage Dragon" comic book
- Craig Lauzon – comedian and caricaturist
- Stewart Lee – stand-up comedian and director
- Victor Lewis-Smith – TV Offal
- Chris Lilley – Summer Heights High, We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year
- Daniele Luttazzi – satirist and songwriter
- Maddox – website The Best Page in the Universe
- Seth MacFarlane – Family Guy
- Aaron McGruder – The Boondocks (comic strip), The Boondocks (TV series)
- Rick Mercer – Rick Mercer Report
- Tim Minchin – comedian and musician
- Mark Morford – Notes and Errata, San Francisco Chronicle, SF Gate
- Chris Morris – Brass Eye, The Day Today
- Gregory Motton – playwright and author
- The Moustache Brothers – screwball comedy and dance
- Bob Odenkirk – Mr. Show, Saturday Night Live, The Larry Sanders Show
- John Oliver – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
- Chuck Palahniuk – Fight Club and Choke
- Alan Park – comedian and satirist
- Trey Parker – South Park, Team America: World Police, The Book of Mormon
- Alexandra Petri – author and columnist
- Mark A. Rayner – satirist and fiction writer
- Pablo Reyes Jr. – website The Daily Currant and Huzlers
- Celia Rivenbark – columnist and author
- Joe Rogan – comedian and podcast pioneer
- Eric Schwartz – folk singer and satirist
- Andrew Shaffer – author
- Amy Sedaris – actress and comedian
- Sarah Silverman – stand-up comedian, The Sarah Silverman Program
- Martin Sonneborn – political jokester and satirist
- Jon Stewart – The Daily Show
- Matt Stone – South Park, The Book of Mormon
- Vermin Supreme – performance artist, comedian and political satirist
- Greg Thomey – comedian and playwright
- David Thorne – humorist and satirist
- Andrew Unger, – Mennonite satirist
- Jhonen Vasquez – Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee
- Oliver Welke - heute-show
- Mark Whitney – satirist and comedian
- Howard X, – political satirist, musician, professional impersonator of Kim Jong-un
- Bassem Youssef – comedian
- Rucka Rucka Ali – political satirist, song parody maker
Notable satires in contemporary popular culture
In modern culture, much satire is often the work of several individuals collectively, as in magazines and television. Hence the following list.- Astérix
- Benchley
- Bone
- The Boondocks
- Le Canard enchaîné
- Charlie Hebdo
- The Chaser
- Cho Ramaswamy
- Craposyncrasies
- Dilbert
- The Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics by Carl Barks
- Doonesbury
- The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
- Faux Faulkner contest
- Fritz the Cat by Robert Crumb
- Humor Times
- Idées noires
- Li'l Abner
- Life in Hell
- Mad
- The Medium
- Mr. Natural by Robert Crumb
- Nero
- The New Yorker
- The Onion
- Peanuts
- Pogo
- Private Eye
- The Inconsequential
- The Second Supper
- The Tart
- The Adventures of Tintin
- Titanic
- Tom Puss
- Watchmen
Television and radio
- The Simpsons and Futurama
- Howard Stern
- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- The Colbert Report
- The Day Today
- Brass Eye
- On the Hour
- TV Offal
- This Hour Has 22 Minutes
- South Park
- The Chaser
- Facelift
- Spitting Image
- Yes Minister
- Kukly – Russian satirical puppet show
- Fitil – Soviet television satirical/comedy short film series
- Nip/Tuck
- Have I Got News For You – Long running UK TV panel show
- Nathan Barley – 2005 UK TV satire by Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker.
- The Chaser's War on Everything – Australian satire with an emphasis on attacking 'everyone'.
- Seinfeld
- Royal Canadian Air Farce
- Air Farce Live
- Monty Python's Flying Circus
- Phil Hendrie
- Mock the Week – UK TV comedy panel show
- The Larry Sanders Show –
- 30 Rock –
- Glenn Martin, DDS – A Nick@Nite show
- Episodes – David Crane
- Better Off Ted –
- Onion News Network
- The Boondocks –
- heute-show
- Servant of the People (2015 TV series) — Ukrainian political satire comedy TV series starring Volodymyr Zelensky
- The Amazing World of Gumball – Ben Bocquelet
- Family Guy –
- On Cinema at the Cinema –
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air –
Music
- The Cover of "Rolling Stone" a satirical lament by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show.
- "White America" is a satirical song by Eminem It is about his impact in rap and the impact of rap in the white communities.
- "Mercedes Benz" is a McClure-Joplin song sung by Janis Joplin
- Culturcide's album Tacky Souvenirs of Pre-Revolutionary America overdubbed new, satirical lyrics onto such pop hits as "We Are the World".
- Vaporwave, a satirical music genre with anarcho-capitalist and cyberpunk overtones dedicated to consumerism.
- Mark Russell is an American political satirist known for his many appearances on PBS
- Peter Gabriel's song The Barry Williams Show satirizes talk shows which showcase domestic topics of a taboo or shocking nature.
- Chumbawamba have consistently used satire to make political points throughout their musical career.
- Pink Floyd's albums Animals and The Dark Side of the Moon are conceptual and satirical albums.
- The Lonely Island is a satirical music group known for their work on Saturday Night Live.
- Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone's Tony-sweeping Broadway show The Book of Mormon (musical) satirizes the applicability of first-world religion to third-world problems.
- The Dead Milkmen is a satirical punk rock/cowpunk band from the early 1980s.
- Ben Folds, a rock pianist, and his group, Ben Folds Five, have multiple songs including satirical elements. Some of them being, "Underground", "Sports and Wine", and "Rock Star".
- Dead Kennedys, an American punk band, often used satire in their songs, most notably Kill the Poor.
- Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention's We're Only in It for the Money, a satire of flower power and conservative America.
Film
- Blazing Saddles, a 1974 comedy movie directed by Mel Brooks, satirizing racism
- Casino Royale, a 1967 surrealistic satire on the James Bond series and the entire spy genre.
- Get Out
- This Is Spinal Tap, a satire on heavy metal culture and "rockumentaries"
- The Very Same Munchhausen, a 1979 satire of the late Soviet society
- Clueless
- American Beauty, a 1999 satire of life in the suburbs
- Thank You for Smoking
- Team America: World Police is a 2004 film satirizing Hollywood action flicks as well as post-9/11 American foreign policy.
- Wag the Dog
- The Rules of Attraction
- Best in Show
- I Heart Huckabees
- Starship Troopers
- Scary Movie
- Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie
- Dr. Strangelove
- Planet of the Apes
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, a film satirizing censorship
- Network
- Otaku no Video, a 1993 anime satirizing the otaku subculture
- Adaptation.
- Brazil
- S.O.B., a satire on Hollywood.
- Election
- Not Another Teen Movie, a satire of the teen film genre
- Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
- Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
- Citizen Ruth
- The Hospital
- Weapons of Mass Distraction
- Little Children
- Bulworth
- Man Bites Dog
- The Simpsons Movie
- Smile, a satire of beauty pageants and small-town life
- Bob Roberts
- War, Inc.
- Britannia Hospital
- Fight Club, a dark satire on consumerism, cults, and extremism
- American Psycho
- Tropic Thunder
- Simon, satirical commentary on the effects of mass media in pop culture
- American History X satirizes race/racism in a contemporary setting
- They Live
- Land of the Dead, a satire of post-9/11 America state and of the Bush administration
- The Wicker Man, a satire on cults and religion
- The Great Dictator, a satire on Adolf Hitler
- Monty Python's Life of Brian, a satire on miscommunication, religion and Christianity
- The Player, a satire of Hollywood, directed by Robert Altman
- In the Loop, a satire of the 2003 invasion of Iraq
- Elvis Gratton, a French Canadian/Québécois series depicting a satirical federalist
- Fubar
- ''The Man Who Knew Too Little''
Video games
- Fallout
- Fallout 2
- Fallout 3
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Fallout 4
- Dead Rising, a satire on US consumer culture
- Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, a satire on US consumer culture
- Grand Theft Auto
- Crash: Mind over Mutant''
Internet
- Adequacy.org
- The Babylon Bee
- BBspot
- The Best Page In The Universe
- BuyTigers.com
- Coconut Kelz
- The Daily Mash
- The Daily Bonnet
- Faking News
- The Hard Times
- Huzlers
- Landover Baptist Church
- Latma
- McSweeney's Internet Tendency
- National Report
- Jeremy Nell
- NewsBiscuit
- The Onion
- Pat Condell
- Reductress
- ScrappleFace
- Sorry Everybody
- The Second Supper
- The UnReal Times
- Uncyclopedia
- Vote for the Worst