On the Skewering of Self-Promoters Who are Filled with Misplaced Self-Importance

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Note, please, the face on the 10 pound note.

I have long loved satirists who skewer those who are filled with themselves and endeavor to look better to the world than they are. It’s not enough for these folks to be themselves, but they must appear to be better than those around them. And happily for me and for the world, there are other folks who are not content to notice them, but who are quite good at holding up a mirror to them, to the delight of the world. Folks like . . .

  • Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks.
  • Lily Tomlin.
  • Ben Franklin.
  • Amy Poehler and Tina Fay.
  • Michael Che and Colin Jost.
  • Tom Lehrer.
  • Gracie Allen.
  • Dick Gregory (who consciously chose as the one-word title of his autobiography a word that cannot be spoken these days!)
  • Puck and a host of political cartoonists who followed.
  • Jonathan Swift.
  • Art Buchwald.
  • Mark Twain.
  • The anonymous author of the biblical book of Jonah.
  • Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss.
  • Heinrich Hoffmann.
  • Geoffrey Chaucer.

All wonderful folks, and obviously this is a very partial, very personal list. But one more name must be added, a name to whom millions will raise a wee dram tonight (or perhaps tomorrow night, if they intend more than a single wee dram and worry about getting to work on Friday): Robert Burns.

Years ago as a teenager, I took a family trip to Great Britain. We saw castles, abbeys, cathedrals, and ordinary small churches. We viewed museums, monuments, and mausoleums, looking on treasures old and new. We visited Oxford bookshops (from whence I brought home a first edition of The Silmarillion) and sports gear shops (from whence I brought home a pair of Franz Beckenbauer Special football boots). We went to Stratford-upon-Avon and saw various Shakespeare sites.

And then we got to Scotland, and the home of Robert Burns. I brought back a souvenir from there, which gets a lot more use than the now-too-small Beckenbauer Specials and even the oft-read Silmarillion: a well-used leather bookmark, with a short little poem by Burns:

The Book-worms

Through and through th’ inspir’d leaves,
Ye maggots, make your windings;
But O respect his lordship’s taste,
And spare his golden bindings.

According to literary scholars, Burns wrote this epigram inside a fancy gold-embossed, leather-bound volume of Shakespeare in a noble’s library. He had pulled the impressive looking book down from the shelf, only to find much of the insides eaten away. Taking out his poet’s pen,  he inscribed the verse above. Four simple lines, neatly skewering “his lordship’s taste” which is clearly of much more importance to his lordship than the inspir’d words of the Bard himself. As Billy Crystal’s Fernando was fond of saying, “It is better to look good than to feel good, and you look mah-vel-ous.” The book may be ruined, but the appearance of the book is what matters.

Makes me think of overly-though out Zoom setups, skewered by Room Rater on the Site Formerly Known as Twitter. There are folks whose Zoom backgrounds fit themselves like a glove (see Michael Beschloss and Claire McCaskill, to name just two well-known examples), and there are . . . others. These are the folks that sit and pontificate in front of shelves lined with impressive looking books, but after hearing what they have to say, you have to wonder whether these folks had actually read those impressive-looking books, or even knew what the basic points of those books are.

Right now, my Book-worm bookmark sits about halfway through my copy of The 1619 Project, which seems appropriate on this Robert Burns Day. Nikole Hannah-Jones and those with whom she worked on this mammoth project have taken upon themselves the task of tumbling the mighty who oversold themselves and their stories while lifting up the lowly whose lives and stories had been shoved to the margins.

So tonight (or tomorrow), let us raise a glass of Scotch Drink to Robert Burns and those like him who use their literary superpowers for good.

Feel free to add your favorite satirical poets and authors to the comments, and if you feel truly inspired, raise your glass/mug/sippy cup, and offer a toast. But as it’s a Thursday, please toast responsibly.

Photo used under CC by 2.0 deed, from the flikr account of summonedbyfells, who also includes a delightful story behind the photo. I’ll be raising a glass to summonedbyfells, too!

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139 replies
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  3. David Brooks says:

    Burns’ language is generally recognized as Scots, which is a distinct dialect of English. The language is falling more and more into disuse commonly, but hasn’t gone away completely. The Scottish parliament has made moves to strengthen it.

    I can understand a well-spoken Scots better than I can a Glaswegian speaking English.

    I wonder, if and when independence finally happens, Scotland will join Malta as having three official languages including English.

      • harpie says:

        Thanks for that…it’s really well done!

        I guess I’ll have to admit to being one of those who

        Looks doon wi sneerin, scornful view
        On sic a dinner

        …but I love listening to the words!

        • SteveBev says:

          Keeping up with both Satire and Scots language you might like to consider Robert Fergusson, a rough contemporary of Burns whom Rabbie so admired that he erected a gravestone for him.

          https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/robert-fergusson/

          You might like to consider Fergusson, rankled by Johnson’s dictionary definition of oats, was moved to pen satirical poem on the dinner Edinburgh University hosted for Samuel Johnson on the occasion of his visit
          And the poem supposed instead of the grand dainties

          “uber-Scottish banquet for the great man starting with a haggis, followed by ‘a gude sheep’s head / Whase hide was singit, never flead, / And four black trotters cled wi’ girsle’ supported by ‘white and bloody puddins routh’ with rough oatcakes “

    • grizebard says:

      Correction: Guid Sir, ye sairely canna hae red mony o’ Burns’ warks, or ye wid ken weel that Scots is nae mere “dialect of English” as ye wid ca’ it (at leist as maist folk wid comprehend ony ordinair use o’ the wurd “Inglis”) , but a leid in its ain guid richt, wi its ain dictionair and its ain grammar. The twa are mair like “cousins” (at varying distance). Alang wie Plattdeutsch, Vlaams an ithers tae. And tho it’s nae doot teen a fair ding in recent times wi the comin o’ the internet and sich, it’s nae jist courin’ in auld dusty tomes, it’s still alive and in use, nae least in its NE form “The Doric”. (Aye, Scots is braid eneugh tae lang syne hiv hid its ain dialects an a’…!)

  4. John Paul Jones says:

    I’ll add a vote for Swift, who out-satirized the entire genre in Gulliver’s Travels. The book works by expanding the circle of concern in each subsequent section. So, Book I satirizes English parochial politics; Book 2 satirizes European culture more or less as a whole, particularly its urge for domination; Book 3 satirizes human pretensions to knowledge (think of it as epistemological satire); finally, Book 4 satirizes human nature itself, always uncertainly hovering between animality and rationality. Fabulous.

    Oh, and of course we’ll raise a glass this evening to Mr Burns, and hope to be able to see ourselves as others see us.

  5. Ginevra diBenci says:

    Dorothy Parker, the Marx Brothers, and the folks who produced Mad Magazine in the late 1950s/early 60s. I taught myself to read on my parents’ hidden collection of Mad mags, and have never gotten over it. Ernie Kovacs! Stephen Colbert! Samantha Bee!

    Peterr, while it is indeed Thursday it is also my birthday, so I’m claiming my annual exemption. Margarita(s) tonight at our wonderful local place, which is within walking distance…Cheers to all!

    • punaise says:

      *cheers* from the Dry January corner of the tavern. Oh wait, it’s Rye January? Now you tell me…bartender!

    • timbozone says:

      Definitely after Steve Garvey’s appearance on the political scene recently (California US Senate race), I was missing Mad Magazine a heap powerful.

      • Peterr says:

        “Once a dodger, always a dodger.”
        — Katie Porter, replying to a Garvey non-answer to a simple question.

      • Rayne says:

        Ginevra is a Rabbit because her birthday falls before the Lunar New Year. Rabbits are calm, artistic, and compassionate people. The coming year may be more challenging for Rabbits because they’re not compatible with Dragons.

        Happy birthday, Ginevra, hope it’s a good one. Feed your spirit now to brace yourself for the coming dragon.

        • GSSH-FullyReduced says:

          Ah, The Dragon Reborn, thank you, James O. Rigney, Jr.
          ‘The Wheel Weaves as The Wheel Wills’.
          WoT fan as much as LOTR.

    • earthworm says:

      1/25: moi aussi!
      i used to mind having just missed Mozart’s birthday, but as i grew up i not only appreciated Burns as much, maybe more, but also came to see these two greats as very similar personalities, in interesting ways, and products of very similar eras.

      • Ginevra diBenci says:

        I am well and truly abashed! I did not think anyone would notice my comment, much less heap all this wonderful cheer on me! Thank you all so much.

        Rayne, I’m preparing my rabbit self for that dragon right now. (I was born in a year of the Monkey, so hoping that helps me.) For the first time in a life that’s gone on much longer than most without doing so, I’m about to buy a home (condo). I’m terrified. But must do it because stars have aligned, etc.

        I wish I was still young enough to make a big stupid mistake without ruing it the rest of my life, but I’m not. Nor, needless to say, rich, or even rich enough to make a mistake now. Which is only part of why EW The Website matters so much to me.

        Thank you all again. For everything.

      • Ginevra diBenci says:

        earthworm, did you mean January 25 was your birthday too? If so, you might want to know that we share it with Virginia Woolf and Alicia Keys, among many others. It’s only recently that people who notice such things have started including Burns.

        And also if so, a belated happy birthday to you too!

    • christopher rocco says:

      In addition to that well loved comedy troupe is Fry and Laurie, but in music I vote for that genius from the Mojave, Frank Zappa.

  8. MarkPalm says:

    While there are many laudatory adjectives to describe the late American poet, James Tate, “satirical” may not be the most apt. The related term “absurdist” is the one often invoked. Nevertheless, his poem, “How the Pope Is Chosen” is a contemporary masterpiece of the genre. A hilarious puncturing of pomposity.

    http://dwitkowski.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-pope-is-chosen-by-james-tate.html

    Skål!

    (I dearly hope this link accords with standards here. I read everyday, but seldom (dare to) comment.)

  10. Mark D Sanders says:

    I’ll never forget “The Loved One”, with Johnathon Winters. And Peter Sellers as Chauncey Gardener. And the time I saw Clement Freud (grandson of Sigmunnd, who most unfortunately turned out to be a child rapist) on the Tonight Show ask Johnny about the difference between cross country running and the Galloping Gourmet.*
    And the first chapter of Ironweed, with the line “Even more than the living, the dead settle down in neighborhoods.”
    But I will forget what I’m supposed to be doing today…

    * One is a pant in the country…

  11. BobBobCon says:

    NY Times Pitchbot!

    I think there’s a telling bit here, where he’s looked at who follows him and there are a bunch of journalists, including from the Washington Post.

    But the NY Times has almost nobody, and he speculates it might be because they will get in trouble if they do. Although I think it could be because they’re just too thin skinned.

    https://www.publicnotice.co/p/doug-balloon-new-york-times-pitchbot-interview

    Jonathan Chait hates him too, which is another sign that he’s drawn blood.

  12. punaise says:

    from the land of panelized illustrated humor and unconventionally double-syllabic names: Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury) and Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes)

    • Tech Support says:

      I’m not much of one for (traditional) poetry, but Bill Watterson opened his very first Calvin & Hobbes Treasury with a delighftul extended strip and poem about Calvin being afraid of monsters under the bed when trying to go to sleep.

    • Buzzkill Stickinthemud says:

      My favorite Calvin & Hobbes quote:

      Why bother learning when ignorance is instantaneous?

    • Peterr says:

      Another in that genre is 400 Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619 – 2019 edited by Kendi and filled with incredible prose by dozens of other writers. Each was given a 5 year span of history and asked to capture it in their chapter. My favorites seem to change each time I look at it, but right now Michael Harriott’s chapter on Reconstruction is top of my list.

      And having said that, I probably should have included Harriot as the foremost wypipologist working today, When it comes to satire taking on race, it’s hard to beat Harriot:

      What is wypipoing? Wypipoing is calling oneself a “patriot” while waving a confederate flag. Wypipoing is whining about widespread voter fraud while rubber-stamping gerrymandering, voter suppression and felon disenfranchisement. Wypipoing is screaming about freedom of speech while outlawing critical race theory. And if you find the term “wypipoing” offensive …

      Congratulations, you’re wypipoing!

      • missinggeorgecarlin says:

        I was born in 1969 in the deep south (rural Virginia). I’ve had “Christianity” rammed down my throat for decades.

        Over the years, I noticed it was a VERY small percentage of people w/crosses around their necks that were behaving in a “Christ-like manner.”

        As a boy, maybe 13-14-15 yrs old, George Carlin was the first adult I ever heard say “Religion is a bunch of bullshit.” It was a great moment for me. I was no longer alone. There was at least one other person out there who felt as I did! :)

        PS: Just in case they weren’t mentioned yet: Monty Python

  16. chrisanthemama says:

    Richard Pryor (one of the writers of Blazing Saddles, after all). Leslie Jones. Lee Papa (The Rude Pundit). Roy Edroso (alicublog). Charlie Pierce. Betty Cracker and John Cole of Balloon Juice. Driftglass. H.L. Mencken. Wonkette. etc.

    • John Lehman says:

      ”yes…went to the prison expecting justice …
      …and found mostly black guys there…
      yep just us”

      -Richard Pryor

  17. Molly Pitcher says:

    I cannot add much to the excellent satirists already listed here, but I can share with you the recipe for our celebratory Robert Burns dinner tonight:

    Guinness Pie

    FOR THE STEW
    • 4 tablespoons butter
    • 2 large red onions, chopped
    • 4 cloves garlic, minced
    • 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
    • 2 ribs celery, chopped
    • 10 mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
    • 3 pounds brisket (preferably second-cut) or stew meat, chopped into bite-size pieces
    • Kosher salt
    • Freshly ground black pepper
    • 2 tablespoons flour
    • 1 sprig rosemary
    • About 4 cups (2 cans) Guinness or other stout
    • 1 cup trotter gear (recipe here) or 8 ounces freshly grated Cheddar

    FOR THE PASTRY
    • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
    • 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
    • ¾ teaspoon salt
    • ½ cup (1 stick) very cold unsalted butter, diced
    • 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
    • BUY DOUGH FROM WHOLE FOODS

    PREPARATION
    FOR THE STEW
    1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
    2. In a large, ovenproof pan fitted with a lid, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 10 minutes.
    3. Add the carrots, celery, mushrooms and remaining 2 tablespoons butter and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms are dark in color and the moisture released by them has evaporated, about 15 minutes. Remove and set aside.
    4. Season the beef pieces all over with salt and pepper and toss in the flour to coat. Add butter to the pan and add the beef, the loose flour and rosemary to the pan and cook over high heat, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Return the vegetables to the pan.
    5. Add enough Guinness to just cover the beef. Cover the pan and put it in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from the oven and stir. If using trotter gear, stir it in now. Return to the oven and cook for 1 hour more. If it remains thin, set the pan over medium-low heat, remove the lid and reduce the liquid. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If using Cheddar, fold in about half.
    6. Pour the stew into an 8-inch-square, 2-inch-high Pyrex dish or a deep 9-inch pie pan. If using Cheddar, scatter the remaining cheese across the top. Place the dough on top of the pie and pinch it closed around the edges using the tines of a fork, then slash the center lightly with a knife. Brush with the egg yolk, place on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, or until the pastry is puffy and golden.

    A wee dram will be required for a toast. Or two.

      • harpie says:

        It sounds a LOT better than haggis!

        I may try that on St Paddy’s Day. Thanks, Molly!

        [I don’t know how to say “bon apetit” in Scots…but consider it said!]

      • Sue 'em Queequeg says:

        Not in a position to say which tastes better, though I think that compared to a haggis hurling contest, a Guinness Pie hurling contest would be disappointing as to distance but delightfully superior as an all-around mess.

        In any case, definitely making the stew! Thanks, Molly, for the recipe.

  18. Tech Support says:

    Although it’s often obscured by popular stereotypes and the grind of the music-industrial complex, I think hip hop harbors some of the most amazing poetry and wicked satire that you could hope to find these days. Rap lyricists frequently talk about the “punchlines” in their verses, turns of phrase that are not necessarily funny but grab the listeners attention by juxtaposing words in a clever way to convey a distinct idea. A great (and pretty well known example) is this line from Eminem that not only reflects on his own reputation but also wryly observes how people amplify the things they claim to be opposed to:

    “Everybody only wants to discuss me. So this must mean I’m disgusting!”

    Without devolving this into a wallpost of mash notes to personal favorites, I’d call folks attention to an artist known as Aesop Rock. He has a reputation for deliriously complex verses and an enormous vocabulary. In 2017 he released The Impossible Kid. It’s a deeply personal album, an exploration of a childhood angst & midlife crisis that is both dark and funny in alternating moments. You can hear both in this snippet from Shrunk, a track about his adversarial relationship with his therapist:

    She said, “When you start getting all expressive and symbolic
    It’s impossible to actualize an honest diagnostic.”
    I said, “When you start getting all exact and algebraic
    I’m reminded it’s a racket, not a rehabilitation.”
    Okay, agree to disagree as grown-ups from opposing clans
    Honoring the push and pull, I should’ve called the Scholomance
    Oh well, preservation is a doozy
    “Will you be needing another appointment?”
    “Absolutely.”

  19. SunZoomSpark says:

    A couple Frank Zappa samples
    From “We’re Only In It For The Money” 1968, “The Idiot Bastard Son”
    https://youtu.be/01_ZH3voeDc?si=1dH3yXT8Ei8D7-Oo

    From “Weasels Ripped My Flesh” 1970, “Oh No”
    “Oh No” is FZs response to the Beatles “All You Need is Love”
    https://youtu.be/tw_-uQRfm8U

    And from XTC’s “Skylarking” 1988 “Dear God”
    https://youtu.be/p554R-Jq43A?si=7vOZXc4-kxyUPTWR

    Monty Python The Spanish Inquisition (The Comfy Chair)
    A preview of TFG in his second term with his best people in charge of retribution
    https://youtu.be/T2ncJ6ciGyM?si=WwffWQiYqxcTXrBX

    Also
    Terry Southern – The Magic Christian
    and Terry Southern/Stanley Kubrick masterpiece Dr. Strangelove

    Jon Stewart (back on the Daily Show on Mondays!)
    John Oliver
    Pee Wee Herman

    • Ginevra diBenci says:

      First time I’ve seen XTC here after absorbing every bit of their work. Partridge and Moulding supplied a big chunk of the soundtrack of my adult life (along with REM stateside).

  20. vertalio says:

    Rabelais! Orwell, and National Lampoon.
    The man I stole the letters in my nom from: Voltaire.
    And Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, although that turns out to be more like prophesy…

  22. PeteT0323 says:

    Can I get a little love for George Carlin?

    Maybe a wee bit out of step with the core people in the main post, but…

    I say again – Can I get a little love for George Carlin (anyway)?

  23. Virginia T Holder says:

    What’s The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, but an early introduction to cold War absurdities?

    [Welcome back to emptywheel. SECOND REQUEST: Please use the SAME username and email address each time you comment so that community members get to know you. This is your third username so far; please stick with it. Thanks. /~Rayne]

  24. Greg Hunter says:

    The Lawyers’ Ways
    BY PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR

    I’ve been list’nin’ to them lawyers
    In the court house up the street,
    An’ I’ve come to the conclusion
    That I’m most completely beat.
    Fust one feller riz to argy,
    An’ he boldly waded in
    As he dressed the tremblin’ pris’ner
    In a coat o’ deep-dyed sin.

    Why, he painted him all over
    In a hue o’ blackest crime,
    An’ he smeared his reputation
    With the thickest kind o’ grime,
    Tell I found myself a-wond’rin’,
    In a misty way and dim,
    How the Lord had come to fashion
    Sich an awful man as him.

    Then the other lawyer started,
    An’ with brimmin’, tearful eyes,
    Said his client was a martyr
    That was brought to sacrifice.
    An’ he give to that same pris’ner
    Every blessed human grace,
    Tell I saw the light o’ virtue
    Fairly shinin’ from his face.

    Then I own ‘at I was puzzled
    How sich things could rightly be;
    An’ this aggervatin’ question
    Seems to keep a-puzzlin’ me.
    So, will some one please inform me,
    An’ this mystery unroll—
    How an angel an’ a devil
    Can persess the self-same soul?

  25. Alan Charbonneau says:

    H. L. Mencken, who was able to put a great deal of information into a small amount of space. Examples:
    — The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
    — The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

  27. TobiasBaskin says:

    Wonderful post. I have to add Peter Schickele aka P.D.Q Bach, who died the other day. He did (and does) eviscerate pompous classical music.

    • Peterr says:

      I hope he left behind a hitherto unpublished work that I imagine would be titled “Requiescat in exigua pace.”

      • Purple Martin says:

        If so, it seems likely to have a Resurrection—It’s Alive! It’s ALIVE! movement and I, for one, would love to hear it.

        So, Prof. Schickele, my 1971 high school madrigal group performing My Bonnie Lass She Smellouth, Making the Flowers Jealouth raise our glasses and salute you!

    • Sue 'em Queequeg says:

      I would say P.D.Q. Bach was not an evisceration, just a multi-decade vigorous but affectionate — and deeply knowing — ribbing. No one laughed harder than musicians. Schickele’s passing is sad indeed.

      Pomposity in music (which is certainly not limited to classical) is as toxic as pomposity anywhere else, but that’s mostly from performers and presenters.

  28. TREPping says:

    I want to second Mencken and offer some love for Carlin. To add to the list, I would suggest Kurt Tucholsky, a brilliant German satirist, as was Brecht. My two pfennig.

    • Peterr says:

      Love Brecht!

      Note to future satirists: If your satirical work is a large part of why you need to flee your country, you’re doing it right.

    • Harry Eagar says:

      Just as Epicurus warned against too enthusiastic an embrace of Mencken, it is well to recall that Brecht was an unrepentant Stalinist.

      Just because a man is funny doesn’t mean he isn’t also an inhuman monster.

      • TREPping says:

        Brecht was certainly a communist, especially when it was convenient. His testimony before HUAC was priceless. If I recall correctly, he went from his testimony to the airport and left the US permanently.

      • SteveBev says:

        ‘Brecht was a Stalinist’

        Utter bullshit.

        Brecht was certainly a Marxist but he was most heavily influenced by Karl Korsch, a German Communist dissenter, who rejected important philosophical elements of Marxism-Leninism, and the Third International. Korsch heavily influenced the Frankfurt School, who were certainly not either Leninists or Stalinists. The focus of Korsch thought was on ideological production in Capitalist society, with a preoccupation with culture, sociology, aesthetics and psychology. His ideas were about a self consciously, self critical political understanding, located in particular places at particular times, and rejected the historicism of so-called Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy.

        So

        • Harry Eagar says:

          Robert Conquest lists him among Communists defending Stalinism:

          “Tyrants and Typewriters,” p. 138:

          “Medvedev also follows an orthodox Soviet line on the Nazi-Soviet pact,though he does condemn the way in which Russian propaganda, and communists outside Russia, overtly took the German side. He is full of praise for Brecht, on the strength of a poem which he wrote (but did not publish) when his friend Tretyakov was shot. But Brecht fully supported Stalinism in every other way and even in this poem proposed a ratio false to fact and insulting to the majority of victims: ‘Among fifty who are condemned one can be innocent.’ “

  29. ExRacerX says:

    Al Jougenson of Ministry has a lot of material that qualifies—Thieves, Antifa, etc.—but the new album really ups the ante with songs like “Antifa” and “B.D.E.”

    Here’s a snippet of the lyrics to B.D.E. :

    “So what was once forbidden becomes fringe,
    and what was fringe becomes mainstream
    This is a nightmare

    Big dick energy!

    Toxic misogyny, violence
    Toxic misogyny, violence
    Toxic misogyny
    Using, using violence

    Horny little boys full of hormones and hate
    Waging war on women ’cause they can’t get a date
    Stockpiling their weapons ’cause they think their dicks get bigger
    Waiting for the chance to finally pull the fucking trigger

    Hating what you cannot have
    Killing what you cannot be

    No one can justify their toxic behavior
    Big dick energy!”

    • theartistvvv says:

      I’m a Ministry fan of sorts, and his biography is interesting, funny and disturbing (tho’ not as much as Bob Mould’s), but AJ is also a close friend of the Ricketts family, or at least, I think, Peter …

  30. harpie says:

    Not satire, but pretty funny use of language…and from a Scot!

    https://twitter.com/CharlesPPierce/status/1750553093224231324
    11:15 AM · Jan 25, 2024

    Some people are just natural bloggers. [screenshot][link]

    From the screenshot:

    Nicola Sturgeon urged to apologise after leaked WhatsApp messages describing Matt Hancock as “Weaker than a nuns piss,” Liz Truss as “About as much use as a marzipan dildo,” and referring to Suella Braverman as “Shitler.”

    • iamevets says:

      and stories that these quotes are fake.

      so who do we attribute the hilarity to then? (what would AI come up with?)

      • grizebard says:

        Indeed.

        So instead I nominate a real person, Janey Godley, who gave near everyone (but the “unco guid”, to quote Burns) a huge spirtual fillip through the darkest days of the Covid crisis by (among other things) channeling the “inner Nicola” while making her (well-received) public safety announcements. Currently being updated in light of the mentioned (actual) new revelations.

        (Brilliant but toe-curlingly baudy, it must be admitted, so I had better refrain from appending any links.)

  31. Magnet48 says:

    I’ve been following Alexandra Petrie for just a few weeks but each column she writes is better than the prior one. She hits some profound concepts every now & then, for example, God saying he loves seeing buildings renovated because, remember, I am in the details. In context it was drop dead funny.

    • Henry the Horse says:

      Second Voltaire and Carlin. I so wish George was here in the Trumpian age, he would destroy him.

      I saw him perform once in Las Vegas and he lampooned EVERYONE in the room. Check out his riff on guys who dress like cowboys…he did that in a room where roughly half the male audience was wearing 10 gallon hats.

      Musically, Warren Zevon was special.

      I was gambling in Havana
      I took a little risk…

      • Ginevra diBenci says:

        Warren Zevon was indeed special. I saw him play live in the early 1980s, sent by my paper to review the concert. His rapport with the audience and palpable love of performing for all of us made the whole thing a joy. His voice, mostly underrated due to its rasp and expressiveness, did exactly everything he wanted it to do.

        That reporting job also sent me to review the Ramones, who sucked. Not in a “punk” way either. They just sucked, got off the stage after less than 40 minutes, and no one wanted them back. And this was a college crowd full of their fans.

  33. Henry the Horse says:

    Slightly OT, but I would like to add an RIP for Melanie Safka, she was a wonderful songwriter and a heck of a performer.

    While definitely not a satirist, she was still able in her own way to make people consider the circumstances that surround them.

    A beautiful lady with a beautiful soul.

  34. Legonaut says:

    Some really great names mentioned herein! I keep saying “Yeah!” or “Them too!” to myself as I read through these comments.

    I’d add some classics like Dante and Aristophanes (“The Clouds” still cracks me up), as a reminder of just how old the art form is. In a more modern vein, P.G. Wodehouse and Terry Pratchett offer amusing (and sometime poignant) takes on a whole host of issues. (RIP Sir Terry; you are missed!)

    And, oh my Dog, Carlin!

  35. JAFO_NAL says:

    Apologies for going lowbrow but considering the sorry state of American politics I’d have to go with Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butthead (looking at you Matt Gaetz!).

  36. Badger Robert says:

    Lewis Carroll, and the footless French oysters sadly tricked by the British PM carpenter and the Prussian walrus. What a shame?

    • John Paul Jones says:

      When the Pythons did a North American tour, either ’73 or ’74, Neil Innes, late of the Doh-Dahs was with them. For one number, he came out onto the stage on stilts (concealed in a giant pair of bell bottoms), leaned down a very long way, with difficulty, to plug his guitar into an amp, and said: “This number is called ‘Short Blues’.” When the chuckles died down he played a single riff, unplugged the guitar, again with difficulty, and walked off. Is that satire? It was funny, for sure (though a good part of the audience just wrinkled their brows).

  40. Yohei1972 says:

    The brilliant Australian standup, Hannah Gadsby. Check out their three Netflix specials, “Nannette,” “Douglas,” and “Something Special.” They hilariously and sometimes movingly excoriate misogyny in comedy, art (they have an art history degree), and the broader culture from their outsider standpoint as an overweight, autistic, lesbian, genderqueer Aussie. They have a unique stage persona that’s somehow simultaneously ferocious and adorable. Plus if you watch those specials in the order I listed, you also get a fascinating personal arc for the artist herself.

    They’re hated with the fury of a thousand suns by a large coterie of “very online” misogynists and gatekeepers of Real Comedy. So you know they’re doing something right.

  42. rockfarmer says:

    Thank you Peterr, and everyone else! Add to the above list the peerless Tom Lehrer (“National Brotherhood Week”) and my all-time favorite political cartoonists, Pat Oliphant and Tom Toles.

    • rockfarmer says:

      Sorry, my bad: Peterr, you mentioned Tom Lehrer at the very beginning of this post. What a genius the man was.

      • Peterr says:

        At some ungodly early age, The Kid became entranced with The Elements, and learned it by heart. When he got to his first science class that talked about elements (don’t recall if it was HS Chemistry or some other, earlier basic science class), he burst into the song and floored the teacher.

  44. Harry Eagar says:

    Hard to believe Evelyn Waugh has not been mentioned.

    Also hard to believe no one here thought of Flann O’Brian, although his humor always escaped me. But he is sometimes considered the best satirist writing in English in the 20th c.

    I would vote for either Waugh or Jaroslav Hasek (The Good Soldier: Schweik)

    Also on my list: George and Weedon Grossmith (Diary of a Nobody) and William Donaldson (The Letters of Henry Root). (I looked up Donaldson, and, wow! What a life.)

  45. Badger Robert says:

    Then there is Frank Baum whose fictional terrier deflated every gas bag politician that ever filled the air with self promoting garbage.

    • Ginevra diBenci says:

      L. Frank Baum, like so many of our beloveds, had Major Issues. But I grew up on his books and loved them, and I came out okay (if I do say so myself).

      • Epicurus says:

        Trivia. Elphaba is the given name of the Wicked Witch of the West in Gregory Maguire’s Oz books and, of course, the play. It’s the phonetic pronunciation of Baum’s three initials.

  46. LesNoyes says:

    E.Y. Harburg (as best as I remember):

    When lightning struck the steeple
    of the church in San Jose
    It barely missed the brothel that was
    just across the way

    You have taught us to conceive without sinning, Mother Mary
    and the prospect for the planet is foreboding
    Had you taught us to sin without conceiving, we could
    stop the population from exploding

    The Justice Brandeis and the Justice Holmes
    strolled down the avenue
    The Justice Holmes was ninety-six
    Brandeis, seventy-two
    Just then a sweet young thing walked by
    and Brandeis gave her the big glad eye
    But Justice Holmes could only sigh,
    “Oh, to be seventy-two again,
    oh, to be seventy-two”

    • LeftsidePortland says:

      YES to Devo ! Also : Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys. I mean, there’s so much just in these names!

  48. Badger Robert says:

    Will Rogers was a successful humorist. I think he may have skewered his share of self promoting wind bags in his time.

  49. DrStuartC says:

    These could be the only possible omissions in this esteemed list, but

    Airplane! Deserves a mention, Dr. Strangelove too.

    But, having read a little novel last week, Being There, by Jerzy Kosinski, it deserves not just a mention, but tip of the hat to the way this sweet, slightly odd story gradually becomes a profound indictment of the sorts of flawed thinking and assumption-making in the world of the rich.

    • Ginevra diBenci says:

      The Smothers Brothers truly revolutionized comedy. TV comedy, at least, and at least to the extent CBS would let them; many of their best–most political–routines were censored. My sisters and I used to watch Carol Burnett praying they would appear.

  53. Local Oaf says:

    I’ll give a nod to Harry Shearer, whose weekly program, Le Show, recently noted its 40th anniversary. His satire and voice talent are top notch.

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