The Complete History of Satire With Ian Hislop

Jonathan Swift shaped the British satirical tradition by embracing Juvenalian satire, aiming to vex rather than merely amuse readers. Through works like Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal, he deployed savage political critique against corruption and systemic flaws.

In the mid-18th century, William Hogarth created complex serial print narratives like A Rake's Progress that combined moral messaging with sequential comic storytelling. He also pioneered copyright protections to ensure artists received financial compensation for their work.

While celebrated as a master caricaturist, James Gilray accepted a government pension to produce anti-French propaganda during the Napoleonic Wars. His vivid depictions helped shape Napoleon's public persona while bolstering British wartime morale.

In 1817, pamphleteer William Hone was put on trial over three days for blasphemous and seditious libel after parodying religious texts for political commentary. Successive jury acquittals supported by public crowds established vital legal precedents for freedom of the press.

Founded in 1916 by British officers using an abandoned printing press in Ypres, The Wipers Times demonstrated that troops could maintain patriotism while deploying dark humor and trenchant criticism of military command.

The British satire boom of the early 1960s—which birthed Private Eye—was driven by young writers shaped partly by national service. This military experience exposed them firsthand to institutional pomposity and declining imperial grandeur.

Satirizing politicians like Boris Johnson who actively lean into self-deprecation is uniquely difficult because they disarm criticism by participating in the joke themselves. However, satirists argue that targeted mockery still serves as a necessary check against worse abuses.

Established during the 1960s satire boom, Private Eye pairs satirical humor with rigorous investigative journalism, using jokes as a mechanism to deliver serious accountability and long-running campaigns like the Post Office miscarriage of justice.