Satire

Nothing was off-limits for ‘the usual gang of idiots’ at Mad

21 September 2024 9:00 am

First published in 1952, the satirical magazine helped free the American youth of Vietnam War era of some of the stupidest beliefs they were supposed to hold about their country

Do men and women need different podcasts?

20 July 2024 9:00 am

Do men and women need different podcasts? The notion goes against the unisex, every-sex, what-is-sex-anyway culture we have come to…

Headed for the canon: Withnail and I, at the Birmingham Rep, reviewed

25 May 2024 9:00 am

After nearly 40 years, Withnail has arrived on stage. Sean Foley directs Bruce Robinson’s adaptation, which starts with a live…

Fools rush in: Mania, by Lionel Shriver, reviewed

18 May 2024 9:00 am

In an alternative universe where the Mental Parity Movement holds sway, the ignorant and unqualified are deemed ‘just as good as anyone else’ – with predictable results

Fast and furious: America Fantastica, by Tim O’Brien, reviewed

9 December 2023 9:00 am

As the avalanche of lies issuing from the White House morphs into the pandemic, Covid becomes in an engine of justice in this rollicking satire on Trumpworld

A satire on the American art world: One Woman Show, by Christine Coulson, reviewed

21 October 2023 9:00 am

Rich, pretty Kitty has been admired since childhood – but will the Park Avenue princess spend her entire life as a collectable object for connoisseurs?

Ugly and humdrum: Brokeback Mountain, at @sohoplace, reviewed

27 May 2023 9:00 am

Brokeback Mountain, a play with music, opens in a scruffy bedroom where a snowy-haired tramp finds a lumberjack’s shirt and…

An eye for the absurd

13 May 2023 9:00 am

Come for the satire, stay for the one-liners, and take succour from the hope Walter finds in a world where everyone needs an angel from time to time

Pure scorn without wit or insight: Triangle of Sadness reviewed

29 October 2022 9:00 am

The latest film from Ruben Ostlund received an eight-minute standing ovation after its screening in Cannes and also won the…

P.J. O’Rourke’s death marks the end of a great satirical era

19 February 2022 9:00 am

Fond memories of the great satirist

Scholars and spectres: The Runes Have Been Cast, by Robert Irwin, reviewed

15 January 2022 9:00 am

It could be said that the power of a horror story depends on the possibility, however minute, of it being…

A book trade romp: Sour Grapes, by Dan Rhodes, reviewed

11 December 2021 9:00 am

Dan Rhodes’s career might be regarded as an object lesson in How Not to Get Ahead in Publishing. Our man…

Up there with Succession and Chernobyl: The White Lotus, Sky Atlantic, reviewed

4 September 2021 9:00 am

Every now and then, you see a new series — Succession, say, or Chernobyl or To the Lake — which…

A mighty contest from trivial things — the quarrel between Alexander Pope and Edmund Curll

5 June 2021 9:00 am

Rapid technological advance, a dark underworld of uncensored publishing, a threatened rupture with Scotland, even fears of a new outbreak…

overlords benevolent

Praise be to our benevolent Big Tech Overlords

11 January 2021 4:11 am

It is done. The Dark Lord has been vanquished. His threatening aura has been purged from Twitter, along with many…

A conciliatory P.J. O’Rourke is not the satirist we know and love

19 December 2020 9:00 am

There was an acidic bravura and beauty in P.J. O’Rourke’s early journalism and a gleefulness in the ease with which…

online trenches

Letter from the online trenches

25 November 2020 4:22 am

November 7, 2020 To my dear parents, Victory. Uttering the word feels strange after four long years of battle. But…

Enough plotlines to power several seasons of The West Wing: BBC1's Roadkill reviewed

24 October 2020 9:00 am

Like many a political thriller before it, BBC1’s Roadkill began with a politician emerging into the daylight to face a…

antifa biden

Antifa for Biden

12 September 2020 4:28 am

Hey folks, it’s me, your friendly neighborhood antifa ringleader. You may recognize me from such news clips as ‘Small group…

state

What stunts should we expect to see at future State of the Unions?

10 February 2020 2:47 am

The State of the Union is like that annual meeting where the boss says it was a triumphant year as…

Fabulous and enthralling: Parasite reviewed

7 February 2020 10:00 pm

Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite won the Bafta for best foreign film and is up for six Oscars and it is an…

The art of pregnancy

1 February 2020 9:00 am

Pregnancy has always been a public spectacle – and as the Foundling Museum’s new exhibition shows, a dangerous one

bernie bros

My evening with the Bernie Bros

17 January 2020 7:10 am

The stench of beer and cheap deodorant filled the bar in which the ‘Bernie Bros’ were meeting. The scene looked…

Dave Eggers’s satire on Trump is somewhat heavy-handed: The Captain and the Glory reviewed

14 December 2019 9:00 am

A feckless moron is appointed to the captaincy of a ship, despite having no nautical experience. The Captain has a…