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.

Satire is used on many UK television programmes, particularly popular panel shows and quiz shows such as ''Mock the Week'' (2005) and ''Have I Got News for You'' (1990–ongoing). Similarly it is found on radio quiz shows such as ''The News Quiz'' (1977–ongoing) and ''The Now Show'' (1998–ongoing). 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 (British Royal Family), politics, entertainment, sport and British culture of the era. Created by DMA Design (Rockstar North) in 1997, satire also features prominently in the British video game series ''Grand Theft Auto''.GTA 5: a Great British export

The television program ''South Park'' (1997–ongoing) relies almost exclusively on satire to address issues in American culture, with episodes addressing anti-Semitism (The Passion of the Jew), militant atheism (Go God Go), homophobia (Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride), environmentalism (Rainforest Shmainforest), corporate culture (Gnomes (South Park)), political correctness (The Death Camp of Tolerance) and anti-Catholicism (Red Hot Catholic Love), among many other issues.

Australian Chris Lilley (Chris Lilley (comedian)) produces comedy art in the style of mockumentaries (''We Can Be Heroes (We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year)'', ''Summer Heights High'', ''Angry Boys'') and his work is often described as complex social satire.

Stephen Colbert’s television program, ''The Colbert Report'' (2005–14), is instructive in the methods of contemporary American satire. Colbert's character (Stephen Colbert (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.

The American 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 (Saturday Night Live parodies of Hillary Clinton) and of Sarah Palin (Saturday Night Live parodies of Sarah Palin).You betcha—Tina Fey wins Emmy as Sarah Palin on 'SNL'

Other political satire includes various political causes in the past, including the relatively successful Polish Beer-Lovers' Party and the joke political candidates Molly the Dog and Brian Miner.

In the United Kingdom, a popular modern satirist is 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 (Chris Morris (satirist)), 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 Canadian organization ''Canada News Network'' provides commentary on contemporary news events that are primarily Canadian in nature. Canadian songwriter Nancy White (Nancy White (singer-songwriter)) uses music as the vehicle for her satire, and her comic folk songs are regularly played on CBC Radio (CBC Radio One).

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."Tain't Funny – ''Time'' Walt Kelly's ''Pogo (Pogo (comics))'' was likewise censored in 1952 over his overt satire of Senator Joe McCarthy (Joseph 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'', ''Canada News Network'', ''Private Eye''), "Not Your Homepage,"Not Your Homepage – Check Your Morals At The Door, Come See the Internet Lore! radio (e.g. ''On the Hour''), television (e.g. ''The Day Today'', ''The Daily Show'', ''Brass Eye'') and the web (e.g. Mindry.in, The Fruit Dish, Scunt News,FRONT PAGE – Satirical News, Review, Comment & Analysis Faking News, El Koshary Today, The Giant Napkin,The Giant Napkin Unconfirmed SourcesUnconfirmedsources.com and The ''Onion''s website). Other satires are on the list of satirists and satires. Another internet-driven form of satire is to lampoon bad internet performers. An example of this is the Internet meme character Miranda Sings.

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."

Zhou Libo (Zhou Libo (comedian)), a comedian from Shanghai, is the most popular satirist in China. His humour has interested middle-class people and has sold out shows ever since his rise to fame.