# Engagers in American Political Juvenalian Satire **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 7, 2012, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704 "2012-08-07T05:56:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bpelta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Bpelta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bpelta)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/1 "2012-08-07T05:56:33Z")
I’m looking into the tradition of American political Juvenalian Satire as part of a larger project I’m doing. I’m right now interested in those who have engaged in the through stand-up comedy, journalistic endeavors, and books (_not_ through political comics in the tradition of Thomas Nast). Fellow Dopers, who are some figures who famously engaged in this type of satire? Here are the names I have so far: Benjamin Franklin David Ross Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby) Charles Farrar Browne (Artemus Ward) Bill Nye Seba Smith Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) Ambrose Bierce Will Rogers Mort Sahl Lenny Bruce Dick Gregory Tom Lehrer Smothers Brothers Hunter S. Thompson George Carlin Bill Maher Bill Hicks Lewis Black Richard Belzer Al Franken Dennis Miller P.J. O’Rourke Jon Stewart Stephen Colbert ---
**Author:** ![Bpelta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Bpelta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bpelta)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/2 "2012-08-07T06:14:13Z")
ps H.L. Mencken ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/3 "2012-08-07T10:16:27Z")
[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juvenalian_satire#Horatian_vs_Juvenalian) offers these examples, among others: Ray Bradbury, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Burgess, Joseph Heller, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert ---
**Author:** ![Bpelta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Bpelta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bpelta)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/4 "2012-08-07T11:05:13Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juvenalian_satire#Horatian_vs_Juvenalian) offers these examples, among others: Ray Bradbury, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Burgess, Joseph Heller, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert I’m afraid you misunderstood the OP; Wikipedia offers those as examples of Juvenalian satire. I’m asking about American political Juvenalian satire specifically. Catch-22 isn’t in the political genre, and Burgess isn’t American. But while we’re at it, let me clarify: Technically, you can classify distopian science-fiction novels like Fahrenheit 451 as political satire, but I’m thinking more in terms of satirical _humor_, e.g. The Daily Show. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/5 "2012-08-07T11:30:30Z")
> [@Bpelta](#): > > Catch-22 isn’t in the political genre. Oh, but it is. See Milo Minderbinder for the quintessential American pol. Or see the section on Major Major Major Major for a lesson in McCarthyism. Or Korn and Dreedle. It’s set in wartime Italy, but it’s about peacetime America. Besides, it’s not all that Heller wrote. Read GOOD AS GOLD–pure political satire. ---
**Author:** ![Bpelta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Bpelta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bpelta)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/6 "2012-08-07T15:39:58Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > Oh, but it is. See Milo Minderbinder for the quintessential American pol. Or see the section on Major Major Major Major for a lesson in McCarthyism. Or Korn and Dreedle. It’s set in wartime Italy, but it’s about peacetime America. > > Besides, it’s not all that Heller wrote. Read GOOD AS GOLD–pure political satire. I haven’t read Catch-22, but was under the wrong impression that it wasn’t political satire. I stand corrected. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/7 "2012-08-07T22:56:10Z")
You might also want to hold your nose and include Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/8 "2012-08-08T00:39:19Z")
Don Marquis ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/9 "2012-08-08T00:50:29Z")
Mike Royko ---
**Author:** ![Bpelta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Bpelta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bpelta)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/10 "2012-08-08T20:18:54Z")
Somehow forgot about Chris Rock and Finley Peter Dunne. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/11 "2012-08-09T14:24:48Z")
Calvin Trillin? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/12 "2012-08-09T21:07:16Z")
I suspect that you will find that political satire has always been with us; just that it has a short shelf life. As a result, the legacy of those practitioners has not endured. I still remember and occasional use the quote from the National Lampoon news pages, from about 1976: Sen. Kennedy: “I will not seek the nomination for president.” Reporter: “But what if you are drafted by the convention?” Sen. Kennedy: “I’ll drive off that bridge when I come to it.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/engagers-in-american-political-juvenalian-satire/630704/13 "2012-08-09T21:11:21Z")
[Mark Russell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Russell)