Smith & Waugh Talk About Satire

This is NOT a Halloween special. Instead, this podcast is celebrating the 300th birthday of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels with something altogether more fantastical: a recording of our live event exploring fantastic voyages in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature. Join us, as we journey from Swift's Gulliver's Travels to H. G. Wells's The Time Machine , exploring...

Jo and Adam explore satire across the generations in a new instalment that certainly isn't a belated grab bag episode. We begin with Gen Z slang and BBC Radio 4’s attempts to make sense of it, before turning to Bad Apples , the new satirical film about a teacher who kidnaps one of her Gen Alpha pupils in an attempt to improve everyone else’s education. Then South Park becomes South America in...

What makes a robot funny? And, more importantly, are they satire? Jo and Adam ask why robots seem to lend themselves so readily to satirical comedy. They look at the BBC sitcom ANN DROID , Apple TV's SUNNY and Channel 4's prank show BAD ROBOTS , alongside various satirical machines including Kryten from RED DWARF , Bender from FUTURAMA and ROBOCOP . There are also honourable mentions for r...

Jo and Adam unpack the extraordinary Clacton by-election, where Count Binface takes on Nigel Farage after the Reform leader resigns and re-contests his own seat, calling the election a referendum on his political credibility. As the campaign descends into surreal farce, we ask whether Count Binface is effective satire, and what happens when satire becomes an active participant in democracy? Along...

Jo and Adam discuss Send Help!, Sam Raimi's new satirical horror in which a woman escapes her toxic workplace only to find herself stranded on a desert island with her awful boss. From there, they explore the long history of satirical workplaces, from The Office and The Office to Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, asking why terrible managers have become such enduring comic figure...

Jo and Adam discuss Louis Theroux's latest feature-length Netflix documentary, 'Inside the Manosphere'. exploring the role of humour in his filmmaking. From awkward timing and fourth-wall breaks to defamiliarisation and deadpan observation, they discuss what Theroux's distinctive (and often parodied) style owes to satire. They then turn to one of the most talked-about novels of the...

This month, Jo and Adam unpack a hellish grab-bag of take on satire, ranging from campus culture wars to actual global wars. We begin with the Netflix adaptation of Vladimir, exploring the enduring appeal of the campus novel and the uneasy position of satire within the contemporary university. What does it mean to teach English Literature in the modern academy, and how well does Vladimir capture (...

The episode our listeners demanded. This March, Jo and Adam turn to the film everyone is arguing about: Wuthering Heights. From casting discourse to meme culture, the adaptation has generated an extraordinary wave of online reaction... and a surprising amount of satire. Drawing on Jo’s expertise as a Brontë scholar (author of Charlotte Brontë and Contagion: Myths, Memes and the Politics of Infecti...

In this episode, Jo and Adam trace the long, shuffling history of the satirical zombie, from the consumer cannibalism of Dawn of the Dead to the suburban self-recognition of Shaun of the Dead , and the bleak media mirror held up by Dead Set. Along the way, they consider the evolving satirical function of the undead in the 28 Years Later franchise, with passing reflections on the undying TV univers...

Jo and Adam ease themselves into the new year by asking some deceptively simple questions about contemporary culture. They discuss Paul Feig’s latest film The Housemaid , and try to pin down why so many viewers are describing it as satire (and what, exactly, they mean by that). Along the way, they turn to meme culture, looking at online responses to the latest series of The Traitors and the intern...

Jo and Adam are back with their annual festive sketch, this year titled “The Grinch Who Stole Satire” : a cheerfully mischievous look at irony, earnestness, and why people keep declaring satire dead. Along the way, they explore the extraordinary new sci-fi satire Plur1bus , which imagines the horror of a world where everyone is happy; the satirical fuel behind Netflix’s cosy crime hit Wake Up Dead...

Join us for an episode filled with spectacular spats, bruised egos, and top-tier literary shade. This month, Adam introduces a riotous tour through Britain’s greatest writerly bust-ups: from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu shredding Swift in more ways than one, to Pope’s poisonously personal vendettas, to the mutual mockeries of Anne Ingram, Mary Leapor, Thackeray, Woolf, Gibbons, Brontë, and beyond. No...

It's all treat and no trick this SpoOooky Season, as Jo and Adam welcome back Best Friend of the Pod, acclaimed novelist Leigh Stein, for a bumper Halloween special (rustle rustle). Together they discuss the origins and development of Leigh's new novel, IF YOU'RE SEEING THIS IT IS MEANT FOR YOU, a gothic satire set inside a TikTok hyper house. Leigh also fills us in on life as TikTok&#...

Inspired by the return of sketch show comedy to British television in the form of the surprisingly satirical Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping, Jo and Adam go on a whistle-stop tour of British sketch show comedy and even have an argument (live on air!) about whether there is something intrinsically satirical about the sketch show format. They also check in on the alarming satire-related events tak...

In this episode, Jo and Adam turn their attention to American animated satire, revisiting their own memories of cartoon-watching while asking what makes animation such a distinctive vehicle for social and political critique. From King of the Hill’s return in the Trump era to South Park’s take on immigration, right-wing troll culture, and ChatGPT, they explore how animated satire has adapted to add...

This episode isn't a grab-bag in the sense of an oversized packet of Monster Munch, but it is a kind of mystery bag of miscellaneous treats that you might grab from a caravan site kiosk during the summer holidays as a child in the 1980s or 90s. What's inside? Stickers? Sherbet? A colourful pencil? A fake tattoo of a Power Ranger? Or a horrible old Moomin? On this occasion it is a bunch of...

Could You be Satire? Jo and Adam discuss the weird Netflix show about putting women in cages and quoting literature at them. Along the way, they chat about academia in popular culture, the dangers of quoting out of context, and the representation of Charlotte Brontë in memes and quotations. Then they explore the ways Brontë used her pen-name Curer Bell for satirical purposes, which Jo has written...

Inspired by Adam's recent adventures in Santiago de Comepstela, Spain, where he talked about satire at the second Conference on Feminisms and Humour: Humour-Sofías, and a new BBC Report which determined that comedy is a premium British export, Jo and Adam investigate the reception of British comedy abroad. They take a look at an enormous project undertaken by King's College London to surve...

Jo and Adam warmly welcome you to their Eggztra Special Easter Eggstravaganza, which they hope will make you hoppy and not (hot)cross. It's (hotcross) bun a funny old couple of weeks for satire, so leave it to our Eggsperts to pick out a few Eggstremely interesting Eggxamples to discuss. In this episode, Jo and Adam reflect of their Eggsperiences of watching the new series of Charlie Brooker's dys...

Why is it that so many classic British sitcoms (such as Keeping Up Appearances , The Good Life and One Foot In the Grave ) are set in the suburbs? The recent smash hit Amandaland seems to be drawing satirical inspiration from these shows. Similarly, musicians (such as Pulp and The Pet Shop Boys ), poets (such as Philip Larkin), film-makers (such as David Lynch) and novelists (such as Hanif Kureish...

"Motherhood is a bitch." So reads the tagline of the Amy Adams film 'Nightbitch', which recently arrived on Disney+. Adapted from Rachel Yonder's 2021 novel of the same name, the film has been widely reviewed as a work of satire... but a satire of what, exactly? Jo and Adam are here to ask the question. They also discuss Kevin Rulo's book "Satiric Modernism", an...

At the time of recording, Traitors UK is on TV, Nosferatu is dominating at cinemas, Donald Trump is one day into his second presidency, leaving Jo and Adam with many memes to discuss as they try to determine what will be their 2025 energy. Charged by a listener to determine whether or not Robert Eggers's new adaptation of Nosferatu is in any way satire, Jo and Adam diligently investigate. What...

Come in, and know my satire, man! It is that time of year once again, when satire is all around you and you are cordially invited to the Smith & Waugh Festival Satirical Party! This year Jo and Adam take a look at the Christmassy satire of Stella Gibbons' Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm, the festive scenes in George and Weedon Grossmith's Diary of a Nobody and the contagious comedy of Nancy Mit...

Jo and Adam reflect on their recent experience of venturing to a special screening at York Picture House Cinema on Halloween night to watch a film so disgusting viewers have been reported to have left the cinema to be sick. The film is The Substance, and Adam and Jo are here to analyse its satire. Heralded as a satire on female beauty standards, we wonder if it is actually having too much fun laug...

Is there something strange [rustling and leaving faeces] in your neighbourhood? Who you gonna call? Smith & Waugh, of course! SpoOoky season is upon us once again and, as the veil between worlds draws thin, we invite you on a perilous journey into the liminal spaces that exist, sometimes, (for those open to possibilities beyond...), between the modes of satire, and of HORROR. Are these two thi...