EP48. What Has Satire Ever Done For Us? (Live in Leeds!)

Smith & Waugh Talk About Satire

In a very special episode, join Jo and Adam as they perform a set at the Farsely Constitutional in Leeds in late October 2022. And the question Adam and Jo decide to tackle, unscripted, in front of a live, public audience is: What has satire ever done for us? Satire is great at calling things out, but has it ever actually - even once - ever made an actual difference? To answer the timeless quandary, Jo and Adam share a series of case-studies from the history satire and try to determine whether or not they changed anything. These include a ghoulish satirical hoax (18th century), a sustained campaign of satirical harassments (19th century) and the satirical saturation point of Boris Johnson (2021-22), among others. Special thanks to Dr Adam Booth for giving us this opportunity to talk about satire LIVE as part of his "Quantum Sauce" series.