EP.26. Satire, Comedy & Mental Health Smith & Waugh Talk About Satire

Do you ever wonder... what's the point? Liars and cheats prosper and gain power, the hypocritical, the criminal, the venal, the self-interested, the arrogant and the cruel seem to get away with whatever they want. Statistics and figures are cynically manipulated for cynical ends. The average person has no voice and no power, no real chance to change anything or be heard. Everything gets worse and worse, we’re all afraid, nothing really seems stable, and nobody with power can be trusted. Well, satire can help! Adam and Jo are joined by Dr Dieter Declercq, author of Satire, Comedy and Mental Health: Coping with the Limits of Critique, to talk about the extent to which satire can help sustain good mental health in a trouble socio-political world. We mention:

1984

A Bit of Fry and Laurie

A Modest Proposal

Alexander Pope

Animal Farm

Balms

Bernard Williams

Bon Jovi

Boris Johnson

Brass Eye

Brexit anxiety

Catharsis

Climate change and climate grief

Covid

Depression

Dominic Cummings

Dustin Griffin

Hello Tushie Bidets

Horace

John Dryden

John Wright

Jonathan Swift

Juvenal

Medical models of satire

Michael Gove

Mock the Week

Nietzsche

Political burnout

Rain

Rishi Sunak

Satire and magic

Satirical poetry

The Handmaid’s Tale

Theme tunes (US sitcoms)

Trump blimp



Read the full show-notes.