List of satirists and satires

Below is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for their involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Also included is a list of modern satires.

Early satirical authors

• Aesop (c. 620–560 BCE) – Aesop's Fables
• Aristophanes (c. 448–380 BCE) – The Frogs, The Birds, and The Clouds
• Gaius Lucilius (c. 180–103 BCE)
• Horace (65–8 BCE) – Satires
• Ovid (43 BCE – 17 CE) – The Art of Love
• Persius (34–62 CE)
• Petronius (c. 27–66 CE) – Satyricon
• Juvenal (1st to early 2nd centuries CE) – Satires
• Lucian (c. 120–180 CE)
• Apuleius (c. 123–180 CE) – The Golden Ass
• Various authors (9th century CE and later) – One Thousand and One Nights

Medieval, Early Modern and 18th Century satirists

• Godfrey of Winchester (d. 1107)
• Ubayd Zakani (?–1370) – Akhlaq al-Ashraf (Ethics of the Aristocracy)
• Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) – The Decameron
• Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400) – The Canterbury Tales
• Gil Vicente (c. 1465–1536)
• Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) – The Praise of Folly
• François Rabelais (c. 1493–1553) – Gargantua and Pantagruel
• Various authors (16th century CE and later) – Talking statues of Rome
• Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) – Don Quixote
• Luis de Góngora (1561–1627)
• Francisco de Quevedo (1580–1645)
• Juan de Tassis, 2nd Count of Villamediana (1582–1622)
• Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623–1673)
• Martin Marprelate (true identity unknown) – Marprelate tracts
• Samuel Butler (1612–1680) – Hudibras
• Molière (1622–1673)
• John Stockton (1631–1700)
• John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647–1680)
• William Shakespeare (1564–1616) – Sonnet 130
• Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) – Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Tale of a Tub
• John Gay (1685–1732) – The Beggar's Opera
• Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
• Voltaire (1694–1778) – Candide
• James Bramston (1694–1744)
• William Hogarth (1697–1764) – Beer Street and Gin Lane
• Henry Fielding (1707–1754)
• Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) – The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
• James Beresford (1764–1840) – The Miseries of Human Life
• Ivan Krylov (1769–1844)
• Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) – Nightmare Abbey, Crochet Castle
• Giuseppe Gioachino Belli – (1791–1863, Italy)
• Charles Etienne Boniface (1787–1853) – De Nieuwe Ridderorde of De Temperantisten (in Dutch) (The New Knighthood or the Temperance Societies)
• Jane Austen (1775–1817) - Love and Freindship

Modern satirists (born 1800–1900)

• Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) – The Government Inspector, Dead Souls
• Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) – The Man That Was Used Up, A Predicament
• William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) – Vanity Fair
• Charles Dickens (1812–1870) – Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities
• James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) – A Fable for Critics
• George Derby, aka John P. Squibob, John Phoenix (1823–1861)
• Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826–1889)
• Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)
• Samuel Butler (1835–1902) – Erewhon
• Mark Twain (1835–1910) – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
• W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911)
• Thomas Nast (1840–1902)
• Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) – The Devil's Dictionary
• Anatole France (1844–1924)
• José Maria de Eça de Queirós (1845–1900)
• Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
• George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
• Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927)
• Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) – The Lady with the Dog
• O. Henry (1862–1910)
• Jalil Mammadguluzadeh (1866–1931)
• Lakshminath Bezbaroa (1868–1938, India; wrote in Assamese language)
• Saki, aka H. H. Munro (1870–1916)
• Trilussa (1873–1950, Italy)
• Alfred Jarry (1873–1907)
• Radoje Domanović (1873–1908)
• Iraj Mirza (1874–1926)
• Karl Kraus (1874–1936)
• Will Rogers (1879–1935)
• James Branch Cabell (1879–1958)
• Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda (1879–1959)
• H. L. Mencken (1880–1956)
• Arkady Averchenko (1881–1925)
• P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975)
• Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)
• Jaroslav Hašek (1883–1923) – The Good Soldier Švejk
• Oscar Cesare (1885–1948)
• Kurt Tucholsky (1890–1935)
• Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) – Heart of a Dog, The Master and Margarita
• Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)
• Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930)
• Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) – Point Counter Point, Brave New World
• Mikhail Zoshchenko (1895–1958)
• Josep Pla (1897–1981)
• Ilf and Petrov: Ilya Ilf (1897–1937) and Yevgeni Petrov (1903–1942) – The Twelve Chairs, The Little Golden Calf
• Yury Olesha (1899–1960) – Three Fat Men

Modern satirists (born 1900–1930)

• Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
• George Orwell (1903–1950) – Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990, UK)
• Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) – The Lorax (1971), The Butter Battle Book (1984)
• Kurt Kusenberg (1904–1983, Germany)
• Daniil Kharms (1905–1942, Russia/USSR)
• Jean Effel (1908–1982, France) – cartoonist, author of the cartoon cycle The Creation of the World
• Al Capp (1909–1979, US)
• Arkady Raikin (1911–1987, Russia/USSR) – stand-up comedian
• Walt Kelly (1913–1973, US)
• Anthony Burgess (1917–1993, UK) – A Clockwork Orange
• Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) – Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle
• Lenny Bruce (1925–1966) – stand-up comedian
• Joseph Heller (1923–1999) – Catch-22
• Terry Southern (1924–1995) – The Magic Christian, Dr. Strangelove
• Günter Grass (born 1927) – The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse
• Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) – Dr. Strangelove
• Harvey Kurtzman (1924–1993)
• Tom Lehrer (born 1928, US) – That Was the Year That Was
• Jules Feiffer (1929, US)
• Ray Bradbury (US)
• William S. Burroughs (US)
• Dario Fo (Italy)
• Flannery O'Connor (US)
• C. Northcote Parkinson (UK)
• Anna Russell (UK)
• Gore Vidal (US)
• Mel Brooks (US)
• Erma Bombeck (1927) (US)
• Allan Sherman (1924–1973, US) – musician, parodist, television producer, voice actor
• Stan Freberg (1926, US) – musician, parodist, voice actor
• Brian O'Nolan (1911–1966) – At Swim-Two-Birds (as Flann O'Brien)

Contemporary satirists (born 1930–1960)

• Roger Abbott (Canada)
• Mordecai Richler (1931–2001, Canada)
• Tom Wolfe (1931) – The Bonfire of the Vanities
• Vladimir Voinovich (1932, Russia/USSR) – The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, Moscow 2042
• Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) The Illuminatus! Trilogy
• Barry Humphries (1934) – My Gorgeous Life, The Life and Death of Sandy Stone, stage shows
• Jonathan Miller (1934, UK)
• Alan Bennett (1934, UK)
• Mykhailo Zhvanetskyi (1934, Ukraine/Russia/USSR)
• Dudley Moore (1935–2002, UK)
• Woody Allen (1935, US)
• Richard Ingrams (1937, UK)
• George Carlin (1937–2008) – stand-up comedian
• Peter Cook (1937–1995, UK) – of the Satire boom, Beyond the Fringe
• Eleanor Bron (1938, UK)
• David Frost (1939–2013, UK)
• Grigori Gorin (1940–2000, Russia/USSR)
• Frank Zappa (1940–1993) – We're Only in It for the Money
• Sergei Dovlatov (1941–1990, Russia/USSR)
• Kioumars Saberi Foumani (1941–2004)
• Gennady Khazanov (1945, Russia/USSR) – stand-up comedian
• Jonathan Meades (1947, UK) – writer, broadcaster, satirist
• Lewis Black (1948) – stand-up comic, The Daily Show
• Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) – The Discworld book series
• Mikhail Zadornov (1948, Russia/USSR)
• Garry Trudeau (1948, US)
• Jaafar Abbas (Sudan/Middle East)
• George Saunders
• Christopher Guest (1948, US) – This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman
• Georg Schramm (1949, Germany) – Scheibenwischer, Neues aus der Anstalt, kabarett artist
• Gary Larson (1950, US) – cartoonist
• Fran Lebowitz (1950, US) – The Fran Lebowitz Reader, Public Speaking (film) – NYC public intellectual
• Steve Bell (1951)
• Al Franken (1951, US)
• Douglas Adams (1952–2001, UK) – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Mary Walsh (1952, Canada)
• Don Ferguson (Canada)
• Christopher Buckley (1952) – Thank You for Smoking, The White House Mess
• Carl Hiaasen (1953) – Tourist Season, Double Whammy, Basket Case, Skinny Dip
• Louis de Bernières (1954, UK) – Latin America Trilogy: The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord, The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman
• Matt Groening (1954, US) – The Simpsons, Futurama
• George C. Wolfe (1954) – The Colored Museum
• Howard Stern (1954, US)
• Cathy Jones (1955, Canada)
• Bill Maher (1956, US)
• Percival Everett (1956, US)
• Ziad Rahbani (1956, Lebanon)
• David Sedaris (1956, US)
• Scott Adams (1957, US)
• Stephen Fry (1957, UK)
• Wayne Federman (1959, US)
• Bill Watterson (1958, US) – cartoonist, Calvin and Hobbes
• "Weird Al" Yankovic (1959, US)
• Hugh Laurie (1959, UK)
• Jello Biafra (1958, US)
• Victor Shenderovich (1958, Russia)
• Ebrahim Nabavi (1958), winner of Prince Claus Award (2005)
• Robert Zubrin (US)
• Craig Brown (UK)
• Dave Barry (1947) – Pulitzer Prize winning humour columnist
• Luba Goy (Canada)
• David Lodge (author)
• Jeffrey Morgan (Canada) – CREEM, Metro Times
• Neil Innes (1944, UK) – former Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band founder and member of The Rutles. Writer of satirical songs and books
• Phil Hendrie (1952) – radio host of The Phil Hendrie Show
• Bassem Youssef (1974) – Al Bernameg

Contemporary satirists (born 1960–present)

• Jacob Appel (1973) – playwright (Causa Mortis, Arborophilia)
• Michael "Atters" Attree (UK, 1965)
• Paul Beatty (1962, US) - author (The White Boy Shuffle, The Sellout)
• Nigel Blackwell (UK) of Half Man Half Biscuit
• Jan Böhmermann (1981, Germany)
• Charlie Brooker – (1971, UK) Nathan Barley
• Stoney Burke (US)
• Bo Burnham (1990, US)
• Dave Chappelle (1973, US)
• David Cross (1964, US) – Mr. Show, Arrested Development
• Sacha Baron Cohen (1971) – Borat, Da Ali G Show
• Stephen Colbert (1964, US) – The Colbert Report, The Daily Show
• Douglas Coupland – Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
• Scott Dikkers (US)
• Bret Easton Ellis (1964, US)
• Kioumars Saberi Foumani (Iran)
• Sabina Guzzanti (Italy)
• Bill Hicks (1961–1994, US) – stand-up comedian
• Ian Hislop (1960) – Private Eye
• Jessica Holmes (Canada)
• Mike Judge (US)
• Lisa Kennedy Montgomery aka Kennedy (US)
• Ephraim Kishon (Israel)
• Erik Larsen (1962) "Savage Dragon" comic book from Image Comics
• Craig Lauzon (Canada)
• Victor Lewis-Smith – TV Offal
• Ash Lieb (1982) Artist, author and comedian.
• Chris Lilley (1975) – Summer Heights High, We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year, Big Bite
• Daniele Luttazzi (Italy)
• Seth MacFarlane – Family Guy, American Dad!, The Cleveland Show, Ted
• Aaron McGruder (US) – The Boondocks (comic strip) and The Boondocks (TV series)
• Rick Mercer (1969) – Rick Mercer Report
• Tim Minchin (1975, UK)
• Mark Morford (Present) – Notes and Errata, San Francisco Chronicle, SF Gate
• Chris Morris (1965, UK) – Brass Eye, The Day Today
• The Moustache Brothers (Mandalay, Myanmar)
• Ebrahim Nabavi (Iran)
• Bob Odenkirk (1962, US) – Mr. Show, Saturday Night Live, The Larry Sanders Show
• John Oliver (1977, England) - "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver"^[1]
• George Ouzounian aka Maddox (1978, US) – website The Best Page in the Universe
• Chuck Palahniuk (US)
• Alan Park (Canada)
• Trey Parker – South Park, Team America: World Police, The Book of Mormon
• Mark A. Rayner (Canada)
• Eric Schwartz (songwriter) (US)
• Amy Sedaris (US)
• Sarah Silverman (US)
• Martin Sonneborn (Germany; known for pranking/"bribing" FIFA executives to vote for Germany as host of the 2006 soccer world cup)
• Jon Stewart (1962, US) – The Daily Show
• Matt Stone – South Park, Team America: World Police, The Book of Mormon
• Greg Thomey (1961, Canada)
• David Thorne (Present, AU)
• Jhonen Vasquez (1974) Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee, etc.
• Bassem Youssef (1974,EG) – Al Bernameg
• Hari Kondabolu (1982, US)
• Scarlet Monahan (1983) – Britishsatire.com^[2][3][4] satirical poetry^[5]

Notable satires in contemporary popular culture

In modern culture, much satire is often the work of several individuals collectively, as in magazines and television. Hence the following list.

Print

• Astérix (French comic strip, satirizing both the Roman Empire era as well as 20th century life)
• Benchley (US comic strip created by Mort Drucker and Jerry Dumas, satirizing Ronald Reagan and American culture)
• Bone (US comic strip)
• The Boondocks (US comic strip)
• Le Canard enchaîné (weekly French satirical newspaper)
• Charlie Hebdo (weekly French satirical paper)
• The Chaser (Australian newspaper and TV shows)
• Cho Ramaswamy (Thuglak – Tamil magazine)
• Dilbert (US comic strip)
• The Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics by Carl Barks
• Doonesbury (US comic strip)
• The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (US comic strip)
• Faux Faulkner contest (annually published in Hemispheres magazine until 2005)
• Fritz the Cat by Robert Crumb
• Humor Times (monthly US magazine)
• Idées noires (Belgian comic strip)
• Li'l Abner (US comic strip)
• Life in Hell (US comic strip)
• Mad (satirical comic book and magazine)
• The Medium (weekly newspaper printed by students of Rutgers University)
• Mr. Natural by Robert Crumb
• Nero (Belgian comic strip)
• The Onion (US magazine)
• Peanuts (US comic strip)
• Pogo (US comic strip)
• Private Eye (UK magazine)
• The Inconsequential (UK magazine)
• The Second Supper (US magazine)
• The Tart (Fortnightly UK newspaper)
• The Adventures of Tintin (Belgian comic strip)
• Titanic (German magazine)
• Tom Puss (Dutch comic strip)

Television and radio

• The Simpsons and Futurama (Matt Groening)
• Howard Stern (radio personality "The Howard Stern Show")
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (US Talk Show)
• The Colbert Report (US Talk Show)
• The Day Today (UK TV news parody by Chris Morris)
• Brass Eye (UK current affairs TV-show parody by Chris Morris)
• On the Hour (UK news radio parody by Chris Morris)
• This Hour Has 22 Minutes (Canadian TV show)
• South Park (Trey Parker & Matt Stone)
• The Chaser (Australian newspaper and TV shows)
• Facelift (New Zealand Political show)
• Spitting Image (UK TV show famous for its puppets of celebrities)
• Yes Minister (also "Yes, Prime Minister" – UK TV show satirising government)
• Kukly (Dolls, 1994–2002) – Russian satirical puppet show
• Fitil (Fuse) – Soviet television satirical/comedy short film series
• Nip/Tuck (Ryan Murphy)
• Have I Got News For You – Long running UK TV panel show
• Nathan Barley – 2005 UK TV satire by Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker.
• The Chaser's War on Everything – Australian satire with an emphasis on attacking 'everyone'.
• Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld)
• Royal Canadian Air Farce (1993–2007) (Don Ferguson, Roger Abbott, Luba Goy)
• Air Farce Live (2007–present) (Don Ferguson, Roger Abbott, Luba Goy)
• Monty Python's Flying Circus
• Phil Hendrie (radio personality "The Phil Hendrie Show")
• Family Guy, American Dad! & The Cleveland Show (Seth MacFarlane)
• Mock the Week – UK TV comedy panel show
• The Larry Sanders Show – (Garry Shandling)
• Entourage – (Doug Ellin)
• 30 Rock – (Tina Fey)
• Glenn Martin, DDS – A Nick@Nite show
• Episodes – David Crane
• Better Off Ted – (Victor Fresco)
• Onion News Network
• The Boondocks – (Aaron McGruder)
• heute-show (German TV series)

Music

• "Mercedes Benz" is a McClure-Joplin song sung by Janis Joplin
• Culturcide's album Tacky Souvenirs of Pre-Revolutionary America overdubbed new, satirical lyrics onto such pop hits as "We Are the World".
• Vaporwave, a satirical music genre with anarcho-capitalist and cyberpunk overtones dedicated to (anti-)consumerism.^[6]
• Mark Russell is an American political satirist known for his many appearances on PBS
• Peter Gabriel's song The Barry Williams Show satirizes talk shows which showcase domestic topics of a taboo or shocking nature (and the viewing public's fascination with such content).
• Chumbawamba have consistently used satire to make political points throughout their musical career.
• Pink Floyd's albums Animals and The Dark Side of the Moon are conceptual and satirical albums.
• The Lonely Island is a satirical music group known for their work on Saturday Night Live.
• Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone's Tony-sweeping Broadway show The Book of Mormon (musical) satirizes the applicability of first-world religion to third-world problems.
• The Dead Milkmen is a satirical punk rock/cowpunk band from the early 1980s.
• Ben Folds, a rock pianist, and his group, Ben Folds Five, have multiple songs including satirical elements. Some of them being, "Underground", "Sports and Wine", and "Rock Star".
• Dead Kennedys, an American punk band, often used satire in their songs, most notably Kill the Poor.

We're only in it For the Money -- Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention

Film

• Blazing Saddles (Warner Bros. 1974 Comedy movie directed by Mel Brooks, satirising racism.)
• Casino Royale (A 1967 surrealistic satire on the James Bond series and entire spy genre.)
• This Is Spinal Tap (satire of heavy metal culture and "rockumentaries")
• The Very Same Munchhausen (1979 satire of the late Soviet society)
• Clueless
• "American Beauty" (satire of life in the suburbs)
• Thank You for Smoking
• Team America: World Police (2004 film satirizing Hollywood action flicks as well as post-9/11 American foreign policy)
• Wag the Dog
• The Rules of Attraction
• Best in Show
• I Heart Huckabees
• Starship Troopers
• Scary Movie
• Dr. Strangelove
• Planet of the Apes (1968) Gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees control a future version of earth in which humans are mute beasts; the ruling gorillas and orangutans reject evolutionary theory and the ability of the humans to think because they don't speak.
• South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (a film satirizing censorship)
• Network
• Otaku no Video (1993 anime satirizing the otaku subculture)
• Adaptation.
• Brazil
• S.O.B. (satire on Hollywood)
• Election
• Not Another Teen Movie (a satire of the teen film genre)
• Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
• Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
• Citizen Ruth
• The Hospital
• Weapons of Mass Distraction
• Little Children
• Bulworth
• Man Bites Dog
• The Simpsons Movie
• Smile (a satire on beauty pageants and small town life)
• Bob Roberts
• War, Inc.
• Britannia Hospital
• Fight Club (a dark satire on consumerism, cults, and extremism)
• American Psycho
• Tropic Thunder
• Simon (satirical commentary on the effects of mass media in pop culture)
• American History X (satirizes race/racism in a contemporary setting)
• They Live
• Land of the Dead (satire of post-9/11 America state and of the Bush administration)
• The Wicker Man (satire of cults and religion)
• The Great Dictator, a satire on Adolf Hitler
• Monty Python's Life of Brian, a satire on miscommunication, religion and Christianity
• The Player, a satire of Hollywood, directed by Robert Altman
• In the Loop, a satire of the 2003 invasion of Iraq
• Elvis Gratton, a French Canadian/Québécois series on a Federalist
• Fubar
• The Man Who Knew Too Little

Video games

• Fallout
• Fallout 2
• Fallout 3
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Fallout 4
• Dead Rising (デッドライジング Deddo Raijingu) (satire of U.S. consumer culture)
• Dead Rising 2: Off the Record (デッドライジング2 オフ・ザ・レコード Deddo Raijingu 2: Ofu za rekōdo) (satire of U.S. consumer culture)
• Grand Theft Auto^[7]
• Crash: Mind over Mutant^[8]

Internet

• Adequacy.org
• BBspot
• Beaconsdale Advertiser
• Encyclopedia Dramatica
• Faking News (Indian news satire website)
• Funfunnykhez ( Latest Indian news satire website)
• Jeremy Nell (South African cartoonist)
• Landover Baptist Church (US website satirizing Fundamentalist Christians)
• Latma
• National Report
• NewsBiscuit
• Pat Condell
• ScrappleFace
• The Best Page In The Universe
• The Daily Mash (U.K. satirical news website)
• The Onion
• The Second Supper
• The UnReal Times (Indian news satire website)
• The Valley Report
• Uncyclopedia (satirical parody of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
• Vote for the Worst

References

1. Edward Helmore. "How John Oliver started a revolution in US TV's political satire | Television & radio". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
2. "Political satire and comment from Artist , poet and satirist Scarlet Monahan". Britishsatire.com. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
3. "Political Caricatures - Satire of Romney". Satireandcomment.com. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
4. "Satire and comedy news stories from Scotland and beyond". Wreckered.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
5. "Scarlet Monahan, Pop Artist, Photographic Satirist and Sculptress". Redintherain.com. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
6. Harper, Adam (December 7, 2012). "Vaporwave and the pop-art of the virtual plaza" (Article). dummymag.com. Archived from the original on April 1, 2015. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
7. "Top 10 things you never knew about Grand Theft Auto (because you're not brainy enough)". Tech Digest. December 5, 2006. Retrieved 2012-11-16.
8. McInnis, Shaun (2008-04-28). "Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant First Look". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-04-29. Radical Entertainment reps gave us a description of what to expect from the game's plot, and they were sure to point out their goal of using some social satire you wouldn't expect out of a platforming game. Essentially, Cortex has masterminded the creation of a trendy gizmo that everyone simply has to own (think of the iPod). We're told this theme of consumerism is a frequent source of humor in the game's plot, including jokes about SUVs and the skyrocketing price of gas.