According to "The Comics Journal," Henry Kurtzman was the inspiration for modern American satire. Many people believe that this influence was epitomized in the "MAD" magazines that he was the inspiration and satirical force for. "The Comics Journal" quotes many examples of his influence. Included are letters to the FBI complaining about his subversive influence, widespread acknowledgement that his was the initial force that drove many satirical writings and television programs and suggestions that he was responsible for a certain cynicism that Americans generally have towards their icons and institutions.
Inasmuch as an essay is a piece of writing, "The Simpsons" and its team can be seen as good examples of how to successfully produce American satire as it is currently perceived. It parodies and exaggerates particular "models" of American society – father, teacher, preacher, politician etc. -- and satirizes their perceived weaknesses and frailties. In many ways, it is truly satirical because its targets are varied and yet instantly recognizable.
One excellent and famous proponent of political satire was William Shakespeare. The times in which he lived were, of course, not at all democratic and it would have been foolish for any playwright to make a satire of the then ruler, Elizabeth I. However, those that had preceded her – particularly Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet family – were fair game. Richard is satirized as an evil man and the “scourge of God.”
A famous example of political satire is that employed by Jonathan Swift, an Irish Protestant, in a 1729 pamphlet titled “A Modest Proposal.” Swift believed that England was being over-oppressive towards his country. In his pamphlet, he offered a solution to the fact that some Irish farmers were being starved due to high rents charged by English landlords. This was that Irish infants be sold as food for the English at the age of one. This would provide extra income to the English as well as a new source of food. It would also help to relieve a social problem because most Irish people were born as Catholics. The satire was not only directed at the English but also at the Irish for their passiveness in accepting their plight.