Showing titles in Satire

Breakfast of Champions (1973) provides frantic, scattershot satire and a collage of Vonnegut's obsessions. His recurring cast of characters and American landscape was perhaps the most controversial of his canon; it was felt by many at the time to be a disappointing successor to Slaughterhouse-Five, which had made Vonnegut's literary reputation.

When hordes of people descend on the picturesque village of Nasely for the annual celebration of its most famous resident, murder mystery writer Agnes Crabbe, events take a dark turn as the festival opens with a shocking death. Each year the residents are outnumbered by crowds dressed as Crabbe’s lady detective, Millicent Cutter. The weekend is never a mild-mannered affair as fan club rivalries bubble below the surface, but tensions reach new heights when a second Crabbe devotee is found murdered. Though the police are quick to arrive on the scene, the facts are tricky to ascertain as the witnesses, suspects and victim are all dressed as Miss Cutter.

Amber is a young videographer who has landed her dream job. She is to produce a web series based on a late-night talk radio show dealing with the unexplained. She is a huge fan of the show, and its host, Jack Owens, who she hopes to help reveal the world’s most cryptic secrets. The first secret she reveals is Jack’s. He doesn’t believe any of this crap. To him, the show is just a cushy job that allows him to support himself and his wife without having to try very hard.

Dining alone in an elegant Parisian brasserie, accountant Daniel Mercier can hardly believe his eyes when President François Mitterrand sits down to eat at the table next to him. After the presidential party has gone, Daniel discovers that Mitterrand’s black felt hat has been left behind. After a few moments’ soul-searching, Daniel decides to keep the hat as a souvenir of an extraordinary evening. It’s a perfect fit, and as he leaves the restaurant Daniel begins to feel somehow...different.

A collection of BBC readings and dramas celebrating the much-loved schoolboy terror. First featured in five books by Geoffrey Willans, with cartoon illustrations by Ronald Searle, Nigel Molesworth is one of the funniest comic creations in literature. A superbly satirical chronicler of 1950s England, he influenced a generation with his anarchic take on life.

The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course, there's a catch to the invitation...

Revenge is on the program at this year's Splatterfest convention! Horror authors, critics and fans from all over the world have gathered to share stories, enjoy each other's company, and to take part in the yearly Gross Out contest, a fan favorite. But some attendees have arrived with ulterior motives. Clay Kayden, whose story at the last in-person Gross Out contest got him "canceled," wants to tear down the convention from the inside. Moira Mead is desperate to impress her favorite horror director, who's promised to option a story based on the weekend's readings.

Everyone who's anyone wants to be seen at one of Emory Jackman's legendary parties, from royalty to politicians, tech billionaires to Instagram models. But something sinister is happening on Little Pearl. Journalist Sven Olsen has heard rumors about the Jackmans trafficking young girls, and a secret auction joined by the rich and famous. He's been invited under the pretense of writing a profile about Emory and his mysterious wife, Tess, and will do just about anything to get the scoop.

The rural town of Stockton, New York, is famous for nothing: No one was born there, no one died there, nothing of any historical import at all has ever happened there, which is why Solomon Kugel, like other urbanites fleeing their pasts and histories, decided to move his wife and young son there...

Two years after successfully melting down the top secret sperm bank under the Space Needle, the CLITO collective (Community of Lesbians Inclusive To Others) is thriving on their newly acquired private island, Lesbos 2. All is well in their queer utopia. Or is it? Investigative reporter Sarah Keebler (Sarah Steele) is piecing together the crew's previous heist for her bombshell true-crime podcast–and getting dangerously close to the truth.

A member of the landed gentry, with a seemingly guaranteed income from his estate in the country, Oblomov lives in Petersburg, uninterested in the business that provides his living and barely aware that the revenue is diminishing. Not that he leads a dissolute life of extravagance, balls and entertainment. Instead he is a dreamer, a sybarite, content above all to spend most of the day supine, in bed. The novel opens with Oblomov thus ensconced, attended only by his dirty, grumbling, indolent servant Zahar, who has looked after him since childhood, catering to his every need.

After too many glasses of champers, Ruby takes her moment in the spotlight to reveal what she really thinks of every one of her friends, family and colleagues. She accuses her husband of having an affair and lambasts her mother for a lifetime of playing her three daughters against each other. As the stunned gathering gawks at Ruby, the birthday girl reveals that she has terminal cancer, and has cashed in her life savings to take her two estranged sisters cruising into the sunset for a dose of HRT – Husband Replacement Therapy. But is Ruby being courageous or ruthlessly selfish?

Paradise is supposed to be a short-term stop. Until Thor shows up. Okay, not the real Thor. But replace the hammer with a dog who won't stop barking, and Adam Thomsen is definitely long-haired Thor's doppelganger. Too bad for me, he's decided I'm the villain in his story. Too bad for him, his scowl is no match for my super-powered positivity.

A wickedly satirical and outrageous thriller about globalization and marketing hype, Jennifer Government is the best novel in the world ever. "Funny and clever.... A kind of ad-world version of Dr. Strangelove.... [Barry] unleashes enough wit and surprise to make his story a total blast."...

Swan Songs follows hip-hop visionary Leonard Swanson as he works, quits, signs on, and travels the country, playing in small capacity venues for even smaller capacity audiences, for which he gets paid in booze, drugs and a night on a bedbug-ridden mattress somebody dragged in from the street, all the while making the album he thinks will change hip-hop forever.

In music, counterpoint is the art of writing melodies that play in conjunction with one another, according to a strict set of rules, in order to emphasize the melody by contrast. In debate, point/counterpoint is a means of persuasion in which the speaker begins by conceding to their opponent’s argument before refuting it wholeheartedly. Aldous Huxley follows these traditions in his masterpiece Point Counter Point. The polarity between passion and reason in the intellectual life of the 1920s is demonstrated both in form and in theme in Huxley’s ambitious satire.

Winner of an Obie and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and directed by Tony nominee Leigh Silverman, Yellow Face is as timely as ever, wrestling with issues of cultural appropriation, complicity, and artistic freedom. It’s brought to life in this audio-only revival by a stunning all-star cast (many playing themselves) led by Daniel Dae Kim.

Media mogul Lord Malan is the billionaire owner of The Blue Touch Paper, an old-fashioned, hard-right weekly magazine with traditional Conservative values. But the paper is so true blue, it’s losing its touch. Sales are falling and circulation is down – mainly because its core readers are either on the brink of death or foam-flecked with rage. It’s time for a new editor, and political commentator Anna is sure she’s a shoo-in for the position. Much to her disappointment, however, Malan picks a different candidate: Keith, the Guardian’s token Tory, who champions compassionate Conservatism.

When a young, struggling screenwriter's greatest dream turns into a nightmare after her script is stolen by an uber-powerful male producer, she forms a surprising alliance with a former soap opera star harboring secrets of her own. Together, these two devise a daring, twisted plan to seek justice against the producer through the long-running soap opera Summer Breeze. They will turn the producer’s monstrosity into their art.

Award-winning comedian Alan Davies stars in his own BBC Radio sitcom. Meet Alan. He's a struggling actor trying to cope with life in the 90s - the friends, the work, the romance... Meet the friends: Murray is a local journalist, who's given a crash course in tabloid sensationalism when the entire staff comes down with Peruvian flu. Kate is a primary school art teacher, who tussles daily with the obnoxious seven-year-old Tamara and tries to save time by getting the children to write their own reports.