Satire Comedy

Revisit your favourite moments from the cult political comedy with this audio collection of the complete TV soundtracks Described as ‘the 21st century’s answer to Yes Minister’, this scabrous satire set in the corridors of the British government ran for four series between 2005 and 2012...

The much-loved Guardian columnist asks what it takes to make a husband, and looks to his own married life to provide the answer. Anything resembling advice should be taken at listener's own risk. You'll never get divorced if you never get married. Not even your granny minds if you live in sin anymore. And if you're single you can choose curtains without somebody else butting in. So why bother with marriage? It can't just be an easy way round having to buy your own deodorant.

When Dinah Brooke's second novel, Lord Jim at Home, was first published in 1973, it was described as "squalid and startling," "nastily horrific," and a "monstrous parody" of upper-middle class English life. It is the story of Giles Trenchard, who grows up isolated in an atmosphere of privilege and hidden violence; who goes to war, and returns; and then, one day—like the hero of Joseph Conrad's classic Lord Jim—commits an act that calls his past, his character, his whole world into question.

It's 1994, and the former Yugoslavia is being torn apart. In England a gang of good-hearted young people are about to set off in a Ford Transit van armed with several sacks of rice and a half-written play. A play which will light a beacon of peace across the Balkans and, very probably, stop the war. Andrew would love to stop the war. He has one of the most comprehensively developed personal foreign policies of anyone working on a building site in the Greater Manchester area. He feels everyone should have a foreign policy, really. What sort of person doesn't?

In 1902, a radical vegetarian and nudist from Nuremberg named August Engelhardt set sail for what was then called the Bismarck Archipelago. His destination: the island Kabakon. His goal: to found a colony based on worship of the sun and coconuts. His malnourished body was found on the beach on Kabakon in 1919; he was 43 years old. Christian Kracht's Imperium uses the outlandish details of Engelhardt's life to craft a fable about the allure of extremism and its fundamental foolishness.

Neuausgabe im Rahmen von "Frankfurt liest ein Buch 2022". Frankfurt, 1936: Menschenmassen strömen auf den Opernplatz, um Hitler zu sehen. Auch die 19-jährige Susanne ist darunter. Sie wartet auf ein Lebenszeichen ihres Verlobten Franz. Doch Franz ist in die Fänge der Gestapo geraten und wurde tagelang festgehalten. Nach seiner Freilassung hat er sich an dem Denunzianten gerächt und nun bleibt ihm nur die Flucht.

After writing a satirical novel that The New York Times calls classist, Anna is shunned by the literary establishment and, in her hurt, radicalized by the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Determined to follow Rand’s theory of rational selfishness, Anna alienates herself from the scene and eventually her friends and family. Finally, in true Randian style, she abandons everyone for the boundless horizons of Los Angeles, hoping to make a TV show about her beloved muse.

Désirée, trop jeune veuve, va régulièrement sur la tombe de son mari. Au cimetière, elle rencontre "le mec de la tombe d'à côté", dont l'allure l'agace autant que le caveau tape-à-l’œil qu'il vient fleurir. Depuis la mort de sa mère, Benny vit seul dans la ferme familiale. Il s'en sort comme il peut, grâce à une bonne dose d'humour. Chaque fois qu'il la voit, il s'énerve contre la nana qui s'assied sur le même banc de cimetière que lui.

Qui est le vice-consul de Lahore ? Pourquoi a-t-il tiré de son balcon dans la direction des jardins de Shalimar où se réfugient les lépreux et les chiens ? Quel étrange attrait exerce sur lui Anne-Marie Stretter, ambassadrice à Calcutta ? Quelle est l'histoire de cette mendiante folle qui berce la rue de ses chants ? Un roman de l'extrême misère : celle de l'Inde, mais aussi et surtout celle du cœur.

"Faire rentrer toute la vie d'un homme ou d'une femme dans une goutte d'eau", telle est la définition des "Microfictions" que propose son auteur et dans lesquelles sont rassemblés des "fragments de la vie des gens". Aucun domaine de nos vies n'échappe à Régis Jauffret, explorateur infatigable du quotidien, et à son regard grinçant sur l'existence.

The story opens in the country parsonage of Dr. Primrose, a kindly man who has a good heart, a good family, and a good income. Suddenly, his idyllic life is cruelly devastated by a series of misfortunes, and he ends up in prison. Yet, despite all this calamity and injustice, the vicar never loses sight of Christian morality, a conviction which lends him genuine nobility and, in the end, also brings justice and the restoration of his family and fortune.

P.J. O’Rourke began writing funny things in 1960s underground newspapers, became editor-in-chief of National Lampoon, then spent 20 years reporting for Rolling Stone and The Atlantic Monthly as the world’s only trouble spot humorist, going to wars, riots, rebellions, and other "Holidays in Hell” in more than 40 countries.

Bienvenue à Greenwich, Connecticut, où les gazons et les femmes sont parfaitement entretenus, les mecs et les sodas forts, et où tout le monde a quelque chose à dire sur le nouveau voisin d'à côté. Ex-associée dans un des plus grands cabinets d'avocats de Manhattan, Miriam a depuis peu troqué sa robe contre des leggings hors de prix et commence les cocktails dès le matin. De quoi lui donner le temps d'accueillir dans cette banlieue huppée, où les pièges sont nombreux, Emily - ex-assistante de la grande Miranda Priestly - qui vit une mauvaise passe.

Seventh on Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of All Time, Dan Jenkins' Semi-Tough is a raucous, politically incorrect football spoof starring New York Giants' redneck star Billy Clyde Puckett. As Puckett records the outrageous buildup to his team's Super Bowl clash with cross-town rivals the Jets, his best friend's voluptuous main squeeze puts some knee-buckling moves on him that he finds difficult to dodge.

When the Little Nugget, alias thirteen-year-old Ogden Ford, "bulgy, rude, chain-smoking son of an American millionaire," arrives at Sanstead House School, the fun begins. Mr Peter Burns, a none-too-dedicated schoolmaster, engaged by snobbish Mr. Abney to educate his handpicked pupils, soon finds himself and his enraptured class at the mercy of an American gunman...and at the beginning of a series of truly mind-boggling adventures in a delicious Wodehouse tale of suspense, excitement, and romance.

Penguin Island is Anatole France’s most searching and satirical novel. A humorous critique of customs and laws, rituals and rites, its subject is human nature, but its characters are penguins in the mythical land of Penguinia. The story of the strutting penguins and their virtues and vices is not merely a burlesque allegory of French history, but a satire of the history of mankind.

A parody for fans of Harry Potter and The Crown, Harry Windzor and the Magic of Monarchy is an irreverent, satirical twist on the life of Prince Harry and the House of Windsor. There are spats between heirs and spares, dodgy deals between the Palace and the press, and so many scandals swept under the rug that even the corgis are suspicious. Maybe this isn’t a satire after all...

Uns alle treibt die Suche nach dem Sinn des Lebens um. Dabei ist es leicht, sich im Labyrinth der Realitäten zu verlieren. Fest steht: Das Leben ist eine Reise. Und ein Reiseführer dringend nötig. Auf gewohnt humorvolle Weise stellt sich Dieter Nuhr unerschrocken den Hürden unserer Existenz und liefert alle relevanten Antworten auf die wichtigen Fragen des Lebens: Was ist hier los, wo geht es lang? Wo ist die Lösung? Und wer kennt das Problem?

Jane Austen skewers the novelistic extremes of her day made popular in many 18th-century Gothic potboilers. Dilapidated castles, locked rooms, inexplicable chests, enigmatic notes, and tyrannical fathers all figure into Northanger Abbey, but with a decidedly sardonic twist.

Part memoir, part testimonial, and part life guide, Stand by Your Truth mixes Rickey Smiley’s down-home humor with the values he learned from being raised by three generations of elders, steeped in the Baptist church, and mentored by some of the most celebrated comics in the entertainment...