Mad Magazine, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live. In our society, satire is among the most widespread comic forms. This has not always been true, as satire was not a fully developed form before the 18th century. Satire, however, was born out of necessity; writers and artists needed a way to backhandedly criticize their governments, their churches, and their aristocrats. In the 18th century, satire was extremely popular. Satire as an art form has its roots in the classics, particularly the Satires of Horace. Satire, as it was originally proposed, was a form of literature that used sarcasm, irony, and wit, to bring about change in society, but in the eighteenth century Voltaire, Jonathan Swift, and William Hogarth expanded satire to include politics, as well as the art. The political climate of the time was tense. Any criticism of the government would result in harsh punishments, sometimes exile or death. To express opinions without fear of punishment, disgruntled writers turned to satire. Voltaire's Candide and Swift's Modest Proposal are two examples of this new genre. By creating an imaginary world modeled after the world he hated, Voltaire was able to attack scientists and theologians with impunity. Jonathan Swift created many fictional worlds in his great work, Gulliver's Travels, in which he constantly drew parallels with the English government. The new form was not limited to literature alone, William Hogarth extended satire to include art as well. His series of paintings, A Rake's Progress, chronicles the life of a young man in 18th-century London. Hogarth's paintings also illustrate that anything can be satirized, as he poked fun at every aspect of life, not simply the institutions of religion, science, and politics. Although not all satire dealt with religion, science, and politics, Voltaire, the most notable satirist of the time, limited his writings to these topics. His style, widely used in our time, is to portray a member of the society he satirizes as foolish and hypocritical. In one of his most famous works, Candide, Voltaire repeatedly mocks supposedly omniscient philosophers with the character of Doctor Pangloss, professor of "metaphysicotheologicalcosmolo-nigology" (Lamm 175). Voltaire describes this man of science as a very misguided man, not the brilliant thinker one would expect. Evidence of this is seen in the achievement of which the Dr. is most proud: "he demonstrated admirably that there is no effect without a cause (Lamm 175).