satire was used long ago. it is a latin word, though the plays of aristophanes are often called satirical. satire was widely known in elizabethan times. swift used it in his book "gulliver's travels" to make fun of people’s stupidity. works like "the beggar’s opera" (1728) used satire to show how silly the politicians of the time were. the german playwright bertolt brecht used a lot of satire, as did peter cook. jon stewart and other comedians use it frequently.