Never was there more tangible proof of the sad lack of a credible political satirist of Jon Stewart's ilk on UK TV than the desperate elevation of Brand to the position of social sage.
Most people "have not benefited from the economic change", said Marcin Wolski, a well-known satirist, at Law and Justice's election night gathering in Warsaw.
Lovely man, dear friend, brilliant & fearless satirist".
Stewart will depart on 6 August after 16 years as Comedy Central's late-night political satirist, with Noah – who caused a stir after a series of offensive tweets about Jews, fat women and Asian Americans emerged when he was announced as Stewart's replacement in March – given the task of replacing him.
In round one of our Twit-interviews we spoke to the people behind the most followed accounts in Tanzania and Uganda, and a Nigerian satirist who recently found himself at the centre of a social media storm after he compared Ebola to the measles outbreak in North America.
Elnathan John, who describes himself as a satirist and recovering lawyer, is based in Abuja in Nigeria.
The comedian and satirist John Fortune, described by his agent, Vivienne Clore, as "so formidable of brain and so fearless and generous of heart", has died aged 74.
What is important now is that Charlie Hebdo has not allowed itself to be subdued by an act far more gratuitous and obscene than even the most scurrilous satirist could possibly imagine.
About halfway through Jonathan Swift's boisterously witty epic poem On Poetry: A Rhapsody, the 18th century Anglo-Irish satirist briefly turns his attention to maps of Africa, writing: So geographers, in Afric maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er uninhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns.
"It's like, thank god we got rid of the Muslim Brotherhood, we're not a jihadist Islamist republic, and we would do whatever it takes [to keep the Brotherhood from power], even if that means sacrificing a few liberties," explained Bassem Youssef, a famed television satirist who was investigated under Morsi and whose show was cancelled during the Sisi era.
Gout was on the way to becoming the subject of a literary sub-genre all its own by the second century AD when the Greek satirist Lucian wrote two mock-tragedies, "Tragopodagra" and "Swift-of-Foot", ironically glorifying the disease and extolling its benefits.
