page_title: Religious satire
section_title: Notable examples of religious satire and satirists
hierarchical_section_title: Religious satire / Notable examples of religious satire and satirists
caption_attribution_description: Bill Maher at the PETA screening of I Am An Animal: The story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA.
context_page_description: Religious satire is a form of satire that refers to religious beliefs and can take the form of texts, plays, films, and parody. From the earliest times, at least since the plays of Aristophanes, religion has been one of the three primary topics of literary satire, along with politics and sex. Satire which targets the clergy is a type of political satire, while religious satire is that which targets religious beliefs. Religious satire is also sometimes called philosophical satire, and is thought to be the result of agnosticism or atheism. Notable works of religious satire surfaced during the Renaissance, with works by Geoffrey Chaucer, Erasmus and Albrecht Dürer.
  Religious satire has been criticised and at times censored in order to avoid offence, for example the film Life of Brian was initially banned in Ireland, Norway, some states of the US, and some towns and councils of the United Kingdom. This potential for censorship often leads to debates on the issue of freedom of speech such as in the case of the Religious Hatred Bill in January 2006. Critics of the original version of the Bill feared that satirists could be prosecuted.
context_section_description: Brian Merriman
  Bill Maher
  George Carlin
  Bill Hicks
  Ricky Gervais
  Doug Stanhope
  Pat Condell
  Lenny Bruce
  Lucian of Samosata
  Dave Allen
  Hannibal Buress
  Jim Jeffries
  Richard Pryor
  Theo van Gogh
  Tim Minchin
  Douglas Adams
  Monty Python
  The Kids in the Hall
caption: Bill Maher, satirist behind the film Religulous
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