Especially brilliant was the Brass Eye Paedophile Special which satirised the media's obsession with paedophilia at the time so perfectly it did actually change things for the better. After the initial, predictable storm of protest that followed of course. I'd be interested how a US audience would react to that special. I'm sure you can find it easily enough on Youtube.

The real shit-storm about the paedophile episode was actually after it was repeated. The initial showing got complaints, but nothing like the attention the later showing was subject to.

> it did actually change things for the better

{{Citation needed}}

Just a personal opinion. I feel that after the broadcast the hysteria dropped off dramatically. Well at least until the whole Jimmy Savile thing.

And also Four Lions[0], a satire about terrorism

And you may know him as the first Denholm from the IT crowd.

[0] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1341167/

Was about to comment with that myself. Fantastic film and a very funny take on terrorism.

I would say that "That Was The Week That Was" was the real pioneer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Was_the_Week_That_Was

Which also brought John Cleese and The Two Ronnies to our screens.

Not The Nine O'Clock News could also get a mention - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_the_Nine_O%27Clock_News

Though it had more sketch based things but current affairs was a lynch pin.

Drop the Dead Donkey is not to be discounted - Ch4 1990-1998 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_the_Dead_Donkey

And some links for Chris Morris :

The Day Today - BBC2/1994- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_Today

One The Hour - Radio4 1992 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Hour

Brass Eye - Ch 4 1997-2001 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_Eye

Later you've got

10 O'Clock live - Now "househgold names" : Charlie Brooker, David Mitchell, Jimmy Carr, Lauren Laverne

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_O%27Clock_Live

This was the show that introduced Sasha Baren Cohen as Ali-G, Bruno & Borat.

If you remember Ali-G was used as political satire via interview.

Also, I think you need to consider Dermot_Morgan (most known outside Ireland for Father Ted) in the list of important political satirists and Scrap Saturday in the list of groundbreaking satire programmes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermot_Morgan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrap_Saturday

Small nitpick. It was The 11 O'Clock Show [1998] that introduced Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali-G & Borat). It also gave us Ricky Gervais & Mackenzie Crook.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_11_O%27Clock_Show

Ah, thanks for that. cheers.

Note to anyone who considers themselves fans of 'news' parody and social commentary: The above comment is EXCELLENT ADVICE!