Comedy, Satire, and Critique surveys classic uses of humor and outlandish circumstances to draw attention to human, political, and religious shortcomings. Molière's Misanthrope and Tartuffe target social hypocrisies like the insincerity of social etiquette through comedic elements to highlight the dangers they pose. Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal and Gulliver’s Travelstake on British policies in Ireland and human follies more generally, using comedy to couch critiques that are sometimes shocking. And the enlightenment figure Voltaire subjects his characters to repeated but very human tragedies to skewer philosophical-religious optimism. These texts expose students to a wide range of satirical and comedic strategies and provide an opportunity to analyze what it is that makes each successful as a tool of critique and reform despite and in virtue of its humor.