A Modest Proposal and Other Satires

Modern usage

A Modest Proposal is included in many literature courses as an example of early modern western satire. It also serves as an introduction to the concept and use of argumentative language, lending itself to secondary and post-secondary essay courses. Outside of the realm of English studies, A Modest Proposal is included in many comparative and global literature and history courses, as well as those of numerous other disciplines in the arts, humanities, and even the social sciences.

A Modest Video Game Proposal is the title of an open letter sent by activist/former attorney Jack Thompson on 10 October 2005.[25][26]

The 2012 horror film Butcher Boys, written by the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre scribe Kim Henkel, is said to be an updating of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. Henkel imagined the descendants of folks who actually took Swift up on his proposal.[27] The film opens with a quote from J. Swift.[28]

The 2023 song "Eat Your Young" written by Irish musician Hozier might be a reference to "A Modest Proposal".[29] It combines themes regarding the anti-war and anti-income-inequality movement, and uses Swift's essay as a framework to compare those modern problems to those same problems during Swift's time.

The July 2023 Channel 4 mockumentary Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat, written by British comedy writer Matt Edmonds,[30] updates A Modest Proposal and presents it in a similar format to Wallace's Inside the Factory, with human meat given as a potential solution to the UK's cost of living crisis. The words "a modest proposal" are used in Wallace's summing up at the end of the programme, and Swift is credited.[31]


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