British writers of the 20th century have used humor in various ways throughout their works. Some writers, such as George Bernard Shaw and W. Somerset Maughm, were known for their comedies of manners. Others, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Alfred Hitchcock, wrote mystery novels infused with humorous elements. Political humor permeated the works of Sir Winston Churchill and George Orwell, while writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis combined humor with religion and myth. Many of the trends that began in the nineteenth century were continued into the twentieth,...

During the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain there was a wide range of literary humor. Much of this humor was satiric, ranging from the sharp barbs of Pope and Swift to the more subtle but stinging wordplay of Addison. In the 18th century, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne wrote humorous novels, in which they criticized society. The period was largely dominated by satire, in which the dunce was a common figure. There was a proliferation of satires in prose and verse, along with satiric operas, pamphlets, and other writings. During the 19th century, writers such as Dickens,...