List of Poe's Law examples
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*'''[http://www.youtube.com/user/mrswhitford The Mrs. Whitford Witnesses YouTube channel]''' - Hint #1: Favourite Movies: "Anything with Kirk Cameron." | *'''[http://www.youtube.com/user/mrswhitford The Mrs. Whitford Witnesses YouTube channel]''' - Hint #1: Favourite Movies: "Anything with Kirk Cameron." | ||
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| + | *'''[[Harold Camping]]''' - The greatest troll ever. He managed to get idiots to part with their money and kill each other." | ||
*'''[[Objective: Ministries]]''' - one of the best known parody ministries (perhaps along with Landover Baptist) this still confuses people even many years after it was launched. Their [http://objectiveministries.org/kidz/ "kidz"] pages and [http://objectiveministries.org/kidz/art.html artwork] are among some of the most prominent and famous examples - with some people claiming that they've seen Objective4Kidz stuff reproduced ''seriously''. "Dr Richard Paley" edited Conservapedia for a while, showing that even fundamentalists can't tell real from parody. | *'''[[Objective: Ministries]]''' - one of the best known parody ministries (perhaps along with Landover Baptist) this still confuses people even many years after it was launched. Their [http://objectiveministries.org/kidz/ "kidz"] pages and [http://objectiveministries.org/kidz/art.html artwork] are among some of the most prominent and famous examples - with some people claiming that they've seen Objective4Kidz stuff reproduced ''seriously''. "Dr Richard Paley" edited Conservapedia for a while, showing that even fundamentalists can't tell real from parody. | ||
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This is a list of examples of Poe's Law.
“”Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing.
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Below is a mostly thorough list of websites that have been subjected to Poe's Law, either by people commenting on them as serious business or by virtue of someone spotting them, getting confused, and dumping the link on RationalWiki. Notably, not all examples seem to relate to religious fundamentalism or right-wing politics.
Contents |
People
- Stephen Colbert - his character on The Colbert Report is often thought to be sincere.[2]
- Fundies Say the Darndest Things - from a woman who can't quite grasp how to talk to her son about homosexuality to someone who says gravity is a myth because people don't orbit mountains, many of the Top 100 certainly suffer from Poe's Law.
- Roger Ebert - his Q&A column expressed strong support for truly absurd creationist views. After a firestorm of blogospheric shock, Ebert revealed that his column was intended as satire.
- YouLoveMolly - presented a video on converting an Indian to Christianity. This one fooled many atheists, Christians and anti-racist activists, as evidenced in people's blogs and video responses. Hint: "She's from India, it's like an African country in Asia or something."
- Niilo Paasivirta - a long-time Internet satirist who has written several texts (in English and Finnish) that manage to capture the fundamentalist nutjob style to a T – though a careful reader may start to wonder if, say, washing machines with transparent lids are really sinful or not. Consequently, he has been mistaken for a real thing, and gotten megabytes upon megabytes of fan- and hatemail from both sides.
- Insane Clown Posse ("ICP") - This dark humor rap duo have been the subject of much controversy over certain songs which seem to present a strong anti-science, pro-creationism stance. Fans have often engaged in heated debate over whether or not they are being satirical. The group has recently announced that they are truly Christian and really do despise science and promote creationism. However, many fans are still not convinced and believe this to be a continuation of the parody.[3]
- Tamtampamela - Made a series of doe-eyed fundie videos, but crossed the line when describing, in great detail, how she had prayed for God to smite Japan with a tsunami in 2011 and then went on to fantasise about more disaster porn happening in the US and Europe. The video went viral and notched up the notability of "Poe's Law" as people couldn't tell if she was real or serious. She eventually came out as a troll, stating that she basically got off on the anger directed towards her.[4] Some commentators still think that she was, and still is, a real fundamentalist, and the parody admission was just covering her ass because she'd said something far too horrendously inexcusable. This is based on speculation that she really does attend a Christian sponsored college, assuming no identity theft has occured.[5] Drama drama.
Creationism
- AntiSpore - claimed that the game Spore was "propaganda aimed directly at our children to teach them evolution instead of creationism." This set fire to the blogosphere in 2008, bringing the concept of Poe's Law to thousands. Spore initially started as a game based on evolution but any such intention was slowly washed out in favor of playability, empowering the player with the ability to sculpt life as they saw fit, anytime they wished. Clearly evolution at work.
- Conservapedia - always has been and probably always will be rife with examples that satisfy Poe's Law. For example, an older version of Post-Diluvian Diasporas, which remained for some time, explained how exploding volcanoes in the Mount Ararat region were responsible for distributing animals after Noah's flood.
- Conservapedia's kangaroo article - after a link to OBJECTIVE:Ministries' spoof article about kangaroos originating in the Middle East was added to Conservapedia, at least one RationalWiki editor was sufficiently taken in to write a full refutation.
- Answers in Genesis - to the best of anyone's knowledge, AIG is serious business. It is one of the more sensible ones (relatively speaking), however, even having a page dedicated to the stupid arguments that creationists shouldn't use.
Politics
- Blogs 4 Brownback - claimed to really be an ultra-conservative Christian website in the name of US senator Sam Brownback. It was outed as a hoax not long after starting.[6]
- Baptists for Brownback — stepping on the bandwagon of Brownback flavoured parody, Baptists for Brown are now known as the Republican Faith Chat ("Conservative Christians ONLY. Liberals, Atheists Not Welcomed!").
- Calvinists 4 Conservatism - Had to put up a disclaimer saying "this site is no joke." Of course, all true parodies have to insist that they're real. The contributors and comments seem to vary in sincerity.
- North Korean news headlines - Note this website is in Japan, a country with which North Korea's relations are, shall we say, extremely hostile - while at the same time being the home of several hundred thousand expat Koreans affiliated with the DPRK. This confuses the "real or spoof" question slightly, but most indicators say that it is, in fact, genuine.
- Shelley The Republican - speaking about the animals involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the blog stated "As for the animals dying: If they can’t take a little oil, I think they should die. After all, crude oil is a 100% natural product, no chemicals there, it’s the way God put it in the ground 5000 years ago. Isn’t that what Darwin was talking about? Survival of the fittest?" ( Sometimes NSFW)
- America Speaking Out - a site dedicated to obtaining ideas from the American public. Soon the website was filled with crazy suggestions by extremists and parodists and it became difficult to tell which was which. PZ Myers described it as: "Poe's Law written out all across the country, on every subject. It's insane."
- What Would American Jesus Do? - a site purportedly "Uniting Church and State -- Just as Jesus Intended!" Commenting on health care reform, for example, the blog asserts "A Christian government would not pay a single penny to any program that allows death to come earlier than God’s natural law intends. Except for capital punishment -- that's okay." There are few hints as to whether this is real or farce, but the choice of post "reactions" gives some clue: "inspired," "questionable," and "whacko."
Ministries and churches
- ChristWire[7] - an almost unprecedented level of racism, paranoia and Bush fellation. Almost certainly parody considering the line "I am writing to Disney from my new robot droid cellar when I c0mplete this upload and I am also writing a letter to Miley Cyrus"[8] Was "outed" as parody by the New York Times in September 2010, but the website itself denied the accusation.
- The International Congress of Churches and Ministries - the intro page to the site defies description (well, you could describe it as "Micheal Bay learned to use Flash"). However it is an actual genuine organization helping non-profits connected to religious groups avoid federal taxes.
- The Mrs. Whitford Witnesses YouTube channel - Hint #1: Favourite Movies: "Anything with Kirk Cameron."
- Harold Camping - The greatest troll ever. He managed to get idiots to part with their money and kill each other."
- Objective: Ministries - one of the best known parody ministries (perhaps along with Landover Baptist) this still confuses people even many years after it was launched. Their "kidz" pages and artwork are among some of the most prominent and famous examples - with some people claiming that they've seen Objective4Kidz stuff reproduced seriously. "Dr Richard Paley" edited Conservapedia for a while, showing that even fundamentalists can't tell real from parody.
- Edward Current - although some YouTube commenters don't realise it, he's actually a comedian.
- Sex in Christ - looks like a parody, but it makes interesting cases for a Biblical basis for anal sex, masturbation, pubic shaving, and fisting, among others. Such content, humorous though it most certainly is, gives it a rather high parody rating.
- Jesus-is-savior - fairly standard missionary stuff in tandem with truly appalling web design, seems genuine.
- Landover Baptist Church - one of the principal fundamentalism parodies on the web. Still fools people on both sides of the political and religious spectrum.
- USB connections are the work of the devil - due to the USB symbol resembling a trident, it has been considered Satan worshipping by some Brazilian ministry. The source newspaper claims it's real, but is also known for publishing satire and spoofs.
- Society of Christians for the Restoration of Old Testament Morality (SCROTM) - starts out looking serious enough, describing themselves as "concerned American Christians who want to restore our great nation to its roots in the Old Testament's unchanging morality." However, when you get articles such as "Biblically Correct Fashion Tips" and "God Hates Rape Victims," in which being raped is seen as being a capital offence, as per Deuteronomy, it becomes obvious - hopefully!!! - that this is satire.
- Gifts of the Spirit Ministry, ran by Pastor James Collins. This is a twist on the usual Poe's Law candidates as it is intentionally trying to look as genuine as possible despite being fake. It was in fact used by Derren Brown as a website for a fake faith healer in his show Miracles for Sale.
Anti-science
- Daylight savings cause drought - A gem regarding global warming, among many that have been sent into newspapers over the years. Many such examples are usually intentional parodies published by papers or magazines.
- Science and Math Defeated - is often taken as being real in RationalWiki's clogosphere (and when the author posts here) - yet StumbleUpon lists it as satire.[9]
Assorted oddballs
- Sea kittens - This really is from PETA, despite appearing like somebody spoofing them. Similarly, they've done some weird campaigns such as telling the Pet Shop Boys to change their name. Even funnier, somebody put up a mirror of the Sea Kittens site... with an advert for steak.
- Universe people Seem to be absolutely serious about the message, but is presented in a way that makes Time Cube somewhat easy on the eye.
- Grand Funk Railroad - their lyrics on early albums parody left-wing hippie slogans - or are they serious? On later albums, they do same thing but invert the politics to right-wing populism. In between, there are weird mixtures of the two.
- The Flat Earth Society - while the flat Earth conspiracy always breaks peoples brains, this Facebook group almost certainly contains both dead seriousness and insane parody - and a definite share of people who can't tell.
- Crucial Youth - a hardcore punk band that was conceived as an over-the-top parody of straight edge bands of the late 80's, going beyond the usual anti-drug and anti-sex messages to also promote dental hygiene and safe street crossing. Their interview in the fanzine Maximum Rock & Roll prompted some supportive letters from straightedgers and angry letters from anti-straightedgers, both sides completely oblivious to the joke.
- '''mirandasings08''' (mirandasings08 channel) - launched a YouTube channel where she sang badly (well, actually, to sing that badly, you do need talent). Many people didn't get the obvious parody of self-aggrandizing YouTube users and still flame her to this day, adding more fuel to the fire of "haters" videos she posts.
- Citizens for the Ten Commandments - a puzzling wiki project, best described as a collection of sort-of-coherent essays.
- Doggy Poo - is this trailer for a fully animated feature with 15 original songs and 80 minutes of bonus features a joke? [10]
- Conservapedia's article on Poe's Law -while it looks like parody of fundamentalist Christian writing, it is in fact a genuine attempt to write a fundamentalist Christian repose to Poe's Law. Moreover, its talk page redirects to Conservapedia's Evolution article, which leads some to suspicion.
Footnotes
- ↑ "Poe's Law" in the Urban Dictionary
- ↑ Huffinton Post - Colbert Study: Conservatives Don't Know He's Joking. Based on, [http://hij.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/14/2/212 The Irony of Satire - LaMarre, H.L.; Landreville, K.D.; Beam, M.A., The International Journal of Press/Politics Vol. 14, No. 2, 212-231 (2009)]
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Slate.com Young Woman Who Thanked God for the Japanese Disaster "Comes Clean"
- ↑ The Atlantic Wire -The Japan Quake YouTube Troll Explains Herself (comments section)
- ↑ Blogs for Brownback
- ↑ Christwire.org
- ↑ http://christwire.org/2010/05/miley-cyrus-video-produces-questionable-new-organism-face-photographs/
- ↑ Science and Math Defeated's listing at StumbleUpon
- ↑ Nope.