Difference between revisions of "List of Poe's Law examples"
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*'''[http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm 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. | *'''[http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm 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. | ||
− | *'''[http://www.shelleytherepublican.com/ 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 [[RationalWiki:Dyslexicon#N|NSFW]]) | + | *'''[http://www.shelleytherepublican.com/ 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?" and about sexting and camwhoring "many of the young women in JailbaitGallery.com use camera phones, they’re so pretty I’d even stop dating my step-daughter for one of them."( Sometimes [[RationalWiki:Dyslexicon#N|NSFW]]) |
*'''[[America Speaking Out]]''' - a [http://www.americaspeakingout.com/ 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. [[Paul Zachary Myers|PZ Myers]] described it as: "[http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/05/republicans_discover_sarcasm_d.php Poe's Law written out all across the country, on every subject. It's insane.]" | *'''[[America Speaking Out]]''' - a [http://www.americaspeakingout.com/ 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. [[Paul Zachary Myers|PZ Myers]] described it as: "[http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/05/republicans_discover_sarcasm_d.php Poe's Law written out all across the country, on every subject. It's insane.]" |
Revision as of 17:22, 21 June 2010
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.
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".
Creationism
- AntiSpore - claimed that the game Spore was "is 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.
- 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.[3]
- 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 - now mostly ended as the writer has "moved on", but had to put up a disclaimer saying "this site is no joke". Of course, all true parodies have to insist that they're real.
- 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?" and about sexting and camwhoring "many of the young women in JailbaitGallery.com use camera phones, they’re so pretty I’d even stop dating my step-daughter for one of them."( 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."
Ministries and churches
- Christwire.org - an almost unprecedented level of racism, paranoia and Bush fellation.
- 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".
- 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.
- 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.
- Let Us Reason Ministries - fairly standard missionary stuff in tandem with quite appalling web design - probably real, then.
- Jesus-is-savior - fairly standard missionary stuff in tandem with truly appalling web design - probably fake, then.
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 - yet StumbleUpon lists it as satire.[4]
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.
- Miranda Sings - launched a YouTube channel where she sang badly (well, actually, to sing that badly, you actually 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? [5]
- ↑ "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)]
- ↑ Blogs for Brownback
- ↑ Science and Math Defeated's listing at StumbleUpon
- ↑ Nope.