The cover of the latest issue of The New Yorker depicts Barrack Obama as a muslim and his wife as a terrorist, doing their fist-bump thang in the Oval Office. It's supposed to be satire. It's supposed to poke fun at the way the air head chicken hawks in right wing media portray Obama in their attempts to torpedo his campaign. The problem is that The New Yorker doesn't understand 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.Apparently, The New Yorker doesn't realize that there are people who will believe anything, like homeopathy, crop circles, perpetual motion. Some will even believe that you can turn a cracker cracker into someone who has risen from the dead.
In fact, there are people who believe that Obama is a muslim. After all, his middle name is Hussein, so he must be, right? He's probably even related to Saddam, right?? Oh, and Fox News planted the idea that Obama's fist bump with his wife might be some "terrorist jab". Rush Limbaugh has falsely stated that "Hamas has endorsed Obama..." Now, there will be people who will look at the cover of The New Yorker and, without reading a word, conclude that the magazine concurs with these falsities. It's not much of a stretch to expect that people will now think that Michelle Obama owns an AK-47. Some people just aren't smart enough to pick up on satire*, and if you have to explain a joke, it ain't funny!
*(except, of course, all the wonderful visitors to this blog)
5 comments:
Actually, I think that Osama is a Muslim.
Obama, however - that's a different story.
Argh! Thanks...I'm not the first to make that mistake!
Poe's Law is misformulated anyway... it should be "it's impossible to create a parody of fundamentalism that someone somewhere doesn't actually believe". Or more simply, religion defies satire.
I would like to think that no one could be so dumb as to believe that a presidential hopeful could be a 'stealth' muslim and the whole world not know it. However the fact that many americans wouldn't know satire if it came up and laughed at them.
Oops pressed the post button too quick
.... does not suprise me, frankly i am amazed that the Daily Show survives in a country that feels it has to explain nearly every gag in it's comedy shows
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