I need your best example of Poe's Law.

September 30, 2008 6:38 AM

What is your best example of Poe's Law?

I'm trying to explain what Poe's Law is to a friend of mine, but she doesn't fully understand. I want your best example of said Internet Law.

posted by DonSlice to computers & internet (13 comments total)

http://objectiveministries.org/

Especially the accompanying 'Creationist Science Fair'

(for some reason putting the actual links in isn't working in my browser)
posted by TheOtherGuy at 6:46 AM on September 30, 2008

It reminds me of that skit from the Chappelle Show where he's a blind, black racist. If he where white in that skit, changing nothing, then it would be really offensive. But because he's black it's all parody, whereas the only thing changing is the speaker.
posted by lockestockbarrel at 7:04 AM on September 30, 2008

The Onion is occasionally taken as an actual news source. This is a little outside Poe's Law, but clearly a related phenomenon.
posted by adamrice at 7:06 AM on September 30, 2008

Nthing Objective Ministries.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:17 AM on September 30, 2008

"Anti Spore" is a blog purportedly lobbying to ban the videogame "Spore" because it teaches evolution. Even on the final post, which turns into a Biblical rickroll, most of the commenters didn't get it.
posted by mbrubeck at 8:05 AM on September 30, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Recently Roger Ebert made this post. Nobody was sure whether it was genuine, satire or a hacker. It turned out he was trying to make a comment about irony is society today.
posted by Midnight Rambler at 8:23 AM on September 30, 2008

Roger Ebert's recent article Creationism: Your questions answered was supposed to be some kinda satire (or something) but just confused the hell out of everyone. In a follow-up, he mentions Poe's Law.
posted by Ljubljana at 8:27 AM on September 30, 2008

Damn it all to hell.
posted by Ljubljana at 8:28 AM on September 30, 2008

I think I'm going to use Ebert and AntiSpore.

Thanks guys!
posted by DonSlice at 9:11 AM on September 30, 2008

I know you said this is answered, but here's another idea.

Ask your friend to watch anything by Benny Hinn with the sound off. This is a man that regularly claims to be able to heal by laying on hands and literally blasting magic power into people.

Now ask your friend to imagine he/she is a comedy writer. How would you parody this in such a way that your audience would know it's a parody of Benny Hinn and not the real thing?
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:32 AM on September 30, 2008

The "Landover Baptist Church" site kept having problems with this. These days their stuff is a lot more over-the-top, but it used to be somewhat more restrained, and people were constantly posting comments that suggested that they believed it.

That was especially the case when they'd post about Wicca. Wiccans would swarm the place and respond angrily.
posted by Class Goat at 10:36 AM on September 30, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Sarah Silverman's comedy.
posted by Rykey at 3:54 PM on September 30, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

A British journalist once wrote (paraphrase) "whenever you write parody, make sure the typesetters print it using an ironic font, because otherwise there's always someone who takes it at face value".
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:26 PM on September 30, 2008