Question to chew on:
In both pranks and parody, what is fair game and what is out-of-bounds?
I am thinking, here, about the recent Cover Story/April Fools parody found in the April 6 edition of The Seattle Weekly: http://www.seattleweekly.com/2011-04-06/food/eat-lou-kohl/ Please read the "Eat Lou Kohl" Weekly article first., and then I would like to encourage you to share your opinion/viewpoints in the comments for this post.
In the interest of full disclosure, I would like to transparently discuss my own initial thoughts when I first read this article.
I first heard about the story from my friend, Bill, who had said "you HAVE to read the "Eat Lou Kohl" cover story in this week's Seattle Weekly." (I now wonder if Bill was trying to set me up for this April 1 gag, or if he may also have fallen victim to it.) In my defense, and in Bill's, my April 1 radar had shut down by April 6 - Mike Seely and the Seattle Weekly were very tricky in that the article appeared 5 days AFTER April 1.
So, when I read the piece. I have to admit that I was sucked in. It was very entertaining (even before I realized it was a gag,) because the contrived character of Lou Kohl is such an unusual/quirky personality.
By the time I got to the list of A- and B-list celebrities who were to be attending one of these Dirt Farm events, I realized this had to be a gag.
There are other examples of Pranks or Parodies that I would like to discuss here. For example, I only recently developed a fake Facebook profile for G. Gordon Liddy. I included as much accurate historical/biographical info as I could find about Liddy's life into the Bio/Profile section of my fake FB page.
I have other examples that I can share with you. If you are interested, please just respond via email, or like this entry on my Facebook page.
Please share your own insights?
Thanks,
Greg
In both pranks and parody, what is fair game and what is out-of-bounds?
I am thinking, here, about the recent Cover Story/April Fools parody found in the April 6 edition of The Seattle Weekly: http://www.seattleweekly.com/2011-04-06/food/eat-lou-kohl/ Please read the "Eat Lou Kohl" Weekly article first., and then I would like to encourage you to share your opinion/viewpoints in the comments for this post.
In the interest of full disclosure, I would like to transparently discuss my own initial thoughts when I first read this article.
I first heard about the story from my friend, Bill, who had said "you HAVE to read the "Eat Lou Kohl" cover story in this week's Seattle Weekly." (I now wonder if Bill was trying to set me up for this April 1 gag, or if he may also have fallen victim to it.) In my defense, and in Bill's, my April 1 radar had shut down by April 6 - Mike Seely and the Seattle Weekly were very tricky in that the article appeared 5 days AFTER April 1.
So, when I read the piece. I have to admit that I was sucked in. It was very entertaining (even before I realized it was a gag,) because the contrived character of Lou Kohl is such an unusual/quirky personality.
By the time I got to the list of A- and B-list celebrities who were to be attending one of these Dirt Farm events, I realized this had to be a gag.
There are other examples of Pranks or Parodies that I would like to discuss here. For example, I only recently developed a fake Facebook profile for G. Gordon Liddy. I included as much accurate historical/biographical info as I could find about Liddy's life into the Bio/Profile section of my fake FB page.
I have other examples that I can share with you. If you are interested, please just respond via email, or like this entry on my Facebook page.
Please share your own insights?
Thanks,
Greg
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