Poe's Law: Difference between revisions
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* The infamous ''[[The Legend of Zelda (Franchise)|Zelda]]'' video ''[[The Light of Courage]]'' has an interesting case of something being both incorrectly mistaken for a parody and something fully serious at the same time. The animation behind the videos was purposefully kept bad as was the voice acting. However the dialog, grammatical errors, and storyline the videos were based on are all real and was done with the serious attempt to get them made into a movie. Aside from the few who know the story behind The Light of Courage, most people can't seem to figure out whether it's real or not. It was based on a horrible fanfic that its creator took completely seriously, then someone else created the parody by adding purposefully badly done animation and voice acting.
** Also the case for the infamous ''[[Half Life: Full Life Consequences]]'' video, though this one is more universally recognized as a joke.
* Fan art. [[Sturgeon's Law|So much of it]] is so little different from [[Troll Fic]]s. Quoth ''[[superdickery.com]]'', "[https://web.archive.org/web/20160421041301/http://www.superdickery.com/hooked-on-ponics/ At this point], I find it impossible to determine if this is a genuine-yet-terrible attempt at art, or something created specifically to lampoon genuine-yet-terrible attempts at Sonic and MLP art."
== Film ==
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== Live-Action TV ==
* On ''[[The Colbert Report]]'' Stephen Colbert played a right-wing pundit, but the show in general was against right-wing pundits. Many conservatives were convinced that Colbert was a real neoconservative and the show was a ''[[Stealth Parody|parody of the way the left views the right]]''. See this Ohio State University [https://web.archive.org/web/20100617105916/http://hij.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/14/2/212 study] for more on the topic.
** There's also a pervasive myth that he was mistaken for a real conservative pundit by members of the Bush administration when he was invited to the 2006 correspondents' dinner; the dinner was in large part a traditional roast of the President, and they knew exactly who he was, although they may not have expected him to be ''quite'' [[Gone Horribly Right|so harsh]].
** Some conservatives realize that Colbert is a parody but believe that he makes correct points in character. In other words, the [[Straw Man Has a Point]].
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** The most controversial "Onion" example is their "Kelly" political cartoons, which still have people arguing about whether they're expressing or parodying conservative ideas. Although the real focus of the cartoons is less ideological than parodying the artistic cliches of bad, lazy political cartoons independent of any specific viewpoint.
** A high-profile victim of ''The Onion'' is US Congressman John Fleming (R-LA), who posted a link to the [http://www.theonion.com/articles/planned-parenthood-opens-8-billion-abortionplex,20476/ "Planned Parenthood Opens $8 Billion Abortionplex" story] [https://web.archive.org/web/20131017121252/http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/02/congressman-falls-months-old-onion-story-about-planned-parenthood-abortionplex/48344/ on his Faceboook page].
** [https://www.theonion.com/fred-phelps-man-who-forever-stopped-march-of-gay-right-1819576341 Fred Phelps, Man Who Forever Stopped March Of Gay Rights, Dead At 84]. This sarcastic article (that "complements" Phelps for his homophobic and racist atrocities) caused many readers to openly condemn Ed Farrell, Vice Mayor of the Arizona town of Maricopa, who had previously praised Phelps in a legitimate obituary. It actually led to Farrell making a public apology for doing so.
* Endemic at [[Conservapedia]], a site created by right wingers [http://www.conservapedia.com/Examples_of_Bias_in_Wikipedia upset at certain things said in Wikipedia]. As soon as it was founded, people descended on it writing completely-over-the-top articles, which some people took seriously. Their ''serious'' projects include [http://www.conservapedia.com/Bible_Retranslation_Project a translation of the Bible into Conservative language.] For instance, the whole "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven" thing is apparently socialist, and "blessed are the meek" should really be "blessed are the God-fearing".
** [http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/26/conservapedias-entry.html Here's] a particularly funny example of (apparent) stealth-parody vandalism.
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* ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcCvvJWyx4c&feature=player_embedded PolitiChicks]'', a right-wing "answer" to ''[[The View]]'', has led to endless discussion in the comment section (as well as on [https://web.archive.org/web/20140912000620/http://www.gay.net/politics/2011/11/16/antigay-talk-show-launched-victoria-jackson a] [http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2011/11/video-anti-islam-anti-gay-pro-watching-toonces-drive-a-car.html number] of [http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/11/teabagger-politichicks.html other] [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/victoria-jackson-politichicks-web-show_n_1097796.html sites]) about whether it's serious or a parody, with the fact that ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' alumna Victoria Jackson is involved causing some (perhaps mistaken) impression that it's all a skit.
* When G4 held their 2011 VideoGame Deathmatch and pitted ''[[Skyrim]]'' against ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword]]'', the ''Zelda Universe'' fansite posted an [http://www.zeldauniverse.net/zelda-news/skyrim-needs-your-help/# article] sarcastically imploring their readers to help ''Skyrim'', "our favorite game," help win the vote. So many people in the comments took it at face value that ZU had to post [http://www.zeldauniverse.net/zelda-news/on-skyrim-vs-skyward-sword/ another article] explaining that it was meant to be a joke. Incidentally, the comments themselves exhibit this trope as well; some site members tried to partake of the sarcasm in their own comments and got said comments voted down to as low as ''-20''.
* Prior to the release of James Cameron's sci-fi epic ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'', a curious blog popped up called "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130908003506/http://stopavatarmovie.blogspot.com/ Stop Avatar Movie]." The blog's editor claims to be a transgender woman who is offended by the "heterosexual themes" found in the movie (namely, the apparent lack of non-heterosexual characters), and urges people to boycott it. She goes so far as to make ''Avatar'' the scapegoat for anything in the wider culture that is or could be remotely construed as homophobic/transphobic, regardless of whether or not the thing or incident being discussed has anything to do with the film. The political and social views expressed on the blog are so extreme that even actual gay people are divided on whether the author is just a very dedicated troll, or legitimately insane.
* ''Regretsy'', a now-defunct website that used to make fun of ridiculous Etsy products (its tagline was "Where DIY Meets WTF") had a column called "Etsy or Regretsy?", where they interspersed actual bizarre Etsy listings with parodies created by the Regretsy staff, and had the readers guess which were real and which were fake. It was harder than you'd think.
* Yahoo! Answers has [https://web.archive.org/web/20200107164950/https://answers.yahoo.com/activity/questions?show=r6znu4h9aa Colonel Jack Fessender (Ret.)], a longtime Poe who has achieved some degree of infamy with way too many people thinking that [https://web.archive.org/web/20160419005544/https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100809080048AAcPSIu he] [https://web.archive.org/web/20160419005525/https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120502083348AAadkOT is] [https://web.archive.org/web/20200107164939/https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120320064538AAewgT5 for] [https://web.archive.org/web/20200805215406/https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111029083608AADUcpd real]. He is also [https://web.archive.org/web/20160418195449/https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111011053849AAEC9oE running for President] so he can redesign the letter C so it doesn't so much like an Islamic crescent among other insane things. "FACT."
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== Real Life ==
* [[Salvador Dali]] once sent a telegram for Romania's communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, for his adoption of a scepter as part of his regalia. Dali's intent was to mock him, but Ceauşescu, who had one of the biggest [[Cult of Personality|personality cults]] ever, took it seriously, and the text was published in the Party's newspaper. When he ''did'' find out it was a joke, he fired the editor who published it. Never mind that he was the one who ordered it to be published.
* One is forced to wonder if some of the late-2021 "revelations" to the believers of the [[QAnon]] [[Conspiracy Theories|conspiracy theory]]/pseudoreligion -- things like the promised appearance of the late John F. Kennedy, Jr. in Dealey Plaza on the anniversary of [[John F. Kennedy|his father]]'s assassination to hand over the American government to [[Donald Trump]] -- weren't actually being created and promulgated just to see how outrageous and stupid a claim its followers would swallow unquestioningly.
== In-Universe Examples ==
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