tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-111486762010-04-28T16:26:41.398-07:00A serious blog about satire in the news, free speech, and the media.Check Please! Editorsnoreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-88225159984165375542010-04-10T08:14:00.000-07:002010-04-10T08:38:08.123-07:00

I stumbled across an interesting little insight in an unlikely place - the Q&A section of Paul Farhi's pop culture column for the Washington Post...Question from a reader: Reportedly Tina Fey will reprise her wildly-popular Sarah Palin impression when Tina hosts SNL this weekend. Which Sarah do you think we'll see depicted-- the Fox, tea party cheerleader or TLC version? (should stress that this

Allen Voivodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05724449957233992991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-64626865227104730272009-12-18T07:22:00.000-08:002009-12-18T07:45:55.498-08:00

Many people have asked me, "Jimmy, how do you go about writing a story for your website?" Ignoring for a moment that these people are all voices in my head, I will take you step-by-step through the patented Jimmy Wellington satire writing process. Please note: Results not typical, individual results may vary.Here is a link to the story I'm writing about. But Jimmy, isn't it wrong to end a

Jimmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00951950565318284817thefakenews@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-76096807453490255152009-11-11T06:54:00.000-08:002009-11-11T07:27:02.637-08:00

The internet is a great place to learn how to do things. I guarantee, if you think of nearly any random activity and Google "How do I _____?" you will find some answer, somewhere. Rant Morgan did his part to make sure that no such query went unanswered, by providing how-to guides on a wide range of things ranging from the plausible (get free DVDs) to the less likely (set up a threesome or fake

Check Please! Editorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-82695374287850953472009-11-08T14:17:00.001-08:002009-11-08T20:48:59.442-08:00

All of the other sites memorialized so far in this series have at least one thing in common: they were the creations of humans. Dead Bodies, Inc. however was different, being the only website written by robots from the future. A roster of robots that included Blackbot Jones, Dr. Science, Inspecto Eternale, Lemon Fresh Cool Sprocket, Synthesis 5, and QX7, each of which possessed a delightfully

Check Please! Editorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-825154724244991832009-10-30T14:06:00.000-07:002009-11-02T07:15:27.372-08:00

In the past seven years I've looked at a lot of humor sites. I run a humor site. There are plenty that I admire, return to, chuckle at. But of all these sites, only two have made me laugh out loud virtually every time I visit. (Which means reading them at work is very hazardous.) One of these is the late, totally under-appreciated, and utterly brilliant Slingshot.The Slingshot was a sublime

Check Please! Editorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-35502952797804588912009-10-27T13:02:00.000-07:002009-10-27T13:54:54.479-07:00

We continue our reminiscing this week with one of the oddest sites it was our pleasure to visit...Trepanning, the (fictional?) Cornish village "so remote it is on its own outskirts," was largely the brainchild of British humor writer Ian Vince. (He had a collaborator but, forgive me, I can't remember his name.) Ian went on to win the Channel 4 comedy circuit competition for another website, the

Check Please! Editorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-22714349065004904172009-10-26T09:24:00.000-07:002009-10-26T09:56:38.372-07:00

A website generally goes through stages; initially, newbies are delighted to make any connection they can with like-minded people/websites, and every backlink is a treasure - an affirmation that one's work is appreciated, somewhere, somehow, at least enough for someone to copy and paste your URL into their blog/facebook page/etc. Next comes building an audience, the routine of defining a voice

Check Please! Editorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-10824347628143517152009-10-22T17:30:00.000-07:002009-10-22T18:22:45.439-07:00

As most satire sites know, the more offensive an article, the better. But it's not enough to simply offend: in order to raise your writing above the semi-literate, orthographically-challenged raging rants that are endemic to the internet, a modicum of sophistication is required, both in technique and choice of target. This doesn't mean that every article needs to cite Wittgenstein; I've written

Check Please! Editorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-39850290634880869522009-10-21T16:34:00.000-07:002009-10-23T15:21:44.537-07:00

Much has been made lately of the fact that a group of film makers were able to persuade several British tabloids to publish a number of fake stories about celebrities. Over a two week period The Mirror, The Sun, The Daily Star and Daily Express had all run completely fabricated stories about the likes of Avril Lavigne, Russell Brand and Amy Winehouse, pitched to them by the makers of the film

Doc Sleazenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-90741624143588768222009-10-06T18:11:00.000-07:002009-10-06T18:14:24.951-07:00

--This is a speech I gave to a college class--Since the dawn of man, we have searched for the answer to one of life's great questions. "How can I dupe that beautiful woman into having sex with me?" While apparently that will always remain a mystery, mankind has fared better with another great question: "What is funny?"While humor is certainly subjective, there are many instances of universal

Jimmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00951950565318284817thefakenews@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-12636446791938786652009-10-04T15:38:00.001-07:002009-10-04T16:14:04.172-07:00

Most people who've run a satire site for more than a few months experience the (initially shocking) pangs of writer's block. For those who have been trying to keep their humor site acerbically pointed, relevant, and fresh for more than a couple of years, the condition is often chronic, and frequently leads to malaise, a change in format, or - most frequently - the writer walking away from his or

Check Please! Editorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-43771788027762223302009-09-29T09:23:00.000-07:002009-09-29T15:56:52.986-07:00

Anyone who runs a satire site knows that it is not exactly a road to riches. On the contrary, if you're in it for the money, then you're in the wrong business. Likewise, everyone knows that newspapers are dropping like flies as well, to the point where Congress is vaguely sort of thinking about whether to do anything about it. So is French satire site Bakchich doing the right thing by jumping

E.F. Watleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-19163274463115315022009-09-25T12:05:00.000-07:002009-09-25T13:03:28.564-07:00

It's bad enough that the world of politics has gotten so absurd, it's nearly impossible to satirize anymore. But now the politicians have gone too far: they're getting into the game themselves. (And we're not talking about a stiffly self-conscious stunt like Dubya hunting for WMDs under his sofa cushions.)In this ad, a candidate for Lieutenant Governor in Virginia shows her incumbent opponent MIA

E.F. Watleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-12021471806854604702009-09-23T04:55:00.000-07:002009-09-23T04:57:22.682-07:00

We're in the midst of an overhaul, so please don't be put off by any stray pixels or wildly unfinished design elements. We'll be up and running again by Monday.

Check Please! Editorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-68759723376740055092009-09-21T10:04:00.000-07:002009-09-21T10:11:14.850-07:00

The web is positively awash with humor. You can't turn around without bumping into a satire headline here and there - even CNN isn't immune. But even amidst this crowd, HumorFeed members stand out. In a (fairly) recent list of the 'top ten satire sites', no less than six are members of HumorFeed. (The rest are no-name sites like the Onion and such.) Kudos to the sites that make a difference in

Check Please! Editorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-90608352135227636432009-01-15T07:57:00.000-08:002009-01-15T08:12:08.631-08:00

The results from the fourth annual HumorFeed competition are in... A panel of five journalists and humor writers has ranked the top ten satire stories of the year. And it was a great bunch of stories. The countdown!...#10: Nintendo Develops Wii Community Service#9: Bush Orders Retirement Savings Mattress for Every American#8: Oil Prices So Low, Arab Nations Consider Educating Youth#7: Lubbock,

E.F. Watleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-56019295710836469052008-10-13T08:56:00.000-07:002008-10-13T09:26:53.915-07:00

For years Saturday Night Live has been fading into satirical obscurity, with most people convinced that the days when it represented anything close to cutting-edge satire were decades past. However, Tina Fey's recent and hilariously successful impersonations of Sarah Palin have been so spot-on that some are suggesting Fey is actually influencing the election.Not since Chevy Chase made many

E.F. Watleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-26712548325139233172008-08-23T10:54:00.000-07:002008-08-23T10:54:00.458-07:00

...apparently the results hold up over time. In an interview with Danna Young of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, we discovered something about the smarts of people watching the likes of The Daily Show. (Actually, we discovered many things, and for that I suggest you check out the interview.)Now, we hear from the Pew Research Center (via Greg Mitchell at HuffPo) that news satire show viewers

Allen Voivodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05724449957233992991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-17096419725548427242008-08-16T06:29:00.000-07:002008-08-17T06:45:33.033-07:00

Don't get me wrong - I like Ben Stiller. Still, hasn't it seemed as though he's been going downhill in recent years? It seems like he's playing the same character in The Heartbreak Kid, Along Came Polly, Night at the Museum, the Meet the... movies, even Madagascar. What happened to the Ben Stiller of The Ben Stiller Show?Good grief, it's good to know he's still in there somewhere. Tropic Thunder,

Allen Voivodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05724449957233992991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-71576904639434155062008-08-09T06:04:00.000-07:002008-08-17T06:20:35.723-07:00

If there's one thing that's driven me crazy as an online satirist, it's the consistent drumbeat of people - outside AND inside the field - who insist you can't make any kind of living at it.That said, I was unexpectedly surprised and pleased to read the latest issue of Fast Company, which features an article entitled, "Who Will Be the Godfather of Web Comedy?"Why pleased? Not because of any

Allen Voivodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05724449957233992991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-53215329649588091562008-08-02T05:43:00.000-07:002008-08-17T05:55:18.823-07:00

How the heck did I miss this - it was practically in my backyard?! I had to read about it months later in Wired - embarrassing.If you live on the West Coast, here's you're chance to not make the same mistake I did. It was "ROFLcon" here back in April, and a two-day event, but it's ROFLThing in San Francisco for one evening, on August 29th. The deets:So we’re throwing an evening event in San

Allen Voivodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05724449957233992991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-66151346816823218712008-07-26T05:04:00.000-07:002008-08-17T05:41:43.097-07:00

Jim Holt, a science writer, wrote Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes, which came out earlier this month. So far, it's gotten a four-star rating from reviewers at Amazon, and the Publisher's Weekly review is mostly complimentary - guess I'll have to check it out!Wired Magazine had a little interview with him in their July issue, which reminded me a bit of the interview

Allen Voivodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05724449957233992991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-50860185177141040232008-07-19T11:24:00.000-07:002008-07-19T11:42:23.111-07:00

Satirists have had a hard time lately. Not that they ever have an easy time of it: unless your name starts with "Stephen" and ends with "Colbert", generally the best a humorist can hope for is a life of not-quite-penury, and - if he/she is lucky - to stir the ire of a lot of people, possibly inspiring a serious thought or two. But what is a humorist to do with material that is already beyond

E.F. Watleynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-39744349091049208302008-06-24T19:59:00.000-07:002008-06-27T21:52:11.090-07:00

Okay, I'll be honest - I haven't given George Carlin much thought over the last few years. Unless you're in the field and know his backstory, most younger folks probably look at him like an old curmudgeon. And I'd relegated him to that role in my own thinking.Now he's gone, and instead of mooning over him and how great he was, instead I'm going to post a few resources here. Whether you already

Allen Voivodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05724449957233992991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11148676.post-35803253855870343932008-06-16T12:12:00.000-07:002008-06-16T12:12:00.899-07:00

I was listening to a CD about building confidence in pricing one's consulting services, and the speaker related an anecdote which may or may not have been true, but it included a joke I hadn't heard in a long time.The speaker/consultant had quoted a outrageous fee for one-on-one, in-person consulting. The sales prospect said yes, but only on the condition that, when they met, the consultant would

Allen Voivodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05724449957233992991noreply@blogger.com0