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** ''Private Eye'' gets this from newcomers who don't know where the cut-off point between the 'investigative journalism' pages and the 'parody' pages is. There are a lot of otherwise intelligent people who think ''From the Message Boards'' is genuine.
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* The death of Cass Elliot also factors into this; after collapsing from a heart attack, investigators noted that a sandwich was found in her room and, despite a post-mortem showing otherwise, parodies regarding her weight and the poor wording of the attending physician mean [[http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/mamacass.asp it's still widely believed that she choked to death on a sandwich]] simply because [[DeathAsComedy it's considered more humorous]].
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*** [[AnsemRetort I just got Rick Rolled by Jesus!]]
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*** [[AnsemRetort I just got Rick Rolled by Jesus!]]
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* This also showed up in the ''SouthPark'' episode "Trapped in the Closet" when an official narrates Xenu's origin story. The phrase, "This is what Scientologists actually believe" was put in because it would've been indistinguishable from the show's weird humor to those who didn't already know the story. Even then, a few people '''still''' didn't believe it, because even that sounds like something ''SouthPark'' would doo.
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* This also showed up in the ''SouthPark'' episode "Trapped in the Closet" when an official narrates Xenu's origin story. The phrase, "This is what Scientologists actually believe" was put in because it would've been indistinguishable from the show's weird humor to those who didn't already know the story. Even then, a few some people '''still''' didn't believe it, because even that sounds like something ''SouthPark'' would doo.do.
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* This also showed up in the ''SouthPark'' episode "Trapped in the Closet" when an official narrates Xenu's origin story. The phrase, "This is what Scientologists actually believe" was put in because it would've been indistinguishable from the show's weird humor to those who didn't already know the story.
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* This also showed up in the ''SouthPark'' episode "Trapped in the Closet" when an official narrates Xenu's origin story. The phrase, "This is what Scientologists actually believe" was put in because it would've been indistinguishable from the show's weird humor to those who didn't already know the story. Even then, a few people '''still''' didn't believe it, because even that sounds like something ''SouthPark'' would doo.
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* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit and can be watched [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A here.]] It's a textbook example of this trope. The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate porridge and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,'' somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
to:
* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit and can be watched [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A here.]] It's a textbook example of this trope. The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate porridge and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,'' somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
upsetting to homosexual people.
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* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit and can be watched [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A here.]] It's a textbook example of this trope. The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate curry and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,'' somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
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* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit and can be watched [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A here.]] It's a textbook example of this trope. The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate curry porridge and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,'' somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
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* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit and can be watched [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A here.]] It's a typical case of this. The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate curry and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,'' somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
to:
* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit and can be watched [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A here.]] It's a typical case textbook example of this.this trope. The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate curry and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,'' somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
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* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit and can be watched [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A here]] is a typical case of this. The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate curry and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,'' somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
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* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit and can be watched [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A here]] is here.]] It's a typical case of this. The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate curry and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,'' somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
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* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit and can be watched [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A here]] is a typical case of this. The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate curry and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,''
somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
to:
* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit and can be watched [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A here]] is a typical case of this. The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate curry and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,''
Skansen,'' somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
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* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit. I can be watched [[here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A]] The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate curry and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,''
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* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit. I hit and can be watched [[here http://www.[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A]] com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A here]] is a typical case of this. The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate curry and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,''
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* Swedish humor show ''Grotesco'' featured a song called ''Det är bögarnas fel'' ("It's the gay men's fault") which became a hit. I can be watched [[here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lvMJ-l0_A]] The song is sung by a reverend who claims that gay men are to blame for every single bad thing in the world and says (well, singing) that "I don't know what line and verse, chapter or part, but somewhere in [the Bible] it says that it's the gay men's fault." He and lots of other singers then go on to give gay men the blame for things that clearly aren't gay men's fault. One woman sings that "My son shot four people to death with the hunting-rifle. Somehow, I feel that it's the gay men's fault." A man sings that "I once ate curry and confused curry for cinnamon, and that wasn't carelessness, no, it was the gay men's fault." It's almost impossible to imagine how it could be more obviously satiric, and ''still,'' when it was performed live in the family show ''Allsång på Skansen,''
somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
somebody reported the show to the police for being upsetting.
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** Though it's possible that the later is a very confusing example of Poe's Law, in that we don't get that they're correcting the verse ironically.
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** Though it's possible that the later latter is too a very confusing example of Poe's Law, in that we don't get that they're correcting the verse ironically.
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** Some cite the interview of Steven by DanielTosh on his tv show [[{{Ptitledzx0p3j9}} Tosh.0]] as definitive proof that the video was fake. The episode involves Tosh [[PerpSweating interrogating]] Steven, with the help of MichaelWinslow ([[HeyItsThatGuy You know]], [[AdamWesting that guy who makes the funny noises]]), eventually using a [[LieDetector polygraph machine]], and finally resorting to a threat to [[LaserGuidedKarma shove a remote up his butt if he doesn't tell the truth]]. It should be noted, that this is a [[RuleOfFunny comedy show]], and it's not known what occurred back stage.
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** Some cite the interview of Steven by DanielTosh on his tv show [[{{Ptitledzx0p3j9}} Tosh.0]] Series/{{Tosh0}} as definitive proof that the video was fake. The episode involves Tosh [[PerpSweating interrogating]] Steven, with the help of MichaelWinslow ([[HeyItsThatGuy You know]], [[AdamWesting that guy who makes the funny noises]]), eventually using a [[LieDetector polygraph machine]], and finally resorting to a threat to [[LaserGuidedKarma shove a remote up his butt if he doesn't tell the truth]]. It should be noted, that this is a [[RuleOfFunny comedy show]], and it's not known what occurred back stage.
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* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcCvvJWyx4c&feature=player_embedded PolitiChicks]], a right-wing "answer" to TheView, has led to endless discussion in the comment section (as well as on [[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]] [[http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/11/teabagger-politichicks.html of]] [[http://www.gay.net/politics/2011/11/16/antigay-talk-show-launched-victoria-jackson#.TsSd_8ByzV9.facebook 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 SaturdayNightLive alumna Victoria Jackson is involved causing some (perhaps mistaken) impression that it's all a skit.
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* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcCvvJWyx4c&feature=player_embedded PolitiChicks]], a right-wing "answer" to TheView, has led to endless discussion in the comment section (as well as on [[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 of]] [[http://www.gay.net/politics/2011/11/16/antigay-talk-show-launched-victoria-jackson#.TsSd_8ByzV9.facebook 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 SaturdayNightLive alumna Victoria Jackson is involved causing some (perhaps mistaken) impression that it's all a skit.
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* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcCvvJWyx4c&feature=player_embedded PolitiChicks]], a right-wing "answer" to TheView, has led to endless discussion in the comment section (as well as on a number of other sites) about whether it's serious or a parody, with the fact that SaturdayNightLive alumna Victoria Jackson is involved causing some (perhaps mistaken) impression that it's all a skit.
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* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcCvvJWyx4c&feature=player_embedded PolitiChicks]], a right-wing "answer" to TheView, has led to endless discussion in the comment section (as well as on a number of other sites) [[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]] [[http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/11/teabagger-politichicks.html of]] [[http://www.gay.net/politics/2011/11/16/antigay-talk-show-launched-victoria-jackson#.TsSd_8ByzV9.facebook 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 SaturdayNightLive alumna Victoria Jackson is involved causing some (perhaps mistaken) impression that it's all a skit.
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* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcCvvJWyx4c&feature=player_embedded PolitiChicks]], a right-wing "answer" to TheView, has led to endless discussion in the comment section (as well as on a number of other sites) about whether it's serious or a parody, with the fact that SaturdayNightLive alumna Victoria Jackson is involved causing some (perhaps mistaken) impression that it's all a skit.
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* A frequent issue with internet discussions, especially since you can't actually hear people talk. [[http://images.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/6830721.jpg This picture]] is popular for noting current confusion with the law.
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* A frequent issue with internet discussions, especially since you can't actually hear people talk.talk and thus can only give them a tone of voice from your own imagination. [[http://images.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/6830721.jpg This picture]] is popular for noting current confusion with the law.
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* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Dave's astoundingly terrible SweetBroAndHellaJeff webcomic is [[http://forums.white-wolf.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=47118 described as]] "a webcomic ironically maintained through a satirical cipher" with "legions of devoted fans, most of whom are totally convinced" of his sockpuppet persona's sincerity. The irony kicks in when readers realize that SBAHJ is much better known than Homestuck and MSPA and genuinely ''does'' have legions of devoted fans.
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* In Taken to something of a logical extreme in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', where ''SweetBroAndHellaJeff'', Dave's astoundingly terrible SweetBroAndHellaJeff webcomic StylisticSuck webcomic, is [[http://forums.white-wolf.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=47118 [[http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002226 described as]] "a webcomic ironically maintained through a satirical cipher" with "legions of devoted fans, most of whom are totally convinced" of his sockpuppet persona's sincerity. The A bit of meta irony kicks in when readers realize you consider that SBAHJ is in real life, ''Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff'' actually ''is'' much better known than Homestuck ''Homestuck'' and MSPA ''MSPA'', and genuinely ''does'' have legions of devoted fans.fans (though most of them are well aware of its ironic StylisticSuck value).
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** That said, it ''is'' a bit silly that San Franciscans, who are reputed to live in the most secularist city in America, are apparently comfortable with that same city having a Spanish Catholic name.
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* The HMS STFU copied the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' section that was on our own WarpThatAesop page circa January 2011 as seen [[http://www.journalfen.net/community/the_hms_stfu/526789.html here]]. Most of the commenters took it as real FanWank with only a few considering that it might be a joke. Then again, The HSM STFU usualy deals with people who have similar or worse positions in total seriousness - they were the ones who discovered ''FanFic/TheGirlWhoLived'', ''FanFic/HogwartsExposed'', ''FanFic/TheLastWar'', and the complete works of [[Horrible/FanFic pstibbons]], after all .
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** That said, it ''is'' a bit silly that San Franciscans, who are reputed to live in the most secularist city in America, are apparently comfortable with that same city having a Spanish Catholic name.
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A similar notion was named "The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Golden Harry Golden]] Rule" by Calvin Trillin: "The Harry Golden Rule, properly stated, is that in present-day America it's very difficult, when commenting on events of the day, to invent something so bizarre that it might not actually come to pass while your piece is still on the presses." See StealthParody, which this law tends to undermine. DontExplainTheJoke is one of the possible outcomes of this law. {{Parody Retcon}}s attempt to appeal to this. Compare DoesNotUnderstandSarcasm or InsultBackfire. Compare also the pitfalls of SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX. If you are trying to invoke this trope to get people to believe something you just made up to feign legitimacy, it's a BavarianFireDrill.
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A similar notion was named "The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Golden Harry Golden]] Rule" by Calvin Trillin: "The Harry Golden Rule, properly stated, is that in present-day America it's very difficult, when commenting on events of the day, to invent something so bizarre that it might not actually come to pass while your piece is still on the presses." See StealthParody, which this law tends to undermine. DontExplainTheJoke is one of the possible outcomes of this law. {{Parody Retcon}}s attempt to appeal to this. If a work actually becomes popular as a result of this law, that's MisaimedFandom. Compare DoesNotUnderstandSarcasm or InsultBackfire. Compare also the pitfalls of SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX. If you are trying to invoke this trope to get people to believe something you just made up to feign legitimacy, it's a BavarianFireDrill.
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** Ebert admitted that the paradox is true of ''all'' satire, to some extent. In order to poke fun at something, you first have to play it straight, and unless you [[{{Anvilicious}} beat your audience over the head with the point]] that you really don't agree with what you're depicting, there's always going to be someone who takes you seriously.
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* In his short story collection ''Famous Monsters'', KimNewman mentions that Penguin Books asked him to tone down the politics of his story "Pitbull Brittan", a savage satire on Conservatism based on the question "What would it look like if everything the [[BritishNewspapers Daily Mail]] said was ''true''?" To his bafflement, their objection was on the assumption that he was saying the world ''was'' like this.
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* In his short story collection ''Famous Monsters'', KimNewman mentions that Penguin Books asked him to tone down the politics of his story "Pitbull Brittan", a savage satire on Conservatism based on the question "What would it look like if everything the [[BritishNewspapers Daily Mail]] said was ''true''?" To his bafflement, their objection was on the assumption that he was saying the world ''was'' like this.
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*In his short story collection ''Famous Monsters'', KimNewman mentions that Penguin Books asked him to tone down the politics of his story "Pitbull Brittan", a savage satire on Conservatism based on the question "What would it look like if everything the [[BritishNewspapers Daily Mail]] said was ''true''?" To his bafflement, their objection was on the assumption that he was saying the world ''was'' like this.
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-->-- Ray Wylie Hubbard
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-->-- Ray '''Ray Wylie Hubbard
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[[caption-width-right:350:Pop quiz: is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Unholy_three.png this flyer]] declaring polio vaccine, water treatment, and psychology to be communist plots to destroy America a real pamphlet, or a parody of fervent 1950s "Red scare" tactics? (Answer: [[spoiler:[[NightmareFuel it's real!]]]])]]
->"''The problem with irony and satire is the dumb motherfuckers don't get it.''"
-->-- Ray Wylie Hubbard
The core idea of Poe's law is that a parody of something extreme can be mistaken for the real thing, and if a real thing sounds extreme enough, it can be mistaken for a parody, ([[NotSoDifferent all because parodies are intrinsically extreme]], [[CaptainObvious in case you haven't noticed it]]). This can also happen to someone whose picture of the opposing position [[TheWarOnStraw is such a grotesque caricature]] that it renders them unable to tell parody from reality. Reality and parody are further blended by the fact that something that started as a parody might turn into a WindmillPolitical that some people take as gospel and go to [[WindmillCrusader a very serious (if not literal) war]].
[[http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Poe%27s_Law According to]] the {{trope namer}}s, RationalWiki, Poe's Law was formulated by Nathan Poe, referring to the {{Flame War}}s on Christian forums where Creationism vs. Evolution was discussed: Many users posted parody comments, which were followed by both [[InternetBackdraft angry replies]] and [[MisaimedFandom supportive ones]]. Poe phrased his law thusly: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake it for the genuine article."
While Poe's Law referred originally to [[TheFundamentalist religious fundamentalism]], it can also apply to any debate where controversy runs high and at least one position is particularly extreme, such as the infamous North Korean Twitter feed that got mistaken for the real thing.
It can also refer to the idea (supported by a [[EdgarAllanPoe different Poe]]) that a poem should be short enough that the reader's mind does not wander, [[ViewersAreGoldfish but that's something else entirely]].
A similar notion was named "The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Golden Harry Golden]] Rule" by Calvin Trillin: "The Harry Golden Rule, properly stated, is that in present-day America it's very difficult, when commenting on events of the day, to invent something so bizarre that it might not actually come to pass while your piece is still on the presses." See StealthParody, which this law tends to undermine. DontExplainTheJoke is one of the possible outcomes of this law. {{Parody Retcon}}s attempt to appeal to this. Compare DoesNotUnderstandSarcasm or InsultBackfire. Compare also the pitfalls of SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX. If you are trying to invoke this trope to get people to believe something you just made up to feign legitimacy, it's a BavarianFireDrill.
To ''really'' turn this trope into a brain-twister compare it with DeathOfTheAuthor.
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'''NOTE:''' When adding an example, please cite a specific instance or instances of the relevant work being either mistaken for a parody or being analyzed to determine whether or not it is serious. Any examples that shoehorn in a work with WeaselWords or the like but without such instances being cited (i.e. something along the lines of "this could easily be mistaken for a parody" or "some people have a hard time believing this is real" with little else) will be assumed to be ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike and will be deleted as such.
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!!Examples:
* [[Webcomic/{{Xkcd}} Fun game: try to post a YouTube comment so stupid that people realize you must be joking.]] ([[http://xkcd.com/301/ Hint: this is]] '''[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption impossible.]]''')
* The blog [[http://antispore.com AntiSpore]] fooled many gamers, despite some ''[[ViewersAreMorons very]]'' obvious notes on the blog's "Real About Page", like the following:
-->But the Bible teaches us that God was not done with man. For we were His creation and He then spoke to Noah in Genesis 8:21-27 after the flood.\\
"21. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And [[RickRoll never gonna give you up. 22. Never gonna let you down. 23. Never gonna run around and desert you. 24. Never gonna make you cry. 25. Never gonna say goodbye. 26. Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.]] 27. Never truly believe anything you read on the Internet. There will always be cases of Poe's Law."
** Even after this, people kept up arguing against him for ''over a thousand comments''; there's over 2500 total, and the balance slowly shifts to people actually getting the joke, but toward the end there's ''still'' one or two condemning him as a bigot. Most of them apparently didn't even read the entry, and some of them who did read it, and pointed out he'd gotten the Bible verses wrong.
** Though it's possible that the later is a very confusing example of Poe's Law, in that we don't get that they're correcting the verse ironically.
* ''TheOnion'' is the embodiment of this trope, its satirical articles often being mistaken for real ones, while real extremist articles are often suspected of being Onion articles.
** An article about ''Literature/HarryPotter'' was actually taken for real by one fundamentalist site, in spite of (or perhaps because) it ending with [[RefugeInAudacity J.K. Rowling praising Satan and calling Jesus weak and stupid]].
** Recently their videos have also undergone this trope, one of the most infamous cases being the video "Martial Law Plans Revealed?" [[http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/07/21/1529256/Onion-Story-Gets-Blown-Out-of-Proportion taken seriously by some conspiracy sites.]]
** Recently, The AV Club posted an article about how [[http://www.avclub.com/articles/glenn-beck-restores-honor-to-spiderman-turn-off-th,50001/ Glenn Beck loved the Spider-Man musical]]. Since both Beck and "Turn Off The Dark" are both polarizing topics which often spark fierce discussions, a lot of people thought this was just ''The Onion'' making stuff up, even though the AV Club is the non-satire section. It's not a joke. He really did enjoy the musical.
** The blog [[http://literallyunbelievable.tumblr.com/ Literally Unbelievable]] chronicles people taking Onion articles at face value and posting them on Facebook. It is as hilariously depressing as it sounds.
*** Of course, Poe's Law applies recursively here, as it's impossible to tell whether the Facebookers are just playing along with the joke.
** 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.
* ''TheColbertReport.'' Colbert plays a right-wing pundit, but the show in general is against right-wing pundits. Many conservatives were convinced that Colbert was a real neoconservative and the show was a ''[[StealthParody parody of the way the left views the right]]''[[hottip:*:cf. Ohio State University [[http://hij.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/14/2/212 study]] "The Irony of Satire: Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in ''TheColbertReport''"]].
** 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'' so harsh. In the aforementioned dinner, he [[{{CrowningMomentOfAwesome}} wrecked The President pretty much to his face]] and Bush just...didn't get it.
** Some conservatives realize that Colbert is a parody but believe that he makes correct points in character. In other words, the StrawmanHasAPoint.
* In his review of the film ''{{Bamboozled}}'', RogerEbert noted that most movie-going audiences wouldn't catch onto the film's satire about how black people are portrayed in modern media; people would simply get pissed off at the use of {{Blackface}}. Indeed, [[AudienceAlienatingPremise the film ended up a box-office bomb as a result]].
* SalvadorDali 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 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.
* 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.
** Or read their page on BarackObama, or any Democratic president of the 20th century. But especially Obama.
*** Regilion: Claims to be Christian
*** On April 27, 2011 Obama officially released his long form birth certificate, which many experts have determined to be a fake and no legal body has determined its authenticity.
** See also [[http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/User%3ACs1987/Examples_of_Bias_in_Conservapedia the second iteration]].
** The Conservapedia article on GeorgeWBush once said that he was "one of the greatest presidents in American history," that he was "successfully able to salvage the Hurricane Katrina rescue effort after it was sabotaged by a Democratic/Islamo-Fascist conspiracy" and that his unpopularity is entirely due to him being forced by the Democratic Congress to push through bank bailout packages.
** The root of the issue is that the site's proprietor, Andy Schlafly, keeps the site under tight control. The number of satirists has led him to become ever more paranoid and ban-happy... [[http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/images/5/56/Wigo1053_5.png the result being that only the parodists remain]], driving him ever-deeper into his mad spiral of paranoid banning.
** RationalWiki speculates that this is the first living example of a "Poe Paradox"--that in any given fundamentalist group, any new person/idea sufficiently fundamentalist to be accepted by the group will come off as being so ridiculous as to risk being called a parodist or a parody.
** This evolved into meta-humor once [[http://www.conservapedia.com/Poe%27s_law this entry]] made its way on there - particularly with this laughable assertion:
-->"Clearly, the cause of the mistake is not that the genuine article is no better than a mockery; rather, the cause of the mistake is that some people lack the critical thinking skills and/or experience to differentiate the two."
** The caption below the picture of the Black Cat and number 13 on that page is even more hilarious. It quotes a ''WallStreetJournal'' article to claim that Christianity reduces belief in superstitions, yet the "unlucky 13" pictured is a superstition ''that has its origins in Christianity''.
* A frequent issue with internet discussions, especially since you can't actually hear people talk. [[http://images.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/6830721.jpg This picture]] is popular for noting current confusion with the law.
* RogerEbert went political and wrote a [[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/COMMENTARY/809219997/-1/RSS blog post]] giving a statement of creationist beliefs, with the intention of making a point about people's inability to recognize irony. While many people did see the satire, a significant number of readers either thought he was being serious or assumed the site had been hacked. PZ Myers [[http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/09/there_is_such_a_thing_as_bad_s.php criticized]] the article, pointing out that when there are so many people making the same claims without irony, the joke becomes undetectable to anyone who doesn't already know Ebert's stance on the issue.
* There are ''still'' people who have to have it pointed out to them that ''AModestProposal'' is ''not'' intended literally. ''A Modest Proposal'' was JonathanSwift's satirical essay that suggested solving the problem of working-class children in Ireland being a drag on their parents by selling them for food to rich people. Most interpretations read it as a satire of British attitudes towards the working-class of Ireland. It created a scandal because some people didn't get the joke (Swift intended a scandal, but not like that). Modern readers who take it seriously justify their stance with Swift's misanthropy and deteriorating mental condition later in his life. At the time of the writing however, he had no such attitudes or problems.
* Popehat closed their [[http://www.popehat.com/2009/07/22/north-korean-twitter-account-not-genuine/ fake Twitter account]] for North Korea's propaganda ministry after legitimate news agencies started picking up stories from it.
* In ''{{Religulous}}'', Bill Maher disguises himself and starts preaching the ''actual'' tenets of [[ChurchOfHappyology Scientology]] on a park, naturally, most people laugh at him and call him crazy, unaware that those were Scientologists' real beliefs. A lot of rest of the film heaped such generous helpings of StrawmanPolitical, AuthorTract, and ''very'' selective interviewing that it may as well have been a parody of what atheists believe....
* This also showed up in the ''SouthPark'' episode "Trapped in the Closet" when an official narrates Xenu's origin story. The phrase, "This is what Scientologists actually believe" was put in because it would've been indistinguishable from the show's weird humor to those who didn't already know the story.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcU4t6zRAKg "John Clarke and Bryan Dawe"]] are an Australian comedy duo that satirize politicians and other public figures. A quick glance at the comments on the YouTube page shows how many people think they're for real. Given that each of those sketches involve John Clarke playing all of the political figures, anyone who watches more than one should very quickly realize that he is not both Prime Minister Rudd and Senator Stephen Conroy, but is in fact a sketch comedian.
* When [[http://www.freeratio.org/index.php/ Internet Infidels Discussion Board]] decided to start a contest of making parodies of the creationist organization [[http://www.answersingenesis.org/ Answers in Genesis]] cartoons, they received a cease and desist letter from the latter claiming that the parodies "clearly (are) likely to cause confusion as to the affiliation between your client and my client..." Here's an example: [[http://www.answersingenesis.org/CreationWise/Cartoons/July98CW2.gif original]] and [[http://www.animecritic.com/_temp/parody-July98CW2.gif parody]].
* Performance artists The Yes Men have made a career out of this, or at least they did during the Bush administration. One of their projects included passing out pamphlets called "Yes Bush Can!" with a checklist of the Bill of Rights, urging people (these were handed out at Republican rallies) to check off the rights they were willing to waive in the name of the War on Terror. They had assumed people would be shocked, but instead the audiences filled them out and turned them back in.
* BrassEye, which hoodwinked British celebrities into participating in fictional public information films, culminating in a Member of the British Parliament raising a question in the House of Commons about the ludicrous made-up drug "cake".
* Matt Harding of WhereTheHellIsMatt fame did a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogcqFaNbah4 joke video]] claiming that his WhereTheHellIsMatt videos were just an elaborate hoax, involving robot backup dancers and other such absurdities. Soon news articles around the Internet were lambasting Matt for this terrible deception, to the point where he had to make a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVAg6YTgTn4 public announcement that the hoax was a hoax]].
* There were "scientific" papers and conferences that swallowed and processed nonsensical, [[FeigningIntelligence but imitating their style and language]] papers, only to discover they were punned:
** ''Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity'' [[http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/ by Alan Sokal]]. Alan Sokal, a physicist who was [[HardOnSoftScience severely annoyed]] at scientifically-illiterate deconstructionist philosophers trying to work quantum physics into their philosophy, submitted a paper to the journal ''Social Text'' which declared "quantum gravity"--and ultimately reality itself--[[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve to be a social construct]]. ''Social Text'' accepted it. Right after printing it he notified them it was a [[InsaneTrollLogic logically inconsistent rambling]] as bad as he could write without [[MushroomSamba using mushrooms]]. Oops. ''Social Text'' was annoyed; they thought that the paper had merit, and, according to them, while the editors themselves didn't think reality was a social construct, they thought that Sokal thought it was!
** ''WMSCI 2005'': accepted an article ''Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy''. The only value it has for the computer science is the fact that this garbage wasn't even written by human, but by pseudorandom text generator. Then these pranksters went to the conference, held a "technical" session and did [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill read a few more randomly generated speeches]] with straight faces. [[http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/ All is there]] -- along with Open Source text generator.
* This is the basic premise of Rick Mercer's Talking to Americans where he travels around the US asking people about fake Canadian news stories. The show even got the better of some soon to be well known American politicians [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhTZ_tgMUdo here]].
* Just as YouTube user potholer54 was about to nominate a creationist for his 2008 Golden Crocoduck Award (given to the creationists who knowingly and most effectively lied to support their arguments), the creationist (that is: the man Potholer54 is talking about, not PT54 himself) outed himself as a satirist. Despite this, potholer explained that one of his arguments (the rings of Saturn prove a young solar system) is actually used by some creationists. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztejNZIZdsU Watch for yourself here.]]
* Syndicated columnist Jack Kilpatrick once wrote a column purporting to be an interview with an ACLU leader named Eton "Si" Eritas. Eritas claimed he was determined to remove all traces of religion from America, going so far as to change the names of any cities with religious connotations, such as San Francisco and St. Paul. This column shocked many people and sparked countless columns and letters to the editor flaming the ACLU. The only problem? Eritas didn't exist. Eton "Si" Eritas, spelled backwards, is "Note: Is Satire."
* MIT pranksters once staged a fake piece of art in a neighboring school's exhibition. They created it by turning a wastebasket upside down and putting a dining hall tray, plate, and utensils on top of it, and then creating a fake plaque on the wall with a nonsensical description of its meaning. It stayed up for weeks.
* A group of students at Rice once assembled a bunch of junk brought up from a college basement in the middle of the college's quad and declared it to be art, just to see if anyone would believe them. They ended up winning an award and receiving a small grant, and the thing stayed up for the entire semester.
* When ''PrivateEye'' ran a mock-up ''Daily Telegraph'' cover, parodying the MP Expenses Scandal the paper broke, but targeting its proprietors, the reclusive Barcley Brothers, they received a letter threatening them with libel action. Their response was that it was in the "joke" section of the magazine, it clearly wasn't a real news story, and they didn't think there was a case to answer.
* A viral marketing ploy for the movie ''Hell's Half Acre'' created the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXG_XaORJbE WUCP]], an organization that represents the [=~What Do You Mean, It's Not For Kids?~=] mentality to the most logical extreme by acting shocked when they see the movie trailer and are appalled that this is being passed off as children entertainment and call for it to be banned. Of course, it's so over the top that no one would believe it was real, right? Well, as a look at the comments will point out, many people took it seriously. On a plus side, the movie producers did get quite a bit of free publicity.
* The Bonsai Kitten web site, which admittedly was a very sick joke, was a joke nevertheless (close inspection of several of the photographs revealed that they were obviously posed, such as a kitten supposedly "in" a bottle being actually behind it). Still, the site drew tons of protests, including several chain letters, from those who failed to grasp the parody.
* The cancellation of the ''[=~Chappelle's Show~=]'' and Chappelle's subsequent CreatorBacklash response was due to a growing MisaimedFandom of racist white viewers.
* In a strange case, creationist speaker Kent Hovind earned the P.T. Barnum "One Born Every Minute" Award when he incorporated information of the finding of man and dinosaur fossils co-existing and the government cover-up of this discovery, from a website into his lectures as evidence against evolution. In reality, the website was a fake one ([[http://www.nmsr.org/Archive.html and somewhat conspicuously so]]) that the New Mexicans for Science and Reason (NMSR) had set up as an April Fool's Day prank.
* Several YouTube videos, such as the famous "Angry German Kid" video were originally made to ''satirize'' how German politicians saw gamers. Unfortunately, if you ask around today, most people won't actually know it's faked because of how easy it is to put on a show for the camera.
* Another famous video, the Greatest Freakout Ever: At least 3/5 of the comments were "Boy, this is what ''{{World of Warcraft}}'' does to people?!?", ignoring of course that you can replace "{{World of Warcraft}}" with "Xbox Live" or "EverQuest" and it'd ''still'' make sense...or that. The internet still seems to be divided between those who think it was fake and those who think it was real, without any conclusive proof one way or the other.
** Detractors often point to the over-the-top reactions of Steven (the freakout kid) as [[BeggingTheQuestion clearly]] being acted.
** Some cite the interview of Steven by DanielTosh on his tv show [[{{Ptitledzx0p3j9}} Tosh.0]] as definitive proof that the video was fake. The episode involves Tosh [[PerpSweating interrogating]] Steven, with the help of MichaelWinslow ([[HeyItsThatGuy You know]], [[AdamWesting that guy who makes the funny noises]]), eventually using a [[LieDetector polygraph machine]], and finally resorting to a threat to [[LaserGuidedKarma shove a remote up his butt if he doesn't tell the truth]]. It should be noted, that this is a [[RuleOfFunny comedy show]], and it's not known what occurred back stage.
** Supports often cite the other freakout videos posted of Steven, in which he destroys a microwave, as well as a Christmas tree, and attacks a car with a baseball bat. This would require the parents to be in on the lie as well, which would seem unlikely. This implies that it is [[OccamsRazor much more likely]] that Steven is simply an out of control teen who acts out, rather then a complex hoax designed to deceive the internet. One wouldn't want to completely assume it's real, though. There is one video where Jack (The filmer) puts the camera in his room and ties the door shut and then gets Steven's attention. However, there was ''another'' video of the exact same thing where Steven has what would appear to be a pickle inside his underwear and Jack did the ''same'' prank. Jack then said that Steven saw the video, made him remove it and ''make another one''..which was the one with the GagPenis. For some reason, Steven's acting a ''lot'' more irrational in the "Remake". Wafflepwn (Jack) removed both. Several things seem to be just freak coincidences, such as STeven "finding out" about the videos when he supposedly found out about one of those videos earlier (And is apparently very stupid as both vids had "part", as well as titles and he didn't look for it), conveniently walking in during an interview...and not ''once'' has he ever gone after the camera. And he obviously knows that Jack's filming...isn't it weird that if he ''does'' have such a rabid temper and only has enough control to say "Turn off that camera" or "stop filming", since he apparently ''knows'' his brother has put videos on the internet? One would assume he'd grab that camera and smash it rather than screaming or hitting something replaceable.
*** The parents ''do'' seem to be on board with this, however...since they don't seem to find anything wrong with their own son posting videos of them on their worst behaviour on the internet. Especially since there's enough proof to get both Jack and Steven taken away.
* Tech parody site BBspot ran an [[http://www.bbspot.com/news/2006/11/home-theater-regulations.html article]] claiming that the MPAA was lobbying Congress to pass a law requiring anyone who owns a home theater setup to purchase a home theater license, and additionally, that they would require people to install surveillance devices to make sure there were no unauthorized home screenings. Even though the site only runs parodies and not actual news, they had to run a second article explaining this fact to all the people who read it and thought it was real.
* The HMS STFU copied the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' section that was on our own WarpThatAesop page circa January 2011 as seen [[http://www.journalfen.net/community/the_hms_stfu/526789.html here]]. Most of the commenters took it as real FanWank with only a few considering that it might be a joke. Then again, The HSM STFU usualy deals with people who have similar or worse positions in total seriousness - they were the ones who discovered ''FanFic/TheGirlWhoLived'', ''FanFic/HogwartsExposed'', ''FanFic/TheLastWar'', and the complete works of [[Horrible/FanFic pstibbons]], after all .
* Speaking of ''Fanfic/TheLastWar'' and PoesLaw, there were some posters who suggested it to be a TrollFic, noting Harry and Hermione's [[RobotUnicornAttack choice of theme song]] and that it's like a perfect Harmonian ClicheStorm.
* The infamous ''LegendOfZelda'' video ''FanFic/TheLightOfCourage'' 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 weather it's real or not.
** Basically, it was based on a horrible fanfic that it's creator took completely serious, then someone else created the parody by adding purposefully badly done animation and voiceacting. Also the case for the infamous "Half-Life: Full Life Consequences" video, though this one is more universally recognized as a joke.
* OlderThanFeudalism: Scenes from Aristophanes over-the-top parody of Socrates, ''The Clouds'', were cited in Socrates' trial as if they were real evidence against him. You know, the one that ended with him forced to drink hemlock?
* {{Cracked}}.com has two articles about "Satirists Attacked by People Who Totally Missed the Point," [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-satirists-attacked-by-people-who-totally-missed-point/ here]] and [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-more-satirists-attacked-by-people-who-missed-point/ here.]]
** Also, see [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19036_too-stupid-satire-how-media-branded-me-as-racist.html this article]] about how the blogger meant to come off as so ridiculous that nobody could take it seriously... ''and the media thought he was being literal.''
** [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/i-cant-tell-if-movies-are-being-serious-anymore This cracked article is about movie trailers of 2011 summer movies]] - a romcom, a comedy and an action movie - that can be interpreted as parodies of their respective genres. Of course they aren't.
* The Guardian finally pokes fun at the long standing leftist idea that promoting humans rights in totalitarian hellholes is the modern definition of "imperialism". [[http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=1689 Doesn't it?]]
* Whynne at DeviantArt [[http://whynne.deviantart.com/art/Comic-Trolls-98357844 reminds us]]: the difference between a {{troll}} and someone who tries to [[ParodyRetcon cover a pathetic pratfall]] is not always visible -- or existent.
* The jury is still out as to whether [[http://www.timecube.com Timecube]] is real or a parody of schizophrenic antisemitic conspiracy theorists. It doesn't help that Gene Ray is (or rather, [[AuthorExistenceFailure was]]) a ReclusiveArtist.
* SarahPalin mocked the way her opponents [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous obsess over minor misstatements of hers]] by releasing a blog post consisting entirely of erroneous statements made by President BarackObama. At least some of her detractors criticized the new "mistakes" from Mrs. Palin.
* Opinions are split on whether Niccolò Machiavelli's most well-known piece, ''The Prince'', is a satirical TakeThat at the Medici who had recently had him brutally beaten or a genuine article giving advice to monarchical rulers.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wacfY-w0Vjc&feature=youtu.be Michael Savage debates a pro-amnesty liberal over the Arizona immigration laws]], and outright [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this.
-->--"Of course you're pulling my leg."
* Bernard de Mandeville, a Dutch physician in the XVIII century, wrote a poem named ''[[http://maartens.home.xs4all.nl/philosophy/mandeville/fable_of_bees.html The Fable of Bees]]'', which was a satire to the moralist campaigns of the time. The poem caused public commotion in the time, because he wrote that the vices of the people can be useful to the society, but today is regarded as a serious economic tract and many economists complain that it's hard to interprete him. Of course it's hard, because Mandeville wrote it as a satire, he didn't have any pretension to make a scientific tract.
* In 1989, some people took seriously a humorous piece proving that [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bblOK2RKiFQ Lenin was a mushroom]].
* A group parodying the Tea Party released videos advocating a boycott of Disney's Disney/{{Aladdin}} on the grounds that it was Islamic propaganda. Many were confused as to whether the videos were serious or not, but in this case the fact that it was believable as a Tea Party position ''was'' part of the point of the parody.
* People taking AnalCunt's songs literally.
* TobyKeith's "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue." Is it a genuine (if a little overheated) expression of PatrioticFervor, or an ironic glorification of the {{Eagleland}} (Flavor 2) mentality? It's really hard to tell. The song starts off sincere and heartfelt enough, but the abrupt shift from "melancholy" to "kickass" is bizarre enough to inspire at least a few self-aware chuckles. It gets even more confusing if you watch the music video, which backs up the lyrics with an intense montage of various U.S. military bombs, missiles, and fighter jets, looking almost like a Technicolor ''DrStrangelove''. On balance: since most country/western songs don't feature so much violent or militaristic imagery, it's easy to see this as a spoof; however, the song's CrowningMusicOfAwesome and throat-grabbing finale make you ''want'' to take it at face value. So, all things being equal, it's all probably being played straight.
* ''{{Housos}}'' is a BlackComedy of Australia's working-class bludgers (i.e. the working-class who who don't work). Two current affairs programs aired hard-hitting 'exposés' on this offensive new RealityShow. Interestingly, when they realised the show was fake they tried a new angle, complaining about tax-payers money being used to subsidise filth. The show's home channel, {{SBS}}, raised all the funds itself. All in all, the ''Housos'' creator was happy at the hilarious free publicity, [[http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/nines-current-affair-to-forget-20110217-1ay72.html while the current affairs shows got publicity of the wrong kind altogether]].
!!In-Universe Examples
* An in-universe example would be Leo and Max's 'SpringtimeForHitler' gambit in ''TheProducers''; they aimed to produce the biggest flop ever so they could make off with the investment money, so they took in a story glorifying [[GodwinsLaw Hitler]] and made it as offensive as they could. Unfortunately, the actor playing Hitler himself was [[SoBadItsGood so terrible]] that the audience assumed that it was a parody, and the show sold out. The director deciding to throw in some catchy musical segments didn't help.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Dave's astoundingly terrible SweetBroAndHellaJeff webcomic is [[http://forums.white-wolf.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=47118 described as]] "a webcomic ironically maintained through a satirical cipher" with "legions of devoted fans, most of whom are totally convinced" of his sockpuppet persona's sincerity. The irony kicks in when readers realize that SBAHJ is much better known than Homestuck and MSPA and genuinely ''does'' have legions of devoted fans.
* In a ''CheckerboardNightmare'' arc, the titular character creates a children's show centered entirely around promoting himself and his merchandise. Said MerchandiseDriven nature is so transparent that the show becomes a hit amongst teenagers and young adults who mistake it for biting satire.
* In ''Erasure'', an intellectual black author, sick and tired of his philosophical books being passed over for publication because they're not suitably "Black," writes a way, ''way'' over the top parody of thuggish ghetto-chic blaxploitation called ''My Paffology'' and has his agent send it out as a protest. Random House accepts the book at face value as a fierce portrayal of the Black experience and pays six hundred grand for it. The book, now renamed ''Fuck'', goes on to win the National Book Award.
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