History Main / StealthParody

* "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" by Music/BeastieBoys was originally made as a parody of "attitude" songs, but this was lost on basically everyone. This upset the Boys so much that [[CreatorBacklash they haven't played the song live since 1987]]. It may be a sad testament to how morally deprived contemporary pop music has become (particularly rap, the genre occupied by the Beastie Boys) that the song has been misassessed, because its lyrical content makes it overwhelmingly obvious that the song is supposed to be a joke.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheChristmasTree'' is widely considered to be ''Film/TheRoom'' of animated Christmas specials, mocked as a SoBadItsGood work. However, [[https://collinwatchesmovies.wordpress.com/2016/12/02/the-christmas-tree/ this blog post]] suggests that it was ''deliberately'' awful, making it a parody of Christmas specials by design.

* Defenders of ''Film/SuckerPunch'' (which was a box-office flop and got attacked for sexism) often cite it as a sincerely feminist parody of pseudo-feminist ActionGirl works that use ass-kicking "strong female characters" as an excuse for MaleGaze and {{Fanservice}}, while failing to depict any kind of genuine female empowerment. Whether or not you actually believe this depends on your point of view.

* "Glokenpop" by Spiderbait initially seems to be [[TastesLikeDiabetes a sweet, cutesy]] ear worm. The song itself is actually a mockery of {{Glurge}}-y, [[MoneyDearBoy money-driven]] and repetitive {{Pop}} songs, with an UncannyValley music video to reaffirm this.

* The weekly ''New York Times'' feature [[http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/category/metropolitan-diary/ "Metropolitan Diary"]] (made up of often [[TastesLikeDiabetes extremely sweet]] BigApplesauce anecdotes submitted by readers) was successfully pranked by the hosts of the non-commercial radio show [[http://sevenseconddelay.blogspot.com/ ''Seven Second Delay'']] (including ''Series/{{Monk}}'' creator Andy Breckman) in 2007. With the help of listeners and staffers they [[http://sevenseconddelay.blogspot.com/2007/02/overheard-everywhere.html created a submission]] that succinctly parodied the main elements of a typical "Metropolitan Diary" entry: overwritten prose, unrealistic dialogue, a weak punchline, and author unawareness that they travel in wealthier circles than most New Yorkers. The ''Times'' published it, then was forced to make a retraction after learning it was a hoax. Cue [[http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/02/the_new_york_ti.html much gnashing of teeth]] from the "Metropolitan Diary" editor. He even threatened to scuttle the Fulbright Scholarship application of the intern who submitted the entry in her name.

Sometimes overlaps with "PoesLaw", but Poe's Law is applied specifically when a parody of anything extreme is mistakenly taken at face value, or the opposite: an over-the-top work that is intended to be serious is confused with a parody.

* Physics professor [[http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/ Alan Sokal]] set out to prove that the postmodernist cultural studies journal ''Social Text'' would publish [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible absolute nonsense so long as "(a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions."]] He wrote a paper attacking the "dogma" that cultural criticism has nothing to contribute to physics, [[InsaneTrollLogic arguing]] that quantum gravity proves ''the universe'' to be a social/linguistic construct and that math must be amended to incorporate "the insights of the feminist, queer, multiculturalist and ecological critiques." (He also invokes a [[TheForce "morphogenetic field" that pervades all things]], links set theory's ''axiom of choice'' to the ''pro-choice movement'', and flat-out denies that the "(so-called) scientific method" can ever lead to "reliable knowledge.") The piece was published unaltered and immediately denounced as a "pastiche of left-wing cant" by its author, leaving ''Social Text'' to admit that "the idea did not even occur to us that we had to check [the] physics [of a] credentialed physicist." Sokal later published a book about this, [[https://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Impostures-Alan-Sokal/dp/1861970749/ref=sr_1_3/153-1532677-9955468?ie=UTF8&qid=1487458416&sr=8-3&keywords=alan+sokal Intellectual Impostures]].

* The [[https://youtu.be/-P7r9Y0SSBQ&feature=related Angry German Kid]] was created by a very sane, if talented, kid during one height of the endlessly recurring German "Killerspiele" (= [[MurderSimulators "killer games"]]) political debate. It ended up being cited by several media outlets as a genuine example of videogame-inpired violence.

* The above risk was exploited in a different manner by the notorious ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' fandom presence Farla. Using a pen name, she wrote ''[[http://serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?t=105650 Lucki]]'', a TakeThat aimed at both writers of [[MarySue Mary Sues]] and [[TakeThatAudience the fandom that enables them]]. She does this by writing a so-called "Middling Sue", not over-the-top in any particular way, who was not recognized as such by the forum community and was in fact praised and defended against her in-story critics. [[spoiler:The [[BlackHoleSue distortion of the world around Lucki]] is dispersed at the end [[PaintingTheMedium through the influence of an Absol]]]].

** Likewise, the TropeNamer for MarySue was the ''Star Trek'' fic ''Fanfic/ATrekkiesTale'', parodying what would eventually come to be known as, well, Mary Sues.

* BBC Radio 4 ran a programme called ''Down The Line'', a phone-in talk show where the host was an idiot and the callers ran the gamut of fools, drunks, the confused and the very strange. It was promoted as being a serious programme (despite being in the comedy slot) and there were complaints that it was dumbing-down, the host shouldn't have let near a microphone (or the callers allowed on air) and the whole thing was a terrible mistake. Naturally, it was all a parody.

* The popular FanFilm ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power/Rangers Power/Rangers]]'' mocks TrueArtIsAngsty by applying the trope to ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' of all things and playing it with a straight face. The message is that making something DarkerAndEdgier doesn't automatically make it any less stupid and goofy; if anything, it just makes all the stupid stuff stand out even worse than it did before. Naturally, a lot of people didn't get the joke and thought the creators were seriously attempting to make a grim and gritty ''Power Rangers'' movie, mainly because the filmmakers really [[ShownTheirWork did some in-depth research into canon]] and put a lot of effort into making the film look good, in order to help sell the satire. Even Saban themselves fell for it, which led to the film briefly getting taken down for copyright infringement.
* A satirical Facebook & Tumblr account called [[http://www.sharesfromyouraunt.com/ Shares From Your Aunt]] (which makes fun of Facebook memes and conservative media, usually replete with intentional spelling errors and CowboyBebopAtHisComputer), put up a billboard in Iowa just before the 2016 caucuses with the hashtag #takebackarecountry. [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Daily Mail]] [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3418961/Take-country-Billboard-campaign-Iowa-attacking-greedy-politicians-faces-ridicule-glaring-error.html fell for it]], as well as many other news outlets and social media users.
* ''Literature/HappyAppy'' [[http://happyappy.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Dronian/Revelations was eventually revealed]] to be a TrollFic that deliberately [[ClicheStorm embodied many worn-out creepypasta cliches]] many years after its original publication. (More specifically, the author originally intended for it to be serious, but after a friend laid out all the flaws in the story before publication, he decided to turn it into a trollpasta and ran with it.)

* The now-defunct Play 4 Real Gaming is a gaming website parody/satire in the same sense as Website/TheOnion, complete with ludicrous stories about the video game industry that you'd think people would realize were false (like 'most gamers can't beat first level of VideoGame/{{Super Mario Bros|1}} or 'Satanists give VideoGame/PokemonXAndY 6/10 for not recruiting Satanists well enough'). And just like The Onion, a whole bunch of people in the video game media and on forums have ended up taking it seriously and using it as a 'news' source, looking like right morons in the process.

* Website/TheOnion sometimes achieves this effect by using the same writing style and format as a serious newspaper would, and sometimes is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Onion#The_Onion_taken_seriously rather too successful]]. More confusingly, its political cartoons so resemble the [[StrawmanPolitical strawman view of (right-wing) political cartoonists]] that they've been [[http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-cavanaugh29mar29,0,1927201.story taken as such]] by papers who wouldn't know a conservative from Stephen Colbert.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda: WebAnimation/TheLightOfCourage'' started as ostensibly an animation test from a new computer-animated ''Zelda'' cartoon from Creator/DiCEntertainment. It's a parody, but given how bad some of [=DiC=]'s cartoons have been, ''many'' mistook it for the real thing... It's actually a stealth parody of IGN forum user Joe_Cracker's futile attempts to get his awful but sincere ''Zelda'' movie script made into an animated movie. Joe_Cracker himself was fooled at first, even voicing [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]] in the first episode, but the parody became less stealthy once he backed out.

* The [[https://youtu.be/0kBTUAGAWvs&feature=player_embedded Game <insert seven variations of the F word here>]] is a stealth parody of the typical swear-aholic video game reviewer made popular by WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd. The character is increasingly frightening because the longer he, his targets, and his target's fans continue to proliferate, the more obvious it becomes that his reviews are the logical conclusion everyone else is ''aspiring towards''.

* The Majin Buu arc of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' is more humorous than the preceding arcs had been, but it also has the makings of someone lampooning how overblown the series had become at that point — except that someone was Creator/AkiraToriyama himself. [[note]]Keep in mind that Toriyama was originally (and to an extent, still is) a gag-manga author and that ''Dragon Ball'' itself started out as a gag-manga.[[/note]] Two characters make up ridiculously over-the-top names for ineffective attacks in a nod to the CallingYourAttacks nature of the series. One of those characters irreverently [[GenreSavvy invokes more of the series' clichés for drama]] while fighting the BigBad (long powers-ups, holding back his true power, trash talking, HeroicSecondWind, and NewPowersAsThePlotDemands), turning a long-awaited battle with the fate of the universe at stake into an outright farce. Another character gets an enormous power up just by sitting still for a long time as opposed to [[TrainingFromHell a grueling training session]]; while the character providing said power up is introduced in a series of jokes that take the piss out of some of the series' oldest clichés. The characters have become so ridiculously powerful that they can ''open holes between dimensions'' just by screaming. The BigBad initially appears as a fat, pink, childlike demon that kills people by turning them into sweets and eating them; with one character noting that [[FluffyTheTerrible his name sounds like a fart]]. He is so ridiculously overpowered that he's nigh-unkillable (at one point he recovers from being ''reduced to smoke''), has an insane amount of transformations (8 in total), and causes so much destruction that at one point almost the entire cast (along with Earth's population) is dead and the Earth itself is destroyed. The JokeCharacter ends up saving the world (momentarily) simply by telling the BigBad that killing people is wrong. The revered Super Saiyan transformation, which once required extreme circumstances to reach, is easily obtained by a couple of young bratty kids that have no clue of its importance; while the new Super Saiyan form has a very exaggerated appearance and ends up only being useful for stalling the BigBad, resulting in the BigBad being defeated through a collaborative effort rather than a game changing power-up. Finally, at one point, the BigBad gets [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] by ''a fighting piece of candy''.

* The Majin Buu arc of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' is more humorous than the preceding arcs had been, but it also has the makings of someone lampooning how overblown the series had become at that point — except that someone was Creator/AkiraToriyama himself. [[note]]Keep in mind that Toriyama was originally (and to an extent, still is) a gag-manga author and that ''Dragon Ball'' itself started out as a gag-manga.[[/note]] Two characters make up ridiculously over-the-top names for ineffective attacks in a nod to the CallingYourAttacks nature of the series. One of those characters irreverently [[GenreSavvy invokes more of the series' clichés for drama]] while fighting the BigBad (long powers-ups, holding back his true power, trash talking, HeroicSecondWind, and NewPowersAsThePlotDemands), turning a long-awaited fight with the fate of the universe at stake into an outright farce. Another character gets an enormous power up just by sitting still for a long time as opposed to [[TrainingFromHell a grueling training session]]; while the character providing said power up is introduced in a series of jokes that take the piss out of some of the series' oldest clichés. The characters have become so ridiculously powerful that they can ''open holes between dimensions'' just by screaming. The BigBad initially appears as a fat, pink, childlike demon that kills people by turning them into sweets and eating them; is so ridiculously overpowered that he is nigh-unkillable (being impaled, bisected, blown to bits, and even ''reduced to vapor'' with no effect); has a ridiculous amount of transformations (8 in total); and causes so much destruction that at one point almost the entire cast (along with Earth's population) is dead and the Earth itself is destroyed. The JokeCharacter ends up saving the world (momentarily) simply by telling the BigBad that killing people is wrong. The revered Super Saiyan transformation, which once required extreme circumstances to reach, is easily obtained by a couple of young bratty kids that have no clue of its importance; while the new Super Saiyan form has a very exaggerated appearance and ends up only being useful for stalling the BigBad, resulting in the BigBad being defeated through a collaborative effort rather than a game changing power-up. Finally, at one point, the BigBad gets [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] by ''a fighting piece of candy''.

* The Majin Buu arc of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' is more humorous than the preceding arcs had been, but it also has the makings of someone lampooning how overblown the series had become at that point — except that someone was Creator/AkiraToriyama himself. [[note]]Keep in mind that Toriyama was originally (and to an extent, still is) a gag-manga author and that ''Dragon Ball'' itself started out as a gag-manga.[[/note]] Two characters make up ridiculously over-the-top names for ineffective attacks in a nod to the CallingYourAttacks nature of the series. One of those characters later [[GenreSavvy invokes more of the series' clichés for drama]] while fighting the BigBad (long powers-ups, holding back his true power, trash talking, HeroicSecondWind, and NewPowersAsThePlotDemands), turning a long-awaited fight with the fate of the universe at stake into an outright farce. Another character gets an enormous power up just by sitting still for a long time as opposed to [[TrainingFromHell a grueling training session]]; while the character providing said power up is introduced in a series of jokes that take the piss out of some of the series' oldest clichés. The characters have become so ridiculously powerful that they can ''open holes between dimensions'' just by screaming. The BigBad initially appears as a fat, pink, childlike demon that kills people by turning them into sweets and eating them; is so ridiculously overpowered that he is nigh-unkillable (being impaled, bisected, blown to bits, and even ''reduced to vapor'' with no effect); has a ridiculous amount of transformations (8 in total); and causes so much destruction that at one point almost the entire cast (along with Earth's population) is dead and the Earth itself is destroyed. The JokeCharacter ends up saving the world (momentarily) simply by telling the BigBad that killing people is wrong. The revered Super Saiyan transformation, which once required extreme circumstances to reach, is easily obtained by a couple of young bratty kids that have no clue of its importance; while the new Super Saiyan form has a very exaggerated appearance and ends up only being useful for stalling the BigBad, resulting in the BigBad being defeated through a collaborative effort rather than a game changing power-up. Finally, at one point, the BigBad gets [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] by ''a fighting piece of candy''.

* The Majin Buu arc of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' is more humorous than the preceding arcs had been, but it also has the makings of someone lampooning how overblown the series had become at that point — except that someone was Creator/AkiraToriyama himself. [[note]]Keep in mind that Toriyama was originally (and to an extent, still is) a gag-manga author and that ''Dragon Ball'' itself started out as a gag-manga.[[/note]] Two characters make up ridiculously over-the-top names for ineffective attacks in a nod to the CallingYourAttacks nature of the series. One of those characters later [[GenreSavvy invokes more of the series' cliches for drama]] while fighting the BigBad (long powers-ups, holding back his true power, trash talking, HeroicSecondWind, and NewPowersAsThePlotDemands), turning a long-awaited fight with the fate of the universe at stake into an outright farce. Another character gets an enormous power up just by sitting still for a long time as opposed to [[TrainingFromHell a grueling training session]], while the character providing said power up is introduced in a scene that blantantly takes the piss out of some of the series' oldest jokes. The characters have become so ridiculously powerful that they can ''open holes between dimensions'' just by screaming. The BigBad initially appears as a fat, pink, childlike demon that kills people by turning them into sweets and eating them; is so ridiculously overpowered that he is nigh-unkillable (being impaled, bisected, blown to bits, and even ''reduced to vapor'' with no effect); has a ridiculous amount of transformations (8 in total); and causes so much destruction that at one point almost the entire cast (along with Earth's population) is dead and the Earth itself is destroyed. The JokeCharacter ends up saving the world (momentarily) simply by telling the BigBad that killing people is wrong. The revered Super Saiyan transformation, which once required extreme circumstances to reach, is easily obtained by a couple of young bratty kids that have no clue of its importance; while the new Super Saiyan form has a very exaggerated appearance and ends up only being useful for stalling the BigBad, resulting in the BigBad being defeated through a collaborative effort rather than a game changing power-up. Finally, at one point, the BigBad gets [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] by ''a fighting piece of candy''.

* The Majin Buu arc of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' is more humorous than the preceding arcs had been, but it also has the makings of someone lampooning how overblown the series had become at that point — except that someone was Creator/AkiraToriyama himself. [[note]]Keep in mind that Toriyama was originally (and to an extent, still is) a gag-manga author and that ''Dragon Ball'' itself started out as a gag-manga.[[/note]] Two characters make up ridiculously over-the-top names for ineffective attacks in a nod to the CallingYourAttacks nature of the series. One of those characters later [[GenreSavvy invokes more of the series' cliches for drama]] while fighting the BigBad (long powers-ups, holding back his true power, trash talking, HeroicSecondWind, and NewPowersAsThePlotDemands), turning a long-awaited fight with the fate of the universe at stake into an outright farce. Another character gets an enormous power up just by sitting still for a long time as opposed to [[TrainingFromHell a grueling training session]]. The characters have become so ridiculously powerful that they can ''open holes between dimensions'' just by screaming. The BigBad initially appears as a fat, pink, childlike demon that kills people by turning them into sweets and eating them; is so ridiculously overpowered that he is nigh-unkillable (being impaled, bisected, blown to bits, and even ''reduced to vapor'' with no effect); has a ridiculous amount of transformations (8 in total); and causes so much destruction that at one point almost the entire cast (along with Earth's population) is dead and the Earth itself is destroyed. The JokeCharacter ends up saving the world (momentarily) simply by telling the BigBad that killing people is wrong. The revered Super Saiyan transformation, which once required extreme circumstances to reach, is easily obtained by a couple of young bratty kids that have no clue of its importance; while the new Super Saiyan form has a very exaggerated appearance and ends up only being useful for stalling the BigBad, resulting in the BigBad being defeated through a collaborative effort rather than a game changing power-up. Finally, at one point, the BigBad gets [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] by ''a fighting piece of candy''.

* HardcorePunk band Chaotic Dischord were basically formed for the sake of BitingTheHandHumor — members of the band Vice Squad took a dim view of some of the other acts signed to their label Riot City records, having an argument with label head Simon Edwards in which they claimed they could make something of the same quality "in ten minutes". Shortly after, the group took a couple roadies into the studio with them and quickly wrote "Glue Accident", then submitted it to a Riot City compilation under a fake name, claiming to be friends of Vice Squad who would only deal with the label through them. Not only did Chaotic Dischord get signed to Riot City, they became one or the label's best selling acts.

* HardcorePunk bsnd Chaotic Dischord were basically formed for the sake of BitingTheHandHumor — members of the band Vice Squad took a dim view of some of the other acts signed to Riot City records, having an argument with label head Simon Edwards in which they claimed they could make something of the same quality "in ten minutes". Shortly after, the group took a couple roadies into the studio with them and quickly wrote "Glue Accident", then submitted it to a Riot City compilation under a fake name, claiming to be friends of Vice Squad who would only deal with the label through them. Not only did Chaotic Dischord get signed to Riot City, they became one or the label's best selling acts.

* People don't get that ''Betty Bowers'' and the ''Landover Baptist'' church are parodies of religious extremists.

* People don't get that ''Betty Bowers'' and the ''Landover Baptist'' church are parodies of religious extremists. One reason is that Landover Baptist Church and, to an even greater extent, its discussion board are careful to quote exactly what the Bible says, in context. In doing so, they can both effectively criticize the Bible and rebuke genuine Christians for inevitably "interpreting" away parts of the Bible such as those regulating slavery.

* One of the more infamous possible examples of this in regards to "viral sensations" is "The dress", a meme that led into studies in differences in human colour perception. It's been speculated that the original poster of the image and his friends orchestrated the whole "what's the color of the dress" thing just to show the ridiculous ways things can go viral. This is supported by things such as the friend of the bride and groom saying that the dress was "obviously blue and black" in real life and the dress' maker only manufacturing a white and gold version until ''after'' the meme became huge.

* ''Series/SoRandom'', an AffectionateParody of teen sketch shows such as ''Series/AllThat'' began as the ShowWithinAShow in ''Series/SonnyWithAChance''. However, after Creator/DemiLovato left the show following the second season after going to rehab due to personal issues, the show was [[ContinuityReboot rebooted]] as a [[{{Defictionalization}} defictionalized]] version of ''So Random!'' without Lovato, retaining the show's StylisticSuck and outrageously over-the-top comic premises. Fans and critics unaware of the show's concept dismissed the show out of hand, and [[ShortRunners the reboot only survived one season]].

* Some have speculated that ''Manga/DeathNote'' is this for {{Shonen}} tropes. Despite being a dark crime thriller with a megalomaniacal mass-murderer for a protagonist, when you get down to it it contains all the basic elements of a typical shonen series, albeit in forms twisted nearly beyond recognition: a young, justice-loving ChasteHero (a narcissistic KnightTemplar with [[AGodAmI delusions of godhood]]) who discovers magical powers ([[ArtifactOfDoom a notebook that can be used to instantly murder anybody]]) and gains a FairyCompanion (an amoral embodiment of death), makes a WorthyOpponent rival ([[HeroAntagonist a detective trying to apprehend him for his crimes]]) and picks up a persistent GenkiGirl love interest (a vapid pop idol who's [[{{Yandere}} fanatically obsessed with him]] and, despite barely knowing him, is instantly willing to kill for, die for and marry him). Tsugumi Ohba comes off as a living super computer who [[TropeOverdosed knows every single manga trope inside and out]]. And he loves mindgames. The Stealth Parody interpretation makes a lot of sense.