4 ms·

Easily 9.9 out of 10 people won't get sardonicism. My contribution was the Evil of Pippi Longstocking site, which aimed to prove that Pippi Longstocking is the

Easily 9.9 out of 10 people won't get sardonicism. My contribution was the Evil of Pippi Longstocking site, which aimed to prove that Pippi Longstocking is the devil. (Anybody remember the '90s?) The Daily Show, which thought I was serious, invited me to do an interview with Mo Rocca. (They were disappointed to learn the site was a joke.) I earned a headline in Sweden, and in the story Astrid Lindgren lamented being misunderstood (ha!). The hate mail (and some fan mail) from Sweden was precious. I later added a section on the site called "Swedemail." You'd think that would tip people off, but nope. Anyhoo, AOL took it down eventually. But it's still on archive.org, thankfully. Here's a later snapshot with the Swedemail section (complete with Barnes & Noble affiliate ads!) if anyone's interested. http://web.archive.org/web/20021017095408/http://members.aol.com/rtvdave/pippi.html http://web.archive.org/web/20021017095408/http://members.aol...

nommm-nommm 10y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law >Poe's law is an Internet adage that states that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers or viewers as a sincere expression of the parodied views Similar, there was also the Bert is Evil website from 1997, which attempted to "prove" the Seasame Street character Bert was evil. It contained a photo of Bert photoshopped with Osama Bin Laden which actually appeared on a sign at a pro-Bin Laden rally in Bangladesh. The sign holder simply printed out a picture they found on the web, unaware of who the character was or that the photo was a parody. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_is_Evil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_is_Evil >After this photo was released on the news wires, the owners of Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop, raised the possibility of pursuing legal action against Ignacio. In response, he took down the "Bert is Evil" section of his website,[10]:736 also stating that he did not want to undermine the character in the eyes of children who watched Sesame Street. "I am doing this because I feel this has gotten too close to reality", he said.[11] Since the original Bert/Osama picture had been posted to Dennis Pozniak's mirror, he too was bombarded by the international media seeking interviews. As a result of all the attention Pozniak also closed his mirror.[12]
- Wonderdonkey 10y ago
  I remember a bunch of "X is evil" sites sprouted up at some point. There was even a site that aggregated them. I did mine when my wife was pregnant with our first daughter back in '96. I had quit smoking cigarettes, and this was one of my outlets. It would be cool if someone could produce an accurate timeline of all the AOL, Geocities, etc. sites. Too bad we only have incomplete snapshots! I wouldn't even now how to start something like that.
  - beaconstudios 10y ago
    That would be amazing, I had an old geocities site that unfortunately hasn't been archived by any of the new geocities archive sites.
    - coldpie 10y ago
      I had one that, unfortunately, has.
      - beaconstudios 10y ago
        my site was really atrocious and quite embarrassing (it was a fan-page for the kind of cheesy stuff 13-year-olds love like The Matrix and stickpage.com animations), but sometimes I think it would be cool to look back at where I started.
- js2 10y ago
  Back in the late nineties, I and a few coworkers called Gene Ray, the Time Cube guy. We were sure his site was parody. After a few minutes conversation, we concluded he was sincere. Therein lies the danger of extreme parody -- there are enough oddballs out there that you can't immediately discount something as parody.
  - nommm-nommm 10y ago
    I want to believe the Flat Earth Society is parody... but I know a Flat Earther and he's totality serious. :-/
throwanem 10y ago
> the Evil of Pippi Longstocking site I remember that! It was kind of an in-joke among those of us who haunted the Weir Hall computing labs in our high school days, cadging Internet access to make up for our lack of modem ownership and benefiting from the benign disinterest of ill-paid undergraduate admins.
- Wonderdonkey 10y ago
  Yes! That's great to hear!
jdminhbg 10y ago
> The Daily Show, which thought I was serious, invited me to do an interview with Mo Rocca. (They were disappointed to learn the site was a joke.) I enjoyed this in the article as well -- even people whose job revolves around writing jokes (Joe Rogan & the Register) completely missed the joke.
jerryr 10y ago
Agreed. I created a humorous cooking site that quickly became the #1 google result for, "how to sort lentils." It still gets a lot of hits from poor souls who are trying to figure out what that vague "sort the lentils" instruction in their recipe means. Later, I posted an article that proposed smoking coffee like crack. A Fox News station actually contacted me when they were working on a piece about teens smoking coffee to get high. They quickly dropped the conversation when I pointed out that the site is not a serious news source--as is evidenced by the fact that every posting is absurd.
- acd10j 10y ago
  http://www.porkulent.com/2011/01/how-to-sort-lentils/ http://www.porkulent.com/2011/01/how-to-sort-lentils/ This must be it. Had a good laugh.
  - jerryr 10y ago
    Yup. That's it. Edit: And this is the post that Fox was planning to reference in their story (if you're short on time, scroll past the blather and just enjoy the photos. Like they did): http://www.porkulent.com/2013/11/how-to-prepare-coffee/ http://www.porkulent.com/2013/11/how-to-prepare-coffee/
    - archagon 10y ago
      Thank you, this is brilliant.
- mirimir 10y ago
  I wonder why they don't just say "look for rocks". One also occasionally finds weed seeds in dried lentils and beans. And I imagine that there's selection for weeds with similarly sized seeds.
- Kronopath 10y ago
  And now Google is putting your website in a callout bubble and treating it as fact: https://i.imgur.com/mIyZV9a.png https://i.imgur.com/mIyZV9a.png
pinebox 10y ago
I remember this from when it made Cruel Site of the Day. I don't remember believing that it was serious, however.

nommm-nommm 10y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law >Poe's law is an Internet adage that states that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers or viewers as a sincere expression of the parodied views Similar, there was also the Bert is Evil website from 1997, which attempted to "prove" the Seasame Street character Bert was evil. It contained a photo of Bert photoshopped with Osama Bin Laden which actually appeared on a sign at a pro-Bin Laden rally in Bangladesh. The sign holder simply printed out a picture they found on the web, unaware of who the character was or that the photo was a parody. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_is_Evil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_is_Evil >After this photo was released on the news wires, the owners of Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop, raised the possibility of pursuing legal action against Ignacio. In response, he took down the "Bert is Evil" section of his website,[10]:736 also stating that he did not want to undermine the character in the eyes of children who watched Sesame Street. "I am doing this because I feel this has gotten too close to reality", he said.[11] Since the original Bert/Osama picture had been posted to Dennis Pozniak's mirror, he too was bombarded by the international media seeking interviews. As a result of all the attention Pozniak also closed his mirror.[12]

Wonderdonkey 10y ago
I remember a bunch of "X is evil" sites sprouted up at some point. There was even a site that aggregated them. I did mine when my wife was pregnant with our first daughter back in '96. I had quit smoking cigarettes, and this was one of my outlets. It would be cool if someone could produce an accurate timeline of all the AOL, Geocities, etc. sites. Too bad we only have incomplete snapshots! I wouldn't even now how to start something like that.
- beaconstudios 10y ago
  That would be amazing, I had an old geocities site that unfortunately hasn't been archived by any of the new geocities archive sites.
  - coldpie 10y ago
    I had one that, unfortunately, has.
    - beaconstudios 10y ago
      my site was really atrocious and quite embarrassing (it was a fan-page for the kind of cheesy stuff 13-year-olds love like The Matrix and stickpage.com animations), but sometimes I think it would be cool to look back at where I started.
js2 10y ago
Back in the late nineties, I and a few coworkers called Gene Ray, the Time Cube guy. We were sure his site was parody. After a few minutes conversation, we concluded he was sincere. Therein lies the danger of extreme parody -- there are enough oddballs out there that you can't immediately discount something as parody.
- nommm-nommm 10y ago
  I want to believe the Flat Earth Society is parody... but I know a Flat Earther and he's totality serious. :-/

throwanem 10y ago

> the Evil of Pippi Longstocking site I remember that! It was kind of an in-joke among those of us who haunted the Weir Hall computing labs in our high school days, cadging Internet access to make up for our lack of modem ownership and benefiting from the benign disinterest of ill-paid undergraduate admins.

Wonderdonkey 10y ago
Yes! That's great to hear!

jdminhbg 10y ago

> The Daily Show, which thought I was serious, invited me to do an interview with Mo Rocca. (They were disappointed to learn the site was a joke.) I enjoyed this in the article as well -- even people whose job revolves around writing jokes (Joe Rogan & the Register) completely missed the joke.

jerryr 10y ago

Agreed. I created a humorous cooking site that quickly became the #1 google result for, "how to sort lentils." It still gets a lot of hits from poor souls who are trying to figure out what that vague "sort the lentils" instruction in their recipe means. Later, I posted an article that proposed smoking coffee like crack. A Fox News station actually contacted me when they were working on a piece about teens smoking coffee to get high. They quickly dropped the conversation when I pointed out that the site is not a serious news source--as is evidenced by the fact that every posting is absurd.

acd10j 10y ago
http://www.porkulent.com/2011/01/how-to-sort-lentils/ http://www.porkulent.com/2011/01/how-to-sort-lentils/ This must be it. Had a good laugh.
- jerryr 10y ago
  Yup. That's it. Edit: And this is the post that Fox was planning to reference in their story (if you're short on time, scroll past the blather and just enjoy the photos. Like they did): http://www.porkulent.com/2013/11/how-to-prepare-coffee/ http://www.porkulent.com/2013/11/how-to-prepare-coffee/
  - archagon 10y ago
    Thank you, this is brilliant.
mirimir 10y ago
I wonder why they don't just say "look for rocks". One also occasionally finds weed seeds in dried lentils and beans. And I imagine that there's selection for weeds with similarly sized seeds.
Kronopath 10y ago
And now Google is putting your website in a callout bubble and treating it as fact: https://i.imgur.com/mIyZV9a.png https://i.imgur.com/mIyZV9a.png

pinebox 10y ago

I remember this from when it made Cruel Site of the Day. I don't remember believing that it was serious, however.