TechCrunch: Tumblr iOS revenue increased 125% since launching its parody of paid verification. “Tumblr’s parody of paid verification has already delivered the social network and blogging platform a 125% boost in iOS in-app purchase revenue since November, according to a new analysis of the app’s in-app consumer spending.”
Techdirt: Tom Lehrer Puts Whatever He Hadn’t Already Donated To The Public Domain Into The Public Domain. “Back in 2014, we wrote about how a fan had basically put all of his works on YouTube, and then contacted Lehrer to apologize. Lehrer told him there was nothing to apologize for: he was glad the works were out there. The fan then asked if he needed to do something to make sure that no one would ever copyright strike the videos, and Lehrer again says not to worry, as far as he’s concerned it’s all in the public domain, and he has no heirs to cause problems after he dies.”
Daily Beast: Musk Bans ‘Impersonation’ After Parody Elons Flood Twitter. “After vowing to make Twitter a bastion of ‘free speech,’ Elon Musk announced a new policy on Sunday that will remove accounts engaging in the type of ‘impersonation’ that comedians and others have used to humorously protest his takeover of the social network in recent days.”
The New Stack: Contra Chrome: A Biting Satire of Google’s 2008 Chrome Comic. “For those of us old enough to remember Web 2.0 in its heyday, one of the classic ‘texts’ of that era was the Chrome comic book, which was released in September 2008 at the same time the first version of the Chrome browser was launched. As a tech blogger at the time, I was lucky enough to receive a paper copy of the comic, which I still have on my bookshelf to this day. Well, this week I got a surprise when I discovered a new online ‘remix’ of that comic.”
Washington Post: What’s so funny about a Russian invasion?. “Since the Kremlin’s attack began in February, Ukraine’s official Twitter account, @Ukraine, has been poking fun at the invader, even as it highlights the brutalities Russia is inflicting upon the country. Why? Wars are ugly and certainly no laughing matter. But Ukraine’s approach isn’t new. According to a 2017 NATO strategic communications study, Ukraine has used memes, caricatures, parodies and satirical TV shows as buffers against the Kremlin’s propaganda since the annexation of Crimea. The post-invasion tweets are a continuation of that counter-propaganda campaign.”
Techdirt: Hey The North Face! When You Said Sending Us A Bogus Trademark Threat Was A Mistake, We Believed You; So Why Did You Do It Again?. “Nine years ago, someone Photoshopped a fake patch parodying The North Face logo, with one that said ‘Hey Fuck Face.’ They posted it to Flickr. You guys lost your shit and filed a bogus takedown notice on this obvious parody that was not being used in commerce in anyway. But, much worse, nine years later, you had your ‘brand protection’ company send us — a news organization — an even more bogus takedown for our reporting on it.”
New York Times: Birds Aren’t Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory.. “It might smack of QAnon, the conspiracy theory that the world is controlled by an elite cabal of child-trafficking Democrats. Except that the creator of Birds Aren’t Real and the movement’s followers are in on a joke: They know that birds are, in fact, real and that their theory is made up. What Birds Aren’t Real truly is, they say, is a parody social movement with a purpose.”
NCSU Technician: Parody Instagram accounts take NC State by storm. “A plethora of new Instagram accounts have popped up since the start of the semester, such as @ncsu_grubflubs. Despite having the idea as a freshman, the third-year student running the account didn’t create it until two weeks ago. @ncsu_grubflubs posts pictures of abandoned GrubHub tickets, which brings ‘lots of laughs and encourages clean up.’”
Man of Many: ‘Nestflix’ is a Massive Fake Netflix for Made-Up Movies and Shows. “Jan Quadrant Vincent 16 is finally coming to streaming platforms…sort of. Web designer Lynn Fischer has just launched ‘Nestflix’, a streaming platform for movies that don’t really exist. The new service showcases fictional or ‘nested’ movies and shows that have appeared or been referenced in real-life media, rounding up the clips of flicks you wish were real.”
WRAL: ‘See you soon, idiots’: Raleigh man puts 13-ft skeleton in his yard to encourage vaccinations. “[Jesse Jones] hopes he will at least convince one person to get vaccinated with his yard display. In his yard stands a 13-foot tall skeleton, depicting an unvaccinated person, with a sign hanging on him that says, ‘Not vaccinated, see you soon, idiots!’”
Boing Boing: How dumb Social Media rules punished me for a Lovecraftian parody of Billy Joel. “I realize that this is standard practice for this kind of intellectual property dispute: the social media company relies on overly-aggressive algorithms and always errs on the side of the powerful corporate complaint and removes the content until it’s proven innocent. It’s … not a great system.”
Mashable: TikTok users parody East Asian fetishization with ‘Americacore’ videos. “Under the guise of celebrating ‘Americacore,’ TikTok users are recording their trips to Target and Walmart, eating snacks like Goldfish crackers and Funfetti cookies, and using paper plates. Paired with gentle music and soft filters, the video trend mimics the way many Americans fetishize East Asian culture, but misrepresent them in ‘aesthetic’ content.”
New York Times: For Political Cartoonists, the Irony Was That Facebook Didn’t Recognize Irony. “In recent years, the company has become more proactive at restricting certain kinds of political speech, clamping down on posts about fringe extremist groups and on calls for violence. In January, Facebook barred Mr. Trump from posting on its site altogether after he incited a crowd that stormed the U.S. Capitol. At the same time, misinformation researchers said, Facebook has had trouble identifying the slipperiest and subtlest of political content: satire. While satire and irony are common in everyday speech, the company’s artificial intelligence systems — and even its human moderators — can have difficulty distinguishing them.”
Kansas City Star: Kansas City actor finds national spotlight with Disney musical parody promoting masks. “There is one line in Noah Lindquist’s viral Disney parody that made him pause before he recorded the video. Should he include it? People will figure out the word behind that bleep. But some things must be said, especially during a pandemic that has killed more than 220,000 Americans, especially when some people continue to turn up their noses at science and refuse to wear a mask.”
AFP Fact Check: This satirical video was made in 2020 using old black and white movie clips. “A video supposedly made in 1956 that warns of a deadly virus that will spread from ‘somewhere in Asia to the rest of the world’ by ‘the year 2020’ has been shared on Facebook thousands of times alongside a claim it accurately predicted the Covid-19 pandemic. The claim is false; the video creator told AFP it was made in 2020 for satire, in response to Covid-19 misinformation. ”
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