Blog Parody

June 24, 2003 12:34 PM

Blog Parody Ben and Mena.
We are cute. We are cute. We are cute. We are cute. We are cute. We are cute. We are cute. We are cute. We are cute. We are cute. We are cute. We are cute. We are cute. We are cute.

Adam Curry.
Celeblogging. I used to be a MTV VJ, you know, big hair, that whole thing? Yeah, I was cool. MTV sucks now though. I am cool. I am Beautiful People.

Cory Doctorow.
y0 toTaL 0wnz0red. y0 LiKeZ kRaD!!1!!1! DRM is EVIL! Magic Sci-Fi Future Net-Inspired Utopia Whuffie Waffle dust. Post-death, post-work, net-in-your-head future. BounceBounce. BoingBoing. SmoingeSmoinge.
posted by nyxxxx (32 comments total)

Let me be the first to say...
Huh?
posted by Nauip at 12:44 PM on June 24, 2003

Man, you just don't see ham-fistedness on that scale every day...
posted by COBRA! at 12:48 PM on June 24, 2003

I have not heard of any of those people. Except Dave Winer, Cory Doctorow, and Anil.

You call that an A list?

(Anil makes every A list, just 'cause he kicks ass.)
posted by norm at 12:56 PM on June 24, 2003

Huh? Post make sense?
posted by xmutex at 1:04 PM on June 24, 2003

Anil makes every A list because his name starts with A.
posted by wendell at 1:05 PM on June 24, 2003

Ben and Mena are cute.
posted by padraigin at 1:08 PM on June 24, 2003

Is there such a thing as an A-List blogger anymore? Under the noise of so many blogs, haven't things been muffled by the 'pioneers' long ago?
posted by benjh at 1:08 PM on June 24, 2003

Ben & Mena are responsible for this really obscure blogging script called Movable Type. It's no wonder you've never heard of them. </snark>
posted by junkbox at 1:13 PM on June 24, 2003

Boy, I'm glad I'm not on that list! My ego could never survive such a scathing summary of my blogging image.
</sarcasm>
posted by me3dia at 1:20 PM on June 24, 2003

So where's the MetaFilter parody (or did the author's head explode trying to approximate son_of_minya)??
posted by wendell at 1:22 PM on June 24, 2003

I have not heard of any of those people.
rageboy, esther dyson, doc searls, dan gillmour, howard rheingold

/me feels old
posted by madamjujujive at 1:56 PM on June 24, 2003

I have not heard of any of those people. Except Dave Winer, Cory Doctorow, and Anil.

You should at least know who Andrew Sullivan and Dave Barry are. Shame!
posted by Hildago at 1:57 PM on June 24, 2003

For satire to be funny, the satirist must know something about that which is being satirized.
posted by eustacescrubb at 2:07 PM on June 24, 2003

Ben & Mena are responsible for this really obscure blogging script called Movable Type. It's no wonder you've never heard of them.


Snark not! I have no idea what movable type is, although I understand some bloggers employ it.

You should at least know who Andrew Sullivan and Dave Barry are. Shame!

You're right on Dave Barry. And I believe I heard the name "Andrew Sullivan" once, but no, it doesn't really ring any bells. Sorry.
posted by norm at 2:10 PM on June 24, 2003

For satire to be funny, the satirist must know something about that which is being satirized.

Yup. And I submit that, for this really to have worked, the entries should have been in voices that matched the target, instead of the same monotonous voice repeating a bunch of target-specific phrases. You can almost reverse-engineer the algorithm used to write these.
posted by COBRA! at 2:13 PM on June 24, 2003

No Dave Winer parody is complete without gratuitous links to dictionary.com for words that us common folk couldn't possibly understand.

I thought the parody was funny but not because it was accurate. Bad meme, Bad bad. Swat the Bad Memes with a Rolled-Up Newspaper. Dave Winer is a smushed toad.
posted by Succa at 2:23 PM on June 24, 2003

Agreed. John Belushi parodied Joe Cocker, and it was funny because he was so dead on. This blog parody is not funny because the author misses the point of those blogs and why they are popular.

Norm, it's a big big big 'Net. Some of those people are worth checking out. There's no shame in not being hip to the internet superstars.

What? No Kottke?
posted by ashbury at 2:27 PM on June 24, 2003

What? No Kottke?

I thought the same thing, but then... he doesn't exactly have a schtick that's easy to skewer, does he?

kottke's my hero
posted by scarabic at 2:44 PM on June 24, 2003

Succa gets it. Right On. Have I mentioned I work at Harvard yet?
posted by turbodog at 3:48 PM on June 24, 2003

No Dave Winer parody is complete without gratuitous links to dictionary.com for words that us common folk couldn't possibly understand.

Ah, but you don't ever need to parody Dave Winer.
posted by wackybrit at 4:46 PM on June 24, 2003

I may be mistaken and shallow, but I believe this is a search engine ranking tactic. (?)
posted by jdaura at 5:18 PM on June 24, 2003

I think this parody is great. Not in content, necessarily, but in tone and intent. Bloggers often nestle into their own little semblance of celebrity, feigning modesty while they pepper us with their offhand thoughts, disgusting personal details, news of their local weather, and big juicy pictures of horses asses.

I suppose they've always been open to ridicule, but who wants to up and shit on someone's blog out of the blue? It's always better to chill out and let goobers be goobers. Taking the piss out of them is not done very often. At least this was done well.
posted by scarabic at 6:20 PM on June 24, 2003

you just don't see ham-fistedness on that scale every day...

Pretty much what I thought when I first saw it. 6 for idea, -10 for execution.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:08 PM on June 24, 2003

Look at his Glenn Reynolds spoof. Where's the "Heh?" The "Indeed?" The unending stream of Lileks links? This isn't a parody or a mimicry of the Instapundit blogging style so much as it is a rambling attempt at editorialization, and likewise for the rest. No, this feels more like a stab at something resembling 9622.

As for MeFi parody: Metafilter In The Ruins.
posted by brownpau at 7:57 PM on June 24, 2003

This is terrible.
posted by jpoulos at 9:29 PM on June 24, 2003

What are these "blogs" you people keep talking about?
posted by signal at 10:11 PM on June 24, 2003

C'mon, it's funny

But what I want to know is, what's with the posts here with the </whereIsMyBeginTag> stuff?

Geez; hasn't *everybody* been drilled on well-formed markup? No wonder there are so many broken RSS feeds.
posted by Ayn Marx at 10:35 PM on June 24, 2003

And I believe I heard the name "Andrew Sullivan" once, but no, it doesn't really ring any bells.

Lucky bastard.
posted by rcade at 6:06 AM on June 25, 2003

Metafilter.
We let anyone post here. You gotta take the good with the bad. I am smart. No, I am smart. No, he is smart.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 6:21 AM on June 25, 2003

Metafilter is it's own parody.
posted by websavvy at 7:05 AM on June 25, 2003

scarabic: Hey! I resemble that remark!
posted by kfury at 12:24 AM on June 26, 2003

kfury - indeed! You really do stay on top of your refers, don't you? I'm glad we could share that moment [hug].
posted by scarabic at 11:15 AM on June 26, 2003