I have a fine-tuned sense of humor when it comes to satire. I think some of the most thought provoking humor comes from taking a thing or an issue and turning it inside out on itself to shine a spotlight on the absurdity of an issue.
Programs like the first five seasons of "Saturday Night Live", "In Living Color", "The Kids in the Hall" and (on of my all time favorites) "Friday's" took topics straight from the headlines, grabbed them by their starched collars and shook some humanity and humility into them without crossing the line into blatant bad taste.
The bottom line? That's no longer case. And while I marvel at how some of these programs today can muster enough viewership to garner enough sponsors and viewership to stay afloat, I also recognize that I am old and set in my ways.
Today there is a mean-spiritedness to what passes for a lot of humor in general. It;s not just on television and in the movies...it invades just about every aspect of our lives. It really jumps out at me on social media and "the internet" because that is the universe I dwell in about sixteen hours a day, seven days a week.
I have no problem that clearly label their site as satire and some of those are quite entertaining to a discerning audience. I do find myself amused at times when dumb people "share" posts from those types of sites on social media because they actually believe what they are reading.
Don't be offended by my use of the word "dumb". I am firmly convinced that there is a class of people in the world who are just not naturally bright. Maybe it's genetics, maybe it's environment and upbringing or maybe it's just laziness and the fault of our education system.
When I get messages that says "I ain't read no damn books since I dropped out in the tenth grade and I turned out good" I wince. Not just because of the double negative or the use of 'good" instead of well. I wince because some people accept their dumbness and wear it as a badge of honor. And they don't even know how stupid they truly are.
And then there is the other side. "Educated" morons who hold alphabet degrees from impressive institutions, come from a high level and viable upbringing and have had every opportunity to excel and thrive, but yet they choose to be stupid. (Think: current wave of politicians on the national level that think idiots like Alexandra Ocasio Cortez have something significant to add to the world.)
Like my Grandpa Robinett used to say...."If a darn fool chooses to be stupid, trying to learn him different isn't going to change him and is just going to frustrate you."
Touche'. Intentionally stupid people don't have to be stupid. That's a choice they made.
What sparked this is some of the current "spoof" accounts I see on Facebook.
There has been a recent round of fake accounts that coop the artwork and look of an existing Facebook account and then proceeds to post outlandish stuff in the hopes that they can confuse people into believing that the account is both real and that the post are coming from the person or organization that represents the original account.
You see a lot of "City of ???????" accounts that look like the real deal but then posts stuff that is sometimes rude and offensive in the hopes that some self-appointed slackjaws will take the posts to heart. In the same vein, you see some spoof sites that are hysterical. (I'll give a shoutout to however is doing the "Facebook Fire Department" page locally...."Putting out fires all over Facebook 24-hours a day!")
That's funny. That's satire.
We even have our own doppelganger. It's out there and it's not to hard to find. It's not updated regularly and my guess is that it's being revised in between stints in jail for bad checks, meth manufacturing and bestiality for the person(s) responsible.
Their memberships hovers between 178-182 people and I would venture that 150 of those are people who have been banned from or embarrassed by something on Today in Fort Smith. The others are people who have stumbled upon their site innocently and been duped by their illegal use of our copyrighted materials and graphics.
I encountered one in the latter group today..."Why would you put something like that on your page!"
I didn't. You got punked.
They have cost me a few advertisers, but at the end of the day I don't want to be associated with a business that I have to apologize to because of someone else's ignorance. I spent too many years working for those kind of people.
In the beginning, I cared. I dutifully and unsuccessfully reported them to Facebook. I had an internet guru and expert try to track down the source. I got my attorney to draft a "cease and desist" letter for when I found the trailer trash.
And then...I just stopped caring. I look at my 14.5K followers as a gift and a blessing, so why should I be concerned with 150 imbeciles who dislike me?
In fact, as a person who has said time and time again in this very public format that I don't give a damn what people think of me, I'm a little ashamed that I let it get to me. I wasted time and energy I'll never get back.
I would say if you are among the small handful of people who were duped into following the "spoof page", I would appreciate you going over there and "unliking" that fiasco or, at the very least, giving me the benefit of the doubt when you see something posted under our shield.
J.P. Morgan once said "What you build is only as impressive as the efforts displayed by your critics to take it down." Of course, he stole all his ideas from Nicola Tesla.
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck....it's probably not Today in Fort Smith.
Because we soar while everyone else waddles.
