Poe's Law
by cbiebel (2020-06-10 12:56:48)

In reply to: Baba's addition to a partial list of laws  posted by BabaGhanouj


Poe's law: Without a clear indicator of the author's intent (ie. emoticon, smiley, etc.), it's impossible to create a parody of extreme (often listed more specifically as "Fundamentalist") views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the views being parodied.

One variation:

Poe's Paradox: In any fundamentalist group, a paradox exists where any new person (or idea) sufficiently fundamentalist to be accepted by the group is likely to be so ridiculous that they risk being rejected as a parodist (or parody).

A historical example of a variation of Poe's paradox was anarchist Leon Czolgosz, the man who killed President McKinley. He kept wanting to join up with fellow anarchists, but since he was so enthusiastic in his interest, they thought he was a cop trying to embed himself into their organizations to spy on them, and they even posted warnings about him in their newsletters, which Czolgosz read, so he decided to show them that he was sincere by shooting the president.