6 ms·
The Onion actually recently submitted a hilarious satirical amicus brief to the Supreme Court for the case Novak v. City of Parma [1] that made a splash in lega
by Ivoirians 4y ago
The Onion actually recently submitted a hilarious satirical amicus brief to the Supreme Court for the case Novak v. City of Parma [1] that made a splash in legal Twitter, for a case where a man who was arrested for making a parody Facebook page of his local police department. The amicus brief is itself a parody, an irreverent joke that has been submitted as a sincere legal document. (Thanks to LegalEagle for making a video on this [2]).
The entire point of the amicus brief is an argument that labeling a parody as a parody destroys the point of the parody. The four arguments:
I. Parody Functions By Tricking People Into Thinking That It Is Real
II. Because Parody Mimics "The Real Thing," It Has The Unique Capacity To Critique The Real Thing
III. A Reasonable Reader Does Not Need A Disclaimer To Know That Parody Is Parody
IV. It Should Be Obvious That Parodists Cannot Be Prosecuted For Telling A Joke With A Straight Face
It seemed a bit relevant to this. It's pending certiori and might go ignored, but the Supreme Court could rule that parody is protected under the first amendment, which would make Twitter an opponent of actual free speech (the legislative definition, not the new internet definition).
[1] https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-293/242292/20221003125252896_35295545_1-22.10.03%20-%20Novak-Parma%20-%20Onion%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-293/242292/2022...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxTWonQvXkw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxTWonQvXkw
- bestouff 4y ago> III. A Reasonable Reader [...] There. Here's the problem.
- kibwen 4y ago"Your honor, it's clear that my client cannot possibly be considered a reasonable human being, as evidenced by the fact that he is on Twitter."
- recuter 4y agoIf only it was limited to Twitter. I'd pay the $8/mo for an official extension that content-blocks everything emanating from that domain. Call it Twitter Pro-phylactic.
- kryogen1c 4y ago> I. Parody Functions By Tricking People Into Thinking That It Is Real This is the opposite of what's true. Parody only functions because it's obviously NOT real, but real adjacent, a facsimile. How could it be a joke if you just think it's real and assimilate it into your world view?
- Ivoirians 4y agoIt tricks people into (temporarily) thinking that it is real. For a brief moment, your brain has to work out that it's too absurd to be real.
- dang 4y agoRelated: The Onion files Supreme Court amicus brief defending the right to parody - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33481989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33481989 - Nov 2022 (53 comments) Defending parody: the most important amicus brief yet - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33175057 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33175057 - Oct 2022 (22 comments)