With apologies to...well...everyone reading this blog. We all know right where Richard's charisma and magnetism are (and that they're thriving). But this is funny, nonetheless, and I'm a sucker for satire.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/richard-griecos-star-power-inadvertently-donated-t,3389
Showing posts with label satire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label satire. Show all posts
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Richard Grieco Death Hoax Hoax
No, that's not a typo.
This morning, when I read that last week's reports of Richard Grieco's death had been a hoax, I was immediately suspicious. See, like most people involved in marketing and PR, I live by Google alerts. And Google hadn't mentioned anything about Richard Grieco dying, or about there being a hoax claiming that Richard Grieco had died. The first news I heard about the widespread hoax was this article about how it had all been a hoax.
And then there was this photo, which seemed a little odd since there is actually a Star Magazine, commonly referred to as Star Mag, which doesn't look like this. And the fact that when I saved the photo, I got a template--on the site, Richard's face appears in the white space.
I did a quick search for the supposed memorial Facebook page and it didn't exist, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions. Perhaps the page had been taken down when it emerged that the whole thing was a hoax.
But no.
A little more digging (okay, clicking a link in the middle of the article) revealed that the hoax hoax was meant to be parody (or satire, or something). The whole site on which it appears, apparently, is a mock-news site dedicated to humor, much like The Onion or Andy Borowitz except...not funny or clever.
As near as I can tell (based on the site's own description, not just the stories that appear there), the "People" section is dedicated to posting fake celebrity news stories that look just like real celebrity news stories. The satire, apparently, is in the volume and repetitiveness. So, if you're a regular reader, you can go, "Ha ha, yeah, that's the third celeb whose dog has had paw-replacement surgery this week!" If, however, you just land on a random article, it's likely to be entirely indistinguishable from a real news article. They've entirely left out the elements of absurdity or exaggeration that distinguish satire from what passes today for straight news.
At least, that's how it seemed to me. I'm apparently wrong, though, as the site information assures me that "all stories are obviously not true." Opinions may vary, but many of the comments seemed to agree with me, including some that expressed honest confusion as to whether particular stories were true or not.
Anyway...don't worry. Richard Grieco is not dead, and also, no one ever thought he was.
This morning, when I read that last week's reports of Richard Grieco's death had been a hoax, I was immediately suspicious. See, like most people involved in marketing and PR, I live by Google alerts. And Google hadn't mentioned anything about Richard Grieco dying, or about there being a hoax claiming that Richard Grieco had died. The first news I heard about the widespread hoax was this article about how it had all been a hoax.
And then there was this photo, which seemed a little odd since there is actually a Star Magazine, commonly referred to as Star Mag, which doesn't look like this. And the fact that when I saved the photo, I got a template--on the site, Richard's face appears in the white space.
But no.
A little more digging (okay, clicking a link in the middle of the article) revealed that the hoax hoax was meant to be parody (or satire, or something). The whole site on which it appears, apparently, is a mock-news site dedicated to humor, much like The Onion or Andy Borowitz except...not funny or clever.
As near as I can tell (based on the site's own description, not just the stories that appear there), the "People" section is dedicated to posting fake celebrity news stories that look just like real celebrity news stories. The satire, apparently, is in the volume and repetitiveness. So, if you're a regular reader, you can go, "Ha ha, yeah, that's the third celeb whose dog has had paw-replacement surgery this week!" If, however, you just land on a random article, it's likely to be entirely indistinguishable from a real news article. They've entirely left out the elements of absurdity or exaggeration that distinguish satire from what passes today for straight news.
At least, that's how it seemed to me. I'm apparently wrong, though, as the site information assures me that "all stories are obviously not true." Opinions may vary, but many of the comments seemed to agree with me, including some that expressed honest confusion as to whether particular stories were true or not.
Anyway...don't worry. Richard Grieco is not dead, and also, no one ever thought he was.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Googling Richard Grieco
I didn't do it.
Stop, that is. My daughter tried to intervene, but I stay up later than she does. And I'm glad I didn't listen, because I found one of the funniest websites I've ever seen. Of course, I landed on the site on an article about Richard--he's the one I was Googling, after all. But the whole site is loaded with hilarious content.
I'm sure some of his die-hard fans won't think this is funny, but they'll be wrong. And seriously, I haven't been aware of his existence for very long, but the one thing that seems pretty clear in my limited exposure is that the guy has a hell of a sense of humor about his quasi-washed up status (probably because he seems to have a lot of interests and probably doesn't spend a lot of time lamenting the passage of the glory days).
So, check it out. It's funny, really.
Actor Richard Grieco Discovered Living in Storage Unit on Storage Wars
Stop, that is. My daughter tried to intervene, but I stay up later than she does. And I'm glad I didn't listen, because I found one of the funniest websites I've ever seen. Of course, I landed on the site on an article about Richard--he's the one I was Googling, after all. But the whole site is loaded with hilarious content.
I'm sure some of his die-hard fans won't think this is funny, but they'll be wrong. And seriously, I haven't been aware of his existence for very long, but the one thing that seems pretty clear in my limited exposure is that the guy has a hell of a sense of humor about his quasi-washed up status (probably because he seems to have a lot of interests and probably doesn't spend a lot of time lamenting the passage of the glory days).
So, check it out. It's funny, really.
Actor Richard Grieco Discovered Living in Storage Unit on Storage Wars
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