Saturday, December 30, 2006

Why is this not a joke?

On Miriam's urging I went to the site No Santa Clause for Hazleton and poked around. At first I was convinced, particularly after watching the sorry TV spot, that the website was satire, poking fun at the crusade against illegal aliens. After a little more study, however, I realized that they were serious. My question for the moment is what about the site (e.g. language, presentation, etc) convinced me that the author of the site is earnest about his or her beliefs? What properties key us into the intended meaning?

Update: Because it is a joke. Shumli 1 Zev 0.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

well, i wasn't sure myself. on the one hand, the city of hazleton most certainly has passed the illegal immigration relief act ordinance (http://www.hazletoncity.org/home_frameset.htm). google turns up some reports that think its for real, and some that don't.

but to your original question, the reason we have doubts as to its hoaxitude is that it doesn't seem quite well polished enough to be a satire, i think. the voiceover in the commercial, and the wording on the site, ar just not over the top enough, or perfectly caluclated enough. We expect that if it were a satire it would be sharper, it owuld say more things thaqt made the backers of the critiqued position look ridiculous. i think.

Shmuli said...

If you guys have doubts as to its hoaxitude you're both addled in the head.