To N4G: Learn How To Laugh!

Satire! It’s one of the forms of comedy where you make fun of something simply to get laughs. But it’s not because they necessarily dislike the material. Some of the most well known comedians use satire to get laughs, poking fun at some of the most timeless classics of our time. Anyone from Weird Al parodying a famous song to Seth MacFarlane using pop culture influence for shows like Robot Chicken or Family Guy. Hell, Mel Brooks even did it back in the day with the movies Blazing Saddles and Spaceballs. It’s one of the easiest recognizable forms of comedy.

So why, then, after many people had commented on the article explaining as clear as day what it was, are people still insisting that the Funny or Die article “6 Reasons Why you Shouldn't Buy A PS4” is either not satire, a trolling article, or a joke article that was meant to trash anything?

Yes, this has been going on for a day or so now that the article reached the top status on N4G: people who insist that the article has no place on the site. Seriously, go look at some of the comments, such as “Why do stupid articles like this get approved ???...GODDAMNN !! I wish there were mods for these type of news…these reasons reasons articles ARE NOT NEWSS !...N4G, NEWS 4 GAMERS”, which appeared when the story got approved. Or maybe one that came up just recently, “Doom article already?? Lolz” 4 hours at the time I write this. Or perhaps one that tries to point out that “yeah ok i get it, its supposed to be a joke. but jokes are supposed to be funny”. 3 hours ago, from someone who has six bubbles. Oh, and let’s not forget one that came up when the story got approved, “funnyordie is a site that, like 1up, should indeed die. Just die already…Like 1up they do not want anyone to decide for themselves.” Good thing this guy (who was the same guy I was referring to when I was saying that people should grow up before debating me about Geohot…which I haven’t stood away from, by the way) only has one bubble.

Yes, there are those that have tried to make it known that it was just meant to be funny, and know what Funny or Die is as a site. But do people listen?

Of course not.

Here’s the deal: FoD has always been a comedy site. It’s known for its memes and parody articles from various people. Some of them, I’ve found out, are from various celebs that you might recognize, such as Emma Stone and Will Ferrill. There are other users on there, too, though, and the person that posted this article in question also posted such lists as “6 Things Chris Brown Has Time For Since He Quit Twitter” (which one of those things is the author ripping on Xbox Live…so much for him being an X-Box fanboy), and “Chris Brown's List of People to Beat Up”. Aside from his fascination with Chris Brown, he’s got a ton of things he’s posted, most of them are there simply to get some laughs, even if it is at the expense of something famous.

And this is where us taking things like this too seriously comes into play. No one in the public eye is exempt or immune from being satirized. It’s natural. Thing is, as the case is here, most in the public eye don’t really take themselves too seriously, either. How much do you want to bet that if Sony saw this list and saw that one of the reasons was that the system “didn’t exist yet”, they would laugh? I’d bet you a lot that they would (how can you buy something that isn’t there). And, in reality, if people took the time to click on the article and read it, then they would see that it’s clearly not meant as a serious attempt at any FUD and instead just looked to parody other FUD articles like that for some laughs.

Is this what we’ve come to as a gaming community? We’ve become so insecure to our allegiances that anything that dares to poke fun at anything we like is automatically viewed as playing for the other team? Have people like Rob Foor, a cancer in the gaming community, picked on the Sony fanbase so much that they have guarded themselves against anything comedy about the system? Hell, gaming in general (not meaning to pick on you Sony faithful, but that article WAS about the PS4, after all). What would’ve happened if the creators of the works that Brooks, MacFarlane, or Weird Al parodies took themselves way too seriously? We would never have any comedy at all! If we can’t laugh at ourselves from time to time, then we’re doomed in all kinds of ways.

I can see why some would think twice about an article like that. After all, we all know how N4G is with approving articles. Hell, we get a blog about how screwed up the approval system is at the rate of one a week. That should tell you something about how after seeing so much of the same kind of article without any sort of regulation, you’re going to get a reaction like what we got when an article like Funny or Die comes along that reminds us that it’s okay to laugh at ourselves, and reminds us that being an elitist is a bad thing, and that we should have a sense of humor.

Besides, who wouldn’t want a new Vectorman game? Get on it, Sega!

[Nicaragua]

I totally agree, some people on this site get really snobby about articles like this - usually its after they have only read the title and then made themselves look stupid by criticising what is clearly a joke.

I had a similar experience myself when i wrote a spoof blog which one of the moderators clearly failed to read properly and made a tool of himself in the comments.

http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...

There's also a massive double standard going on from those who say "joke" articles dont have any place on this site but then approve Zero Punctuation every week because they have a mancrush on Yahtzee.

Leave the satire articles alone. Its not like they are taking over the site like all of the crummy amateur blogs or taking something away from the real news, its a refreshing change.

Sometimes they are funny, sometimes they arent - big deal. the only harm they do is if people take them literally and make themselves look silly.

[coolbeans]

I can agree the community gets too tightly wound up from eye-catching titles to bother reading the satirical body of the opinion piece.

I'll make it public here to implore users who've luckily caught the joking article before everyone else (typically in pending) to point out whether it's serious or not. I try to give a 'Helpful' bubble for those who do.

[SilentNegotiator]

I remember that blog. Absolutely unbelievable, unreasonable comments from that character.

I disagree with your comment on ZP, though. While humorous, he makes really important points about games. I wouldn't call what he does "satire" as much as it is exaggerations mixed in with good points.

[Nicaragua]

Regardless of how you define it the point is with Zero Punctuation is that its primarily done for humour and yet it is approved without fail - which is fine, ive already stated i think its a good thing that funny stories get approved.

However when any other less well known sites try to do something amusing we get this kind of nonsense with everyone bleating on that humour shouldnt be allowed - hence the double standard.

[JohnDread]

I laughed once. It was horrible.

[Dark5tar1]

The Funny or Die article was hilarious to read, especially when it rustled some jimmies. The only articles that annoy me on this site are the Pachter ones.

[soxfan2005]

The article was funny, and the comments were as funny as the article. The Sony faithful here are way too serious about the PS4. They feel they have to protect it's reputation like overbearing parents looking after their coddled children. They want to insure that they are there immediately to call out any "trolls" and "sites looking for hits" who dare to utter a negative word about Sony and cast any doubts about PS4's perfection.

"Trolls" and "site looking for hits" - count how many times those words are uttered anytime an article is critical of Sony. After all, we all know that no sane or rational person could possible have a negative opinion of Sony. Of course, when someone is critical of Sony's competition, all is good, and the media suddenly becomes trustworthy.

[JD_Shadow]

Probably because too many articles do troll or flame bait. Obviously the FoD one wasn't, but many articles on N4G are just ridiculous.

And let's not go on this thing that Sony fans are the only ones guilty of that. There are rabid fans of any console. I've seen articles critical of MS, PC, and Nintendo getting the same treatment. Thing is, you're seeing fanboyism as a whole get bloated because of the added cesspool of the internet. Good lord, you should've seen the Sega/Nintendo wars back in the day. Those got nasty in the press. It's nothing new, especially when it seems like a certain system they like is backed into a corner.

You might think that PS3 fans get rabid about everything, and I agree fully that they don't have to be and they overreacted to a fault about the FoD thing, but think of what they've had to endure: how many of those articles critical of Sony came from no-namers that some rabid MS fanboy dug up from thin air to get some CRank? If Sony fans really did control the site, those wouldn't even be approved or even submitted!

@SilentNegotiator below: It was funny, which was the whole point. I was laughing because I knew it was clearly satire and I'm familiar with the site and what it's about. It's like me watching The Colbert Report knowing what Stephen is doing with the show. You may think the comedy fell flat (I don't think it did), but the important thing is if you can tell the difference between them having a good laugh at Sony's expense and trying to be overly and unnecessarily hateful because someone had an ax to grind against them.

[SilentNegotiator]

It would help if FoD was even remotely funny.

[Rage_S90]

I would laugh but it's extremely difficult to distinguish the difference between parody and Sony fanboys.

[Sleet]

Except this parody was anti-sony, so there was nothing sony fanboyish about it.

You really should try putting some thought into your comments, unless of course your objective is to make a total bell end of yourself in which case - mission accomplished !

[Qrphe]

If something someone online said upsets you, you deserve to be upset. It's as simple as that.