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Letter | Modern politics too ridiculous to parody
Dear Editor: If W. S. Gilbert (the lyricist of Gilbert & Sullivan, who devised the plots for such parodic musicals as "The Pirates of Penzance" "Ruddigore," and "H.M.S. Pinafore") were
Jimmy Kimmel sums up 'Trump TV' in 1 brutal sentence
He also roasted the president's new channel with a parody ad.
Johnsonville Sausage Makes Its Case for Dinner Running in Political Parody Twist
Little Black Book, Campaign directed by Jordan Brady through True Gent puts a parody twist on the political ad blitz consuming Americans ahead of the midterms
Mariska Hargitay's opening Emmys musical number is packed with cameos
A star-studded parody of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll".
AI 'SpongeBob' parody of problems in Egypt draws scrutiny of authorities
A take on the hit US TV series has become an unlikely tool for Egyptians to complain about life amid strict surveillance.
‘South Park’ is now ‘South America’ in move to mock Trump
Beyond parodying President Trump's Great Lakes order, the move jabs at Paramount and Skydance Media for settling a $16-million lawsuit to clear their merger.
Babylon Bee challenges New Mexico AI political content law
The lawsuit asks if New Mexico can require disclosures on AI-generated political content without violating First Amendment protections for satire and parody
UW pays $600K to settle lawsuit with computer science professor over parody land acknowledgment
Stuart Reges was disciplined by the University of Washington after including a parody land acknowledgment in a course syllabus. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found university officials violated Reges' academic freedom rights.
Why politicians are punchlines at the Edinburgh Fringe
There was a time when satire had an easier gig. Politicians said something ridiculous, comedians made fun of them, audiences laughed, and everyone went home. Subscribe Now the joke is often the headline. In a world where the unbelievable regularly makes the news, where politics can veer into parody before the comedians have had time to write the punchline, you might reasonably wonder: is satire running out of material? Not in Edinburgh. At the Fringe, I can confirm satire has a pulse, even in a relentless and rapid news cycle. Politicians as punchlines Take NewsRevue, the world’s longest-running live sketch show, where politicians are turned into punchlines at industrial speed. Its latest target? Andy Burnham - or, more accurately, his doppelganger, pictured below in the middle. The joke, he tells us, is that there have been so many politicians coming and going that even satire risks suffering from political fatigue. But perhaps that revolving door is precisely why comedy matters. When the news cycle moves faster than our ability to process it, comedians can hold up a mirror - and make us think twice. Small talk Take Ayoade Bamgboye, the Saturday Night Live UK star who won the Best Newcomer prize at last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards. Her Fringe debut was critically acclaimed; this year she is turning her attention to one of Britain’s most baffling social rituals: small talk. Share It’s a reminder that satire doesn’t always need a politician in its sights. Sometimes the target is simply us civilians - the strange little rules and rituals we have collectively agreed to pretend are normal. Politics and Palestinian identity For British-Palestinian comedian Sami Abu Wardeh, pictured below, comedy has a more urgent job. His new show, Sami Abu Wardeh Hates You, asks who gets to hate, and whether anger belongs to everyone, not just the far right. His comedy confronts politics and Palestinian identity while refusing to surrender the simple business of making people laugh. Shakespeare meets climate crisis And then there is HAM: an “eco-hijacking” of Hamlet, which its creators describe as “a sordid wrestle between a vegan and a sausage-lover”. Shakespeare meets the climate crisis. Meat meets moral panic. The end result? You’ll leave promising to become vegan and swiftly bulk buying Linda McCartney sausages. HAM was created by theatre company Hotter Project, aka Ell Potter and Mary Higgins, pictured below. They say comedy helped them avoid the preachiness sometimes associated with climate activism - using Shakespeare as a vessel for uncomfortable questions about the planet, politics and the way we live. Perhaps that is satire’s secret weapon. It doesn’t necessarily make the world less absurd. It makes the absurdity crystal clear. And at a moment when reality increasingly feels like it has been written by a sketch writer, the Fringe is proving there is still plenty to laugh and cry at. Satire isn’t dead. It’s alive, subletting and having the time of its life at the Fringe. Subscribe Share Channel 4 News Leave a comment
In Britain, a comedy candidate plays political spoiler
The U.K. electoral system has long featured parody also-rans. But now, Britain’s foremost far-right leader could find himself upended by a man wearing a bin.
Now off-Broadway: Whoopi renewed, a drama on Israel and a ‘Heated Rivalry’ spoof
“The Whoopi Monologues,” “Birthright” and “Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody” excel on New York stages.
Kyle Gordon scores another banger.
The comedian and artist behind “Planet of the Bass” and my personal favorite, “Selekta,” has an absolutely incredible sendup parodying Paul Simon’s Graceland jaunt to Africa. Gordon is popularly compared these days to Weird Al but his ability to embed authentically in genre is even more sophisticated. He’s a shapeshifter who does real homework on his parodies. I can’t wait to see what he does next. [Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJBm1n8JUZ8&list=RDqJBm1n8JUZ8&start_radio=1]
Cledus T. Judd to headline Meigs County Fair entertainment on Aug. 22
POMEROY, Ohio — Country music comedian and parody artist Cledus T. Judd will headline the entertainment lineup at the Meigs County Fair on Saturday, Aug. 22, performing at 8 p.m.
‘Untitled Vampire Play’
The world premiere of ensemble member Kevin Douglas' “Untitled Vampire Play” at Lookingglass Theatre Company can't decide if it wants to be a parody or make a serious point, so
Digital pizzas? Corporations ridicule PlayStation over ending game disc production
Companies like Domino's Pizza and KFC have published tongue-in-cheek statements parodying the controversial announcement.
From Nintendo to KFC, how brands reacted to the PlayStation disc controversy
Brands have expressed a mix of parody and outrage.
Long Reads for the Long Weekend
(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) Happy Fourth of July weekend! As has been a tradition of mine going back to the beginning of the EntStrategyGuy website, I’m sharing my favorite long reads of the last year, like I did in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024, and 2025. Let’s dive right in! Subscribe “Different Prices for the Same Ride: How Uber and Lyft Use AI to Get More Money Out of You“ by Derek Kravitz in Consumer Reports I don’t think surveillance pricing, like the kind described in this brilliant Consumer Reports article, is long for the world—it’s toxically unpopular—but we’ll see if either party takes on this issue. If I ran a political party focused on affordability, I would focus on a few pro-consumer and pro-market policies: Banning non-compete agreements. Ending surveillance pricing Eliminating junk fees (read more here...) Ensuring “right to repair” for consumer (and military!) products Capping excessive app store fees Stopping digital/algorithmic price-fixing tools. Preventing automatic subscription price increases. And more. If you want to fight inflation, there are a lot of great ways to do it quickly. Speaking of higher prices... “Secret Documents Show Pepsi and Walmart Colluded to Raise Food Prices Across the Economy“ by Matt Stoller in BIG Again, I think a political party should focus on lowering prices for consumers. And deals like this—Walmart making a deal/forcing Pepsi to offer the lowest prices at its stores and nowhere else—hypothetically lower prices at Walmart...but raise them everywhere else. “15 DUIs, still driving: California’s failure to take repeat drunk drivers off the road“ by Robert Lewis and Lauren Hepler in CalMatters CalMatters does terrific reporting in California, something the Golden State desperately needs more of, and this article is a great example of that. “PugLips: The next insanely popular thing you’ve never heard of…” by Simon Carless in Game Discover Co I thought that this parody article (and yes, it’s a parody, but I was definitely unsure at first) was hilarious and totally nailed how much tech/business journalism feels these days. Actually, three of my favorite articles this year were on hype in the video game industry, including Georg Zoller’s “The Video Game Industries Very Dark Night”—which I linked to recently and wrote a follow-up here—and Owen Mahoney’s “Derek Zoolander, Videogame Exec”. In particular, I like Mahoney’s focus on user experience as a guide to what trends will actually grab hold of customers. “The Matrix Lies“ by Evan Shapiro in Media War & Peace Evan Shapiro’s first person account of his experience with AI was hilarious. I think LLMs capabilities have significantly grown from last summer, and yet...my editor/researcher just had an abysmal experience using an LLM to do a quite basic task (which our LLM normally does each week) and the LLM made a mistake on every single data entry...along with seven different mistakes affecting twelve of the twenty or so entries, including mistakes that are explicitly spelled out in the prompt. That’s a brutal failure rate. Again, if you use AI/LLM for data collection, you need to take a lot of extra steps to verify and check the data. “Ghosts in the Balcony: A Cross-Country Trip to 58 Theaters Fighting to Survive“ by Matthew Frank in The Ankler I thought Matthew Frank’s pitch to head across America to visit theaters sounded insane aggressive at the time—at least it felt that way to someone a decade older than him; man, to be in your twenties again, am I right?—but I knew the result would be great. And it was, a terrific feature by a great young writer. Also, I loved Matthew’s recent article on who’s getting the precious few entry level jobs in Hollywood. (Hint: nepotism.) “Disney erased FiveThirtyEight“ and “Did Las Vegas get too greedy?” by Nate Silver in Silver Bulletin I love media history and analysis, and there’s no one better to get the history of FiveThirtyEight than from Nate Silver, who wrote about his personal experience in one of my favorite pieces from this year. I also loved Nate’s breakdown of what’s causing Vegas’ woes, but I’ll offer one criticism, summarized as “Might I suggest antitrust?” Many centrists/center-right/libertarian thinkers (Nate is self-described as the latter) often don’t consider consolidation or antitrust as factors in policy issues like housing, America’s military readiness, or, in this case, Las Vegas. Even if libertarians want to debunk antitrust/consolidation concerns, I’d love to read that debunking. In this case, Vegas is incredibly consolidated (though it also has been for a long time) and I’d have loved to read Nate at least contending with this factor, since he addresses almost every other potential factor for Vegas’ decline. “Why Microsoft’s Carbon Removal Pullback Is Such a Big Deal“ by Robinson Meyer in Heatmap News I’m a big supporter of carbon removal efforts, but this nascent industry faces a lot of headwinds, including this big move most recently. I think it’s clear that solar panels and batteries should be able to get the world to its carbon footprint goals, but effective carbon renewal remains necessary to prevent the worst impacts of global warming. “AI is killing the cheap smartphone“ by David Oks LLMs and AI will impact the world in ways we’re not ready for, and already, third world countries are seeing the prices of cheap cellphones skyrocket due to the cost of chips skyrocketing. This article by David Oks is a terrific breakdown. “100 Days of Madness: Netflix, Paramount, Warner and the Future of Hollywood“ by Wade Major at Hollywood Heretic Wade Major dove deep into Hollywood/streaming’s financials in this must read piece. Not that I agree with everything in this article (read my take on Warner Bros./Paramount here) but the analysis is top notch. I think many people discount how quality thinking, regardless of the argument/conclusion, will make you a better thinker. “Erased by the UFC: Frank Shamrock, The MMA GOAT of the 20th Century“ by Nate Wilcox in The MMA Draw Newsletter Growing up playing the UFC fighting game on the Dreamcast, Frank Shamrock was my favorite MMA fighter, and this history/tribute to him was great. Other Fun Reads “The Hardest Part Of History To Tell Is How It Felt“ by Craig Fehrman at Defector “Unmasking the Sea Star Killer“ by Craig Welch at bioGraphic “What Could Save the Industry? Fin-Syn“ by Richard Rushfield in The Ankler Alex Rollins Berg in Underexposed on movie bumpers, pillow shots, Disney trash cinema, cult films, and Casablanca. David H. Montgomery in YouGov’s The Surveyor on punctuation marks, condiments, dinosaurs, and comic strips and kids media. “How Medium finally pivoted its way to profitability“ and “Why the best journalists on YouTube are all former Vox employees“ by Simon Owens in Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter “It’s Not Just You, Netflix Shows Have Gotten Slightly Shorter: Here’s What the Data Says“ by Kasey Moore at What’s on Netflix “Numlock Awards: How Diane Warren became the biggest loser in Oscar history“ by Nathaniel Rakich and “Numlock Awards: The Oscar Bait era is over. The Oscar Chum era is here.” by Walt Hickey & Michael Domanico at Numlock Awards
The Onion to give $100,000 to Sandy Hook families
The satirical news site The Onion isn’t waiting to take possession of Infowars to launch a parody of Alex Jones’ conspiracy platform.
House, Senate health chairs Creekmore and Bryan say rural health program, spending need more transparency
Senate Public Health Chairman Hob Bryan said the lack of transparency around the governor's program to spend millions in federal rural health dollars in Mississippi is "almost the Saturday Night Live parody of secrecy." Bryan and his House counterpart, Chairman Sam Creekmore, share their frustrations over lack of input from communities, and the Legislature, in how the state spends federal rural health care money.
Commentary: ‘Scary Movie’ cements Hollywood’s spoof comedy renaissance
When "Scream 7" arrived in theaters in February, the Ghostface turning heads wasn’t from the horror hit itself but from "Scary Movie." The trailer for the long-running parody series’ sixth
Why Anna Faris has '5 drafts of an email to Keanu Reeves' she never sent after “Scary Movie”'s “John Wick” parody
"I never thought this would happen. I'm 49," Faris joked for EW's "Scary Movie' cover story.
Geary Bar, Would You Believe, is Honored as a Legacy Business
Would you believe that a TV parody of James Bond movies from the 1960s would inspire the name of a bar on Geary Boulevard two decades later?
'Scary Movie' bests 'Backrooms' and 'Masters of the Universe' in weekend box office brawl
The side-splitting return of 'Scary Movie' didn't just best 'Backrooms' and 'Masters of the Universe' at the weekend box office; it opened higher than any previous entry in the parody franchise.
How PE Guy became a million-dollar business in just a year
Johnny Hilbrant's joke parodying annoying finance bros has become a hit. They would be shocked by how much he makes off of "silly little skits."
Indian Gen Zers turn online parody account into political movement: the Cockroach Janta Party
Memes mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media, where millions of users are adopting the cockroach.
Patriots' TreVeyon Henderson Debunks Fake Quote Connected To Mike Vrabel
A parody account spread a phony tweet that TreVeyon Henderson never posted on social media.
Dominic Fike ‘Comedy Tragedy Parody’ tour: How to secure tickets to limited U.S. run during hectic presale
After a successful performance at Coachella this month, Dominic Fike is continuing his time on the road with an intimate batch of headlining shows part of his Comedy Tragedy Parody tour.
Seattle Public Theater’s ‘Hurricane Diane’ is a funny, pointed parody
Seattle Public Theater’s production of “Hurricane Diane” provides five of the best comic performances you are likely to see in Seattle.
Parody groups take center stage at SF pro-billionaire rally
A March for Billionaire rally unfolded at Alta Plaza park Saturday morning.
Whiskey, Soup, Parody and Politics: Lessons from Two Key District Court Trademark Decisions of 2025
This year started with a district court decision defining the parameters of parody and trademark infringement and ended with a case that could have taken the overlap of parody and political free speech to a new level, had it not settled.