Althouse: Your little internet friend...

September 19, 2019

Your little internet friend...

POV: Me trying to explain “Internet Friends” to my Southern Mom pic.twitter.com/MHTyrkQ5tm
— eco sister (@hiitaylorblake) September 17, 2019

62 comments:

Amadeus 48 said...: I can't even...; 9/19/19, 6:31 AM
MadisonMan said...: I don't see the humor. Maybe it's the awful camera angles.; 9/19/19, 6:34 AM
David Begley said...: Based on the camera work, it was scripted.; 9/19/19, 6:36 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Based on the camera work, it was scripted."

I give you the "comedy" tag to help you so it's not such a struggle.

Are you one of the people who think it's wrong to demand that Babylon Bee headlines be marked "satire" when they're linked at Facebook?; 9/19/19, 6:39 AM
Ann Althouse said...: The same woman is playing both roles. There's your first clue!; 9/19/19, 6:40 AM
Howard said...: More "don't give up your day job" art; 9/19/19, 6:46 AM
Mary Beth said...: I had internet friends before my children did. (They were too young for that when the internet was new.) So by the time they were older and had internet friends, it was no big deal. We did talk about the friends some - I wanted to make sure they weren't creepy old men or some other kind of weirdo. They were always just kids the same age who enjoyed the same things.; 9/19/19, 6:47 AM
Temujin said...: Bless her heart.; 9/19/19, 6:53 AM
Ken B said...: Temujin wins. I was going to say “Cunt”, but he said it more wittily.; 9/19/19, 7:22 AM
Ken B said...: Wow. What brazen bullshit Althouse. No one objected to Babylon Bee articles being labeled “satire”. We objected to them being labeled FALSE.
Bless your heart as Temujin might say.; 9/19/19, 7:24 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: David Begley is a little literal sometimes.

"Internet murderer..." Hilarious.

I think of Althouse as an internet friend--an internet friend murderer, more like.; 9/19/19, 7:29 AM
Nichevo said...: The same woman is playing both roles. There's your first clue!

1. Why did you waste our time with this?
2. Why do you say they're the same woman? The views are not comprehensive enough to distinguish their facial features very well but the blond seems to have a darker complexion curiously enough. And if the mom is the same person as the girl with the long hair, where is she hiding all that hair under that short blond wig?; 9/19/19, 7:33 AM
Ken B said...: In David Begley's defense, relying on an Althouse “humor” tag is like relying on a Jeffrey Dahmer “edible” tag.; 9/19/19, 7:35 AM
Breezy said...: “Nice knowin’ you!” LOL!; 9/19/19, 7:36 AM
Ken B said...: I will just leave this here, as an example what does NOT get an Althouse comedy tag
https://babylonbee.com/news/hypocrisy-right-wingers-who-love-it-when-the-babylon-bee-makes-stuff-up-suddenly-get-mad-when-the-nyt-does-it; 9/19/19, 7:52 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Good comedy had an element of truth to it. Being a Southerner this rings true - even if it's the mother from hell a Baptist baptism hasn't quite washed out of your life by 22.; 9/19/19, 7:52 AM
virgil xenophon said...: @Temujin & Ken B/

Bless her little pea-pickin' heart.

FIFY; 9/19/19, 7:53 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Wow. What brazen bullshit Althouse. No one objected to Babylon Bee articles being labeled “satire”. We objected to them being labeled FALSE. "

Here's the Snopes piece everyone was talking about recently:

"Study: Too Many People Think Satirical News Is Real/n a news cycle full of clownish characters and outrageous rhetoric, it’s no wonder satire isn’t fully registering with a lot of readers."

Excerpt:

"We tested a couple of different methods. One involved including a warning that fact-checkers had determined the inaccuracy of a post. Another had a message indicating that the content was from a satirical site. We found that labeling an article as “satire” was uniquely effective. Users were less likely to believe stories labeled as satire, were less likely to share them and saw the source as less credible. They also valued the warning. Facebook tested this feature itself a few years ago, and Google News has started to label some satirical content...."

The problem under discussion was BB headlines copied in social media and the way people were confused by them. No one was talking about LABELING them FALSE. The discussion was about labeling them as "satire" when they appeared in social media. And there was also discussion of FACT-CHECKING them, but that wasn't about LABELING them as false. That problem was that when there is satire and it is understood as satire, you have to infer that there is some underlying story that is being satirized, and the inferred underlying story can be subjected to a fact check.; 9/19/19, 8:01 AM
Ann Althouse said...: For example, someone could write a satire about Trump outrageously raping all sorts of people. You could see that's satire and either find it funny or not, but whatever... you'll still assume that it's based on the fact that Trump has indeed done some raping. That implied assertion of fact can be subjected to a fact check.; 9/19/19, 8:04 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Why do you say they're the same woman?"

Because a mere few seconds' attention to what the camera shows us reveals clearly that this is the same woman, (and just as clearly that this is a performance intended to be humorous).; 9/19/19, 8:15 AM
Michael said...: 18. 18 Angels dance on the head of a pin.; 9/19/19, 8:17 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Why did you waste our time with this?"

Why did you watch it if you thought it a waste of your time? I often don't click on posts here if the tagline or image or other indicators of content do not attract my interest. You can choose not to read/watch/listen to any given blog post, you know.

(I know this is all quite obvious, but the peevishness of some people over nothing is astonishing to me.); 9/19/19, 8:20 AM
Michael said...: People who cannot get that BB is satire should go to moron camp or wear a dunce camp. Those thinking the satire must be labeled satire so as to help the morons should have to go to the Jussie Smollet School of Truth and Justice. Anyone thinking the subject video was a real interaction between mother and daughter should acknowledge their gullibility and wear a hat saying I Am A Gull.; 9/19/19, 8:23 AM
Fernandinande said...: Grating voice and bad acting.

18. 18 Angels dance on the head of a pin.

An African or European pin? In either case, isn't it a prime or a Fibonacci number, or both?; 9/19/19, 8:36 AM
CJinPA said...: I like these amateur comedy videos. Quick and easy and you can bail when you want.

I bailed halfway through because a mom that age would not be THAT internet ignorant.
Also because such a mom would be less absurd than a phone-obsessed young person.

But keep the vids coming.; 9/19/19, 8:57 AM
gerry said...: For example, someone could write a satire about Trump outrageously raping all sorts of people. You could see that's satire and either find it funny or not, but whatever... you'll still assume that it's based on the fact that Trump has indeed done some raping. That implied assertion of fact can be subjected to a fact check.

Yup. This made me think that just maybe a popular rock group may have actually murdered another popular rock group. WAIT...it definitely made me think that a popular rock magazine of that era actually published an article describing how a popular rock group murdered another popular rock group.

If only Snopes had been around back then to debunk it and prevent unfortunate misunderstandings of satire. Sad.; 9/19/19, 9:11 AM
Cheryl said...: Too much cursing for any Southern mama I know. We use those words sparingly and to maximum effect.; 9/19/19, 9:12 AM
rcocean said...: Snopes should be labeled a Satire site. BTW, "Snopes" is a person. Who's in charge of it? What are their politics? People should be referencing them as So-and-so's Snopes website. Personalize it dummies! The right is always so dumb. The Left ALWAYS made sure you knew it was Murdoch or Roger Alies' Fox News.; 9/19/19, 9:24 AM
JAORE said...: "...intended to be humorous..."

I suppose so. But the road to (comedy) hell....

FWIW, how many FB friends do y'all think will attend your funeral?

IF I were having a funeral (I've asked to NOT have one) I'd recommend little cell phone racks instead of chairs for all my FB "friends".; 9/19/19, 9:30 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: "I bailed halfway through because a mom that age would not be THAT internet ignorant."

But she's SOUTHERN, although the daughter shows no particular southward bent.

Anyway, it's funny.; 9/19/19, 9:32 AM
buwaya said...: In other words pen pals - now that is an obsolete term.
In earlier days people of a certain turn of mind (or the means, when this was expensive) could maintain a ridiculous volume of correspondence.

Now it is easy.

Bedtime.; 9/19/19, 9:32 AM
JAORE said...: Obnoxious attempt at a southern accent.

Not a rarity.; 9/19/19, 9:37 AM
CJinPA said...: But she's SOUTHERN, although the daughter shows no particular southward bent.

Putting a southern accent on dumb characters is a common gimmick. (Don't know if that's what she did here.) Dumb northern sheriff? Give'em a southern accent. Rural PA trailer home resident? Accent.

Didn't work for me, but I like her moxie.; 9/19/19, 9:54 AM
reader said...: It made me laugh. Dial it back a bit from 11 and it has some basis in reality, at least the reality I watched play out between teens and their moms.; 9/19/19, 9:56 AM
Saint Croix said...: "Internet friend, that don't even damn exist. That ain't even a thing. Internet friend, what the hell is that?"

Photographer removes our smart phones to show our strange and lonely new world; 9/19/19, 9:57 AM
reader said...: Now I have Vicki Lawrence stuck in my head.; 9/19/19, 10:15 AM
Ken B said...: No Althouse. The discussion was about Snopes allegedly trying to the Babylon Bee deplatformed by Facebook by labeling articles as false. In this post, which I believe was your first on the topic, you quote a passage where the objection was to Snopes *not* just saying it was satire. In that ost we also see comments advancing the deplatforming theory (example TreeJoe). The Bee later advanced that theory after they were in fact deplatformed temporarily by Facebook on the basis of Snopes ratings.

https://althouse.blogspot.com/2019/07/snopes-however-was-not-content-with.html
Here we see you are aware of the theory https://althouse.blogspot.com/2019/07/snopes-however-was-not-content-with.html?showComment=1564579666271#c3472556382071571785

EDH puts it very well https://althouse.blogspot.com/2019/07/snopes-however-was-not-content-with.html?showComment=1564580087365#c2168917659973069577; 9/19/19, 10:28 AM
Nichevo said...: Robert Cook said...
"Why do you say they're the same woman?"

Because a mere few seconds' attention to what the camera shows us reveals clearly that this is the same woman, (and just as clearly that this is a performance intended to be humorous).

Like I said, I don't see it. It's certainly possible, and they do seem to be the same age, but I didn't observe features of their physiognomy that allowed me to match them up. I did note their apparently differing complexions and the mom's hair as indications that they were not the same person. I did get that it was some kind of feeble attempt at humor.

...

"Why did you waste our time with this?"

Why did you watch it if you thought it a waste of your time?

I'll just say that you didn't answer the question.; 9/19/19, 10:43 AM
Ann Althouse said...: “No Althouse. The discussion was about Snopes allegedly trying to the Babylon Bee deplatformed by Facebook by labeling articles as false. In this post, which I believe was your first on the topic, you quote a passage where the objection was to Snopes *not* just saying it was satire. In that ost we also see comments advancing the deplatforming theory (example TreeJoe). The Bee later advanced that theory after they were in fact deplatformed temporarily by Facebook on the basis of Snopes ratings. ”

I said the same thing there that I’m saying here.

What point do you think you’re making? Quote exactly what I said and paraphrase it to show what you think is wrong. Is your paraphrase correct? I predict the answer will be no.; 9/19/19, 10:58 AM
reader said...: I bet Mama didn’t get a push present.

Carol Burnett Show outtakes - Mama on a roll

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6RqzclCLrP0; 9/19/19, 11:27 AM
Yancey Ward said...: reader wrote:

"Now I have Vicki Lawrence stuck in my head."

Me too!!!; 9/19/19, 11:47 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Facebook should not be in the business of labeling anything satire, whether it is or isn't. The only response I would give to anyone who complained that a satirical story was false is to laugh in their fucking faces.; 9/19/19, 11:49 AM
BudBrown said...: As someone whose granddad was maybe Minnie Pearl's 2nd cousin, can I say the thing sucked eggs.; 9/19/19, 11:59 AM
Ken B said...: You mocked Beagle by asking him if he was one of those who objected to Snores calling the Bee "satire". That is a pretty unambiguous claim that people objected to the description "satire". No one did. I even posted a comment that if Snores discusses such a post the phrase 'it's satire' is all that is needed. The objection were to Snores NOT just metaphorically shrugging and saying "satire" Thus your attack on Beagle misrepresented what your commenter actually complained of..; 9/19/19, 12:00 PM
Ken B said...: Yancey
Indeed. Satire is neither true nor false. There is no intent to be making a true claim The act of "fact checking" it is already a Dodge by imputing to it the intent to be
making a statement that can be true or false. Doing so to manipulate an algorithm is beyond dodgy.; 9/19/19, 12:06 PM
Ken B said...: Ducking ottokorrrrekt; 9/19/19, 12:07 PM
L Day said...: I thought it was funny enough to watch over and over again. I guess some people are just born without a funny bone.; 9/19/19, 12:08 PM
Lars Porsena said...: Blech!!; 9/19/19, 12:09 PM
Ken B said...: L Day
Tastes vary. But if someone objected to it because she isn't actually her own mother so it isn't truuuuuue, how would you respond? With a laugh I hope. How would you respond if Snores got Facebook to ban her because it's "fake"?; 9/19/19, 12:13 PM
Ken B said...: I wonder if Althouse remembers the Jerry Falwell suit against Hustler The magazine wrote a satire of Falwell getting his first blow Job from his mother in an outhouse. The two sides agreed there was no fact that the satire was based on. But fact checking it still seems pretty stupid doesn't it. Ten pages to conclude Falwell never published a memoir of incest?; 9/19/19, 12:28 PM
reader said...: I literally (ha) texted this to my husband about a month ago:

Riddle me this Batman...

I'm not supposed to plan dinner for next weekend, but I am supposed to plan for next summers Alaska trip????

His response:

Yes, it is the way of the world.; 9/19/19, 1:12 PM
Milwaukie guy said...: I liked it. I had three Union-veteran gggrandpas from the Indiana to Iowa section. I like jokes about Southerners as much as I like Minnesota blockhead [ole's] and Wisconsin cheesehead material, too. It's baked into my cultural DNA.

Wisonsin! Illinois's biggest state park.; 9/19/19, 2:47 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: My mom in 1996!; 9/19/19, 2:58 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: I had fights with my mom also over my innocent faith in humanity. I refused to believe how shitty people could be, time healed that. So funny.

IMO scripted but two different people. The lines at the older woman's brow/bridge of nose are deeply set -- there are no lines at all in the younger woman's brow. Also the older woman's teeth are crooked, the young woman's teeth are straight, most noticeable at the end.

BTW I also disagree with Snopes doing biased fact checks on satire. Ilhan Omar -- case in point. Her tweet about Israel/evil Jews hypnotizing the world is a very standard anti-semitic trope in the Musliim world. Snopes missed it entirely or deliberately obfuscated.; 9/19/19, 3:39 PM
Nichevo said...: IMO scripted but two different people.

Thank you!; 9/19/19, 5:51 PM
wildswan said...: "JAORE said...

IF I were having a funeral (I've asked to NOT have one) I'd recommend little cell phone racks instead of chairs for all my FB "friends"."

Pretty amazing image. Also, I can see everyone critiquing everything

- Why did he want us here? Can we fast forward? Did they let Chuck in? I don't think you should listen to that music. Is nothing sacred to you? Well, he didn't believe in the sacred. If you don't like it, why are you attending? He's commandered me in by my Facebook page but this isn't me, it's Sirius, Ha, ha. Iran is burning three tankers in the Gulf. julia peters was one, they thot her boss was see i a.; 9/19/19, 10:44 PM
David Begley said...: I did think it was funny.

I said to my ex-girlfriend that I considered Althouse a friend. She thought I was nuts, Her question was, “Have you ever met her?”

Glad I broke up with her. And she hated Trump.; 9/20/19, 6:50 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "You mocked Beagle by asking him if he was one of those who objected to Snores calling the Bee "satire". That is a pretty unambiguous claim that people objected to the description "satire". No one did. I even posted a comment that if Snores discusses such a post the phrase 'it's satire' is all that is needed. The objection were to Snores NOT just metaphorically shrugging and saying "satire" Thus your attack on Beagle misrepresented what your commenter actually complained of.."

You'll have to quote me and explain what you're talking about. This seems to be ignoring my previous comment and bringing up some new idea and I actually can't understand what you're trying to say. So I think it's because you can see that I'm right and you were wrong. That's my working theory until you lay out something explicit using *quotes* from me.; 9/20/19, 7:02 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I searched the page at the link you gave for "Beagle" and got nothing.

You've taken up a good amount of my time, so you really need to explain your point, clearly, with links and with quotes from me, or you ought to apologize clearly. This is an unacceptable way to use my blog.; 9/20/19, 7:07 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "https://althouse.blogspot.com/2019/07/snopes-however-was-not-content-with.html
Here we see you are aware of the theory https://althouse.blogspot.com/2019/07/snopes-however-was-not-content-with.html?showComment=1564579666271#c3472556382071571785"

That gets me to this from me (quoting someone saying "Snopes is trying to get the Babylon Bee shut down by Facebook and Google as a "fake news site" as opposed to a "satire site". That is, Google and Facebook (and others) are trying to weed out actual deliberate, probably Russian, false news sites, and are using Snopes to help them identify them"): "I attempted to fact-check that and I can't find anything other than an incident in 2018 for which Facebook apologized. Please provide a link or delete your comment."

This underscores that I was saying then what I'm saying now. As I said above: "The problem under discussion was BB headlines copied in social media and the way people were confused by them. No one was talking about LABELING them FALSE. The discussion was about labeling them as "satire" when they appeared in social media. And there was also discussion of FACT-CHECKING them, but that wasn't about LABELING them as false. That problem was that when there is satire and it is understood as satire, you have to infer that there is some underlying story that is being satirized, and the inferred underlying story can be subjected to a fact check."

AGAIN: No one was talking about LABELING them FALSE.

AGAIN: What is your point that is actually TRUE? You have attacked me and consumed my time. You should admit you are wrong and apologize. Otherwise, if you actually think you are right, you've got to spell it out and use quotes from ME.; 9/20/19, 7:14 AM
Ken B said...: Beagle was an autocorrect of Begley. Sometimes I use a phone, I apologize if that caused confusion.; 9/20/19, 11:06 AM
Ken B said...: Althouse, on this post you took a shot At Begley. I have already quoted it but will again.
“
Are you one of the people who think it's wrong to demand that Babylon Bee headlines be marked "satire" when they're linked at Facebook?

9/19/19, 6:39 AM”

No one objected to that. I explained that in a comment above and won’t repeat it. So the only point at issue here is if there were people objecting to the BB being labeled satire. That was never the objection. The objection was to “fact checking” and calling at least some BB stories false.

I do not know how to make this any clearer. You misstated what the objection was. You did so tendentiously to heighten your snipe at Begley.

It is not central but you also made a claim about the nature of satire.
“For example, someone could write a satire about Trump outrageously raping all sorts of people. You could see that's satire and either find it funny or not, but whatever... you'll still assume that it's based on the fact that Trump has indeed done some raping. That implied assertion of fact can be subjected to a fact check.”

But that really isn’t right, as my Falwell example shows. The Hustler piece had no implied factual predicate. I use that example because both sides in the suit agreed on that, so I seems like a clear counter example to your idea. No one would believe Falwell bragged about incest in an outhouse. The satire was aimed at something orthogonal to that, his judgmentalism and sanctimony.; 9/20/19, 11:21 AM