April 29, 2020

"Confused by This Anti-Joe Biden Meme? The Creator Says You Just Don’t Get the Joke."

"Before being censored by Twitter, the way the image was shared blurred the line between parody and misinformation"  — by Ali Breland (in Mother Jones) — about this image created by Brad Troemel:



It's a great satire, but unfortunately, many people who were sharing it took it to be an actual ad from the Biden campaign.
“The DNC and the Biden campaign are the ones responsible for your familiarity with this type of messaging, because they’re the ones who have been fucking campaigning on it,” Troemel [said]. “This image wouldn’t be shared if it wasn’t so believable.”...

Jennifer Grygiel, a communications professor at Syracuse University who specializes in social media and memes, [said] “He seems to want to cross his arms and say that everyone is so stupid,” Grygiel said on the phone, skeptically. “He may claim that he’s helping democracy, but he’s lost control of his art.”

45 comments:

Shane said...

"...he’s lost control of his art.”

Typical higher ed bullshit.
The artist puts the work out there. Their control ends when it is made public.
The tools that interpret and use that art are as, if not more, responsible for what happens after it is freed.

TrespassersW said...

They pulled the same crap on The Babylon Bee. (Even with the "CNN acquires industrial washing machines to spin the news" headline.) It's the whole "the general public can't be trusted. We have to be gatekeepers. It's for their own good."

MeatPopscicle1234 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
GBnative said...

Heart or head, it soon might not matter.

Lamestream media appears to be jumping (OK, it's more like a tentative toe forward) on the Tara Reade allegations. Turning on each other, even.

New CNN headline: "Joe Biden's campaign is twisting a New York Times story to defend against Tara Reide allegations." Yes, it's only a Chris Cizzilla (Cillizza?) analysis... but it's a CNN headline.

TWISTING a NYT story is the impeachable offense. Now they've gone too far.

WK said...

“He may claim that he’s helping democracy, but he’s lost control of his art.”
In order to help democracy, art must be controlled. And twitter. And YouTube. And beaches. And ......

Yancey Ward said...

The truth is that Biden has neither a brain nor a heart.

Nonapod said...

Is he try to say that Biden has a heart that's bigger than his brain?

Clark:
My cousin in-law whose heart is bigger than his brain...

Eddie:
I appreciate that, Clark.

Clark:
...Is innocent.

Browndog said...

Bullshit.

All memes that even mention Biden's health issues are banned on Twitter. Not because some thought they were real, but because twitter is running election interference for the democrats...again. Still.

Carpe Donktum's "visiting angels" meme was his best work yet---GONE.

Richard Dolan said...

There's that impulse to censor again. Seems to have backfired. Good.

Sebastian said...

"unfortunately, many people who were sharing it took it to be an actual ad from the Biden campaign"

Unfortunately, because it triggered the censorious prog censors?

Mrs. X said...

I was totally confused as to the tweeter's meaning. Before I clicked through to the article, I thought maybe the ad meant, "you thought Biden was only brainless, but he's actually heartless, too."

Drago said...

Yancey Ward: "The truth is that Biden has neither a brain nor a heart."

He also lacks the courage of a Brian Williams.

Browndog said...

Here's Carpe Donktum's meme twitter is trying to ban. Hillarious.

JaimeRoberto said...

Just today Biden tweeted, "We need a president who will listen to the science, bring us together, and lead with compassion and heart." It's not that different than the fake tweet.

Lance said...

Troemel argued that it was incorrect to ban the ad on the grounds that it’s misleading: “The ad is real. Not in the sense that it was released by the Biden campaign. But it’s real in the sense that it’s true.”

Fake but accurate™ strikes again!

Francisco D said...

Nonapod said... Is he try to say that Biden has a heart that's bigger than his brain?

Joe is going to drop out and the "Dream Team" will be created and publicized by the DNC Media.

He has the heart (and party loyalty) to stay in the race until the right team is focus group tested, prepared and introduced.

We all know this will happen, don't we?

stevew said...

Perez and the rest of the party "leadership" are nearly done with assembling a Blue Ribbon Candidate Selection Commission. Don't tell Joe.

D.D. Driver said...

No one should be allowed to say anything that might be misinterpreted.

doctrev said...

Twitter is scary, man. They're openly cracking down on their users for daring to question a presidential candidate's non-existent lucidity. These people have to be dealt with.

Josephbleau said...

If I don’t think that a communications prof has a useful depth of understanding in democratic government theory, am I a science Denier? Or am I the asshole. I await judgement.

GBnative said...

Shoot. If we only knew of the satire-too-realistic-to-be-used theorem way back in 2011.

During what Progs in Wisconsin to this day call the heroic union "uprising," our governor, Scott Walker, was duped by a satirist who hilariously portrayed himself as a Koch Brother on a prank phone call. The fake Koch asked Walker to consider a little false-flag rough stuff to undermine the protests. It seemed like Walker was caught a little off-guard by the outrageous suggestion, but he recovered to say something like, Yeah, the thought came to mind, but of course we couldn't do something like that. The lefties laughed like hell at the phony call, and then pilloried Walker for not hanging up on the spot.

It's not funny, apparently, when guerilla tactics are used against YOUR guy.

I'm Not Sure said...

"Only state-approved satire is allowed, Comrade."

Is that anything like requiring a permit to hold a protest?

The Vault Dweller said...

I'm always amazed at the rationalizations tech lefties come up with to suppress effective mocking or satire of the left. I can't think of any mocking or satire of the right that has been taken down. Can anyone? Does this mean that the Left just is shit when it comes to effective satire and mocking? I doubt that. I wish there was a way to excise the nasty authoritarian streak in the left today.

Jupiter said...

Jennifer Grygiel, a communications professor at Syracuse University, may think she is helping democracy, but she isn't. She needs to stop speaking immediately, and maintain complete silence henceforth. If she refuses, technology must be harnessed to silence her. Her point of view is not acceptable in a free society.

The Vault Dweller said...

Blogger Nonapod said...
Is he try to say that Biden has a heart that's bigger than his brain?


I think the ad is supposed to be a fake ad directed at democrat voters who are worried about Joe Biden's cognitive decline, or brain, and is instead trying to deflect it by suggesting the only thing that matters is that he has the right values, or heart. So don't worry about the degenerative dementia, vote for Joe because he's our kind of good guy.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Fake, but accurate.

...Nathan Poe, call your office

MeatPopscicle1234 said...
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robother said...

Of all the jokes the Creator has played on me, this is one I feel the least bad about missing.

Lurker21 said...

There's a thin line between satire on the one hand and parody or pastiche or imitation or humor on the other. And the line between all that and reality may be even thinner.

I guess the assumption now is that one is attacking from one side or the other. That one might just be having fun with the old guy isn't considered as a possibility.

Darkisland said...

I thought it was meant to show that Joe's heart had been replaced by a small nuclear reactor. A mini-chernobyl, if you will.

Not the one that caused problems but one of the others that powerex Ukraine for 25 years or so before decommissioning.

It tells me I don't have to worry about Joe's heart. Hella strong, it is.

Unless it's reactor #4. Then it's "Head for the hills, everyone! Joe's gonna blow any minute now!"

John Henry

Matt Sablan said...

Weird that no one ever censors the Onion for being 'too believable.'

Maillard Reactionary said...

Satire? Parody? It would probably be a good ad for certain segments of likely Dem voters, especially if it came with some of that tinkly piano music with the heartwarming voiceover that we're hearing so much of these days on the PSAs.

Rabel said...

I don't get it.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Here's Carpe Donktum's meme twitter is trying to ban. Hillarious.

Sorry Browndog but the Nazi censors beat you to it. Isn't it nice living in a totalitarian state?

Freeman Hunt said...

That is a very funny meme.

Rory said...

Edmund Blackadder: We're going to fight this campaign on issues, not personalities.
Anchorman: And why is that?
E.B.: Because our candidate hasn't got a personality.

rcocean said...

Why is the professor being allowed to mislead people? I"m sure she thinks she is helping but she's obviously a Russian Asset.

Can we get her fired?

rcocean said...

Joe has a hole in his heart, instead of a hole in his head.

john burger said...

I must be really dense but I didn't get the joke. It took me quite a while to get it.

jvb

john burger said...

I must be really dense but I didn't get the joke. It took me quite a while to get it.

jvb

Gk1 said...

Hah. I am waiting for the inevitable "That's Racist!" hurled at this ad as that is the only thing the democrats say these days. Sad!

Earnest Prole said...

Stupid people don't get satire -- and if you think that's a problem, you probably don't get satire.

JAORE said...

Joe's heart IS stronger than his head (mind) and will remain so even if he's down to his last chamber.

Sam L. said...

I don't get it. I guess my immunity is STRONG.

Unknown said...

So what's taking so long stripping the "common carrier" status from all these platforms? They are clearly editing content - and not even denying it.

Does someone need standing to sue? It seems there are plenty of such persons. Money?