{"id":125,"date":"2015-07-19T18:47:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-19T22:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/laughingindisbelief\/?page_id=125"},"modified":"2020-05-10T16:52:20","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T20:52:20","slug":"is-this-satire","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/laughingindisbelief\/is-this-satire\/","title":{"rendered":"Is This Satire?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pnW3y2WogwE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/pnW3y2WogwE\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>Atheism is for everyone.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Hello, my name is Andrew Hall and I\u2019m the author of <em>Laughing in Disbelief<\/em>. Before getting to business I just want to thank you for taking some time and reading one of my posts. I appreciate it!<\/p>\n<p>You probably clicked a link to a story and you\u2019re here.<\/p>\n<p>The story you were reading is satirical.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/36RetWf\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Oxford Living Dictionary<\/a> defines satire as:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people\u2019s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Well, there you go. That\u2019s what I try to achieve on Laughing in Disbelief. Under normal circumstances, my humble blog is similar to The Onion. As many of you know, The Onion publishes satirical stories poking fun at everyday problems everyday people face as well as pointing out the hypocrisy of the rich and powerful. Think of Laughing in Disbelief as The Onion on drugs. Like meth. Or bath salts.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I hope I\u2019m providing laughs for people who are left of center (Hey! That\u2019s the name of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/LeftofCenterPoltically\/?source_id=1425333537794538\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Facebook group<\/a> I run). I also think atheists, Satanists, agnostics, Brights, and antitheists will have a chuckle!<\/p>\n<p>Some of you may not think what I do is nice. And that\u2019s for several reasons:<\/p>\n<p>One: You may say to yourself \u201cI didn\u2019t know the post was satirical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>OK, well, there are several <i>winks<\/i> to readers that signal the article is a joke.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>One of them is the link that brought you here.<\/p>\n<p>Another wink is that someone in the story has a name derived from <i>canard<\/i>. It\u2019s typically Andrew Canard. The word canard not only means duck but also an <i>unfounded rumor or story<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes I like to name the people in the post are named after Confederate generals or Nazis.<\/p>\n<p>And, of course, the name of the blog is <i>Laughing in Disbelief<\/i>. <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/39Y2yYC\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Richard Dawkins<\/a> once remarked on my old blog, Laughing in Purgatory, that the name alone should tell people it\u2019s satirical. I think the same principle applies.<\/p>\n<p>All of these, my friends, are signs that the story is satirical.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30830\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30830\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30830 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/563\/2019\/05\/E3685003-7F06-4C96-841A-B0C0B062680C-225x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30830\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New England gets cold.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A second complaint I sometimes get is Andrew Hall what you do is <b>mean, mean, mean.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I think about what I do like this.<\/p>\n<p>Satire is a way for the weak to strike back at the strong. The strong have wealth, respect, and power. Those of us who are different need to use other tools. We have laughter. And hope.<\/p>\n<p>I heard a line penned by <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2tWZvjk\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Finley Peter Dunne<\/a>. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>And it stuck with me. To paraphrase <i>My job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>All that being said, I hope you like what I do here. I\u2019m a one-person comedy factory producing comics that educate about cognitive fallacies (The series is called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Andys-Follies-292369391175278\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Andy\u2019s Follies<\/a>). I also have a lovely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCDJYlFBEwFT52u1ja7uFWtw\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">YouTube channel<\/a> where I\u2019m interviewing notable people on the best advice they ever received. \u00a0And I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention I\u2019m cohost of the <a href=\"http:\/\/zxh-creative.com\/category\/podcast\/nakeddiner\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Naked Diner<\/a> podcast. Satanic blogger Jack Matirko is my cohost and we have talked with a lot of awesome people. If you listen, then you will laugh and your brain will learn something.<\/p>\n<p>I have a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/AndrewHall\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Patreon account<\/a> where you can show me some financial love and support. You can also buy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buymeacoffee.com\/rZjnAKp\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">me a cup of coffee!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once again. Thank you for stopping by!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Take care!<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/teespring.com\/stores\/laughing-in-disbelief\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Check out the Laughing in Disbelief store!<\/a><\/h1>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-38475\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/563\/2019\/12\/Less-stupid.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"480\"><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/teespring.com\/be-less-stupid?pid=2&amp;cid=573\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Buy here!<\/a><\/h1>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atheism is for everyone. Hello, my name is Andrew Hall and I\u2019m the author of Laughing in Disbelief. Before getting to business I just want to thank you for taking some time and reading one of my posts. I appreciate it! You probably clicked a link to a story and you\u2019re here. The story you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2302,"featured_media":42883,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-125","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is This Satire? - Laughing in Disbelief<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Atheism is for everyone. Hello, my name is Andrew Hall and I\u2019m the author of Laughing in Disbelief. 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