Poe's law
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Revision as of 06:57, 11 January 2010
Poe's law is a humorous law formulated by Nathan Poe, which states that:
- "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a fundamentalist in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article."
It is a comment on the wide range of extreme and, many might say, insane opinions expressed by religious fundamentalists, especially on the Internet.
Parody often works by exaggerating the salient features of a person or situation beyond reasonable bounds. Poe's law says that there are no bounds to what fundamentalists will say, and therefore they are impossible to parody.
