As long as we’re into prohibiting so many things these days, I want to add a particularly dangerous practice to the list.
It’s called parody. Problem is, it gives people too many ideas. You’ve heard about the lawsuit against McDonald’s for victimizing some fat guy with its junk food? Looks like that’s just the beginning. I blame parody. Some jokers run a publication called The Onion. There’s a companion web site at theonion.com. I worry that when they make fun of some idiotic trend and float a fake proposal, somebody is likely to get the wrong idea.
For example, chocolate. The Onion ran an article with the headline: “Hershey’s Ordered to Pay Obese Americans $135 billion” a take-off on the lawsuits against cigarette companies. Not long after The Onion ran its clever little parody about how Big Chocolate “knowingly and willfully market rich, fatty candy bars,” comes a real-life story. Headline: “New Legal Target: Chocolate.”
Seems the Environmental Safety Institute is suing chocolate manufacturers for allegedly hiding the fact that there is lead in the chocolate. Or something. Maybe this Safety Institute didn’t get their idea to sue from The Onion or Mad Magazine . Maybe it’s just ideology plus litigiousnes. Whatever, I don’t think we can take the risk of giving troublemakers any more ideas.
We should ban parody. Now. And I mean that sincerely. Stop. Just stop. Hey I mean it. I’m really serious, here.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob