Why Snopes Covers Satire and Parody

Since Snopes' start in the mid-1990s, our fact-checkers have alerted readers to numerous pieces of satire. That's many decades of "jokes" targeting politicians and celebrities, or putting twists on history.

Throughout that time, some readers have asked: Why spend your time on obviously fake and often frivolous stories?

First, no matter how unbelievable a story may seem to you, another person is taking it at face value — as a factual recounting of real-life events. As Snopes' Co-Founder David Mikkelson once said, "nothing can be put online — no matter how preposterous in concept or plainly labeled it might be — that some people won't believe to be true (or at least allow might be true)." 

Second, whether you agree with something being described as "satire" or "parody" is a matter of opinion. 

Snopes is in the business of facts. We strive to put aside all subjectivity. So when we label rumors with "Labeled Satire" or "Originated as Satire" ratings, we're not making a determination on the "realness" or "effectiveness" of the purported humor. Rather, we're flagging the fake story or image for readers as a something that originated with a source that describes its output as satire or parody. Your call on whether you agree the item is satire.

Methods for creating this type of content are evolving. Networks of sites and social media accounts are rapidly creating fabricated articles or images that stoke emotion over today's culture wars, and/or describe what seem to be genuine news involving high-profile figures, and labeling them "satire." The New York Times reported:

Facebook allows satirical pages, whether or not they use a "satire" label. But the term has also become a popular defense for fake news operators, who typically disclose they are satire only in an obscure section of their Facebook pages, or sometimes omit it entirely.

Using "satire" labels, Christopher Blair, of America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD), defends his work posting fake stories and memes to Facebook as comedy attempting to troll conservative Facebook users into questioning their gullibility. "They believe nearly anything," he has written. "Our mission is to do our best to show them the light, through shame if necessary, and to have a good time doing it."

Possible educational opportunities aside, the posts aim to rile people up. Strong emotions (outrage, disgust, support and so on) can lead to comments and shares — which, in turn, can lead to click-driven ad revenue for creators. And the more they create, the more likely they are to reap a large profit with a post going viral.

That's why some of these networks, such as SpaceXMania, rely on artificial-intelligence (AI) writing software to create their "satire." According to media watchdog NewsGuard, the number of sites across the web publishing unreliable articles or fabricated images with "little to no human oversight" is only growing with time.

Meanwhile, the internet still has more traditional forms of "satire" — i.e., humorous memes, parody videos, and so on — that creatives think up and share with less coordinated, automated systems. Those are one-off posts that may briefly gain internet fame because of their ingenuity or pointedness.

Whether a "satirical" post fits into that category or the former, Snopes takes the temperature of readers and social media before addressing it. 

As Mikkelson once put it, the newsroom does not "pick and choose'' what it covers based on personal preferences or political leanings, nor do fact-checkers rely on their own viewpoints of what's "important." Rather, we prioritize claims by their reach, oftentimes considering whether our readers are asking us about them. He said:

"We don't make any judgments about whether what the audience is questioning is important or obvious or frivolous — if people are asking us about something, there's a reason why, and our job is to take whatever they're questioning and help them sort out what's true about it and what isn't."