First, let’s review Poe’s Law. Without a blatant indication that you’re kidding, any parody is indistinguishable from whatever it’s parodying. Poe’s law refers to extremism or fundamentalism, but think about those Onion article headlines that for a split second you thought were real. In fact, there are people (not you, you’re too savvy) that mistake satire for the real thing all the time.
I reaaaaallly hope I’m about to do that, to take seriously what’s meant in jest.
Because every time Usher’s new song I Don’t Mind comes on the radio, I listen to it with my mouth open in shock. Usher croons about how he doesn’t mind at all that his girlfriend is a stripper because he knows she’s gotta make money somehow.
This is humor, right? Because if it isn’t, I’m completely baffled why I haven’t heard women everywhere decry this song. As much as, yay for Usher for stating he doesn’t mind if his “shawty” dances on a pole because that doesn’t make her a “ho”, NO ONE HAS A PROBLEM WITH THE FACT THAT THE ONLY WAY HIS WOMAN CAN MAKE RENT IS BY BEING AN OBJECT FOR MEN?
Why can’t he write, “Hey I don’t mind/who you serve a summons to/as long as you come home and work on my briefs”? Perhaps, “I don’t mind/all the men you’ve been seeing/because I know you only touch them with your stethoscope”? (more…)