Thursday, May 9, 2013

I Promise Its a Joke!

I'm not going to lie, when I wrote "Big Army's Latest FUBAR" I was kind of giggling like a school girl.  I thought it was so over the top that people would get it right away.  I mean likening the Army Service Ribbon to the Gay Pride ribbon?  Look we all joked about it but at what time was a "no butt hurt" policy for the "no homo" rule, but I thought people would pick that out right away and be like "AHHH you funny Mad Medic."  No, people are really pissed off. 

I'm not sure how to take it exactly, on the one hand there's a part of me that can't stop laughing like a kid that just set a flaming bag of dog poop on someone's doorstep and rang the door bell.  It's pretty funny and aside from a small fright, and perhaps extreme annoyance of the intended target, no permanent harm is done.   But then there's a part of me that's saying "oh shit dude, people are taking that seriously!"  I'm not going to lie, that's the part that I have the hardest time settling.

Satire, like A Modest Proposal, The Duffel Blog, or the Onion seem to fill a vital role in our society.  Its a way to point out inequity, and at the same time have a laugh at the ridiculousness of our beliefs or misconceptions.  The problem with satire is that you kind of have to be in on the gag, or have to be savvy enough to get it when they're being subtle.  One of the hallmarks of satire is that it will cause someone to flip their wig and go nuts reacting to what they read.  Of course it also holds true that that's half the reason to write satire.  Like I said there's a part of me that laughing hysterically at some of the comments people are leaving. 

I promise, the Army is not naming every soldier, Soldier of the Year.  The fact that everyone tends to believe it should tell anyone from Big Army reading it, that maybe they really ought to cut the "everybody gets a medal" bullshit. 

Still at the end of it all, it is a joke.  Please people don't go to the puzzle palace and demand the SMA stop being such a douche. 

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