Subramanian Swamy, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader and grand poobah of Virat Hindus everywhere (mostly in New Jersey), is a hard man to parody. That’s because he often falls afoul of what is known on the internet as Poe’s law. Named after Nathan Poe, the law suggests that “unless you add a smiley or a blatant display of humour, it is impossible to create a parody of extremism or fundamentalism that someone won’t mistake for the real thing.”
Meet Subramaniam Swamy. The only difference between this Swamy and the original is that his first name ends with an ‘m’ not an ‘n.’ Oh, and he’s also a parody, although far too often it’s hard to tell the difference.
Sample this recent post from the parody Facebook account:
And this post from the Swamy facebook account that has been endorsed by the man himself, although it’s actually run by the ShankhNaad team.
This perfect depiction of Poe’s law, with lots of people who stumble upon the parody account actually thinking that it is the real deal, and it’s easy to see why. Unfortunately for the person who runs the parody, Swamy happens to have found out, and he’s not happy.
On his Twitter account, which he runs himself, Swamy said that the parody was a reaction to the power of his Patriot Tweeple army, commonly referred to as PTs. The BJP rabble-rouser threatened to take legal action against those using his carefully built brand in the name of humour.
This has prompted some fun reactions from the parody itself, most memorably through an always useful reference to Andaz Apna Apna.
But the page might not be up for long. Facebook doesn’t take too kindly to parody accounts, insisting that everyone has to use their real, authentic names. Its policy, as explained on this page , makes it clear: “Pretending to be anything or anyone is not allowed.” Which means one of the better internet parody accounts could disappear at any given time, and it won't be around afterwards.
"Many people have suggested that we change the name so that we can at least run the page," said the creator of the page, a software developer from Bangalore who asked to remain unidentified. "I'm not worried if it is taken down by Facebook, but until it is there, it will remain Subramaniam Swamy."
The creator of the account said he started it in June, after noticing just how blindly people would follow the posts put up by Swamy and the ShankNaad team, which made it seem as if the whole world was out to attack Hindus. He, in fact, got a chance to prove this blind loyalty when some joke posts of his own ended up not only being shared by the original Swamy's fans but also being defended by them.
"It was quite disturbing to see people just blindly follow him. So I thought this would be a fun way to counter that. And what has happened is that many people who are his own supporters end up reposting and sharing this page, and even defending things we've written, like the Monalisa Shah post or the one about Australia [above]," he said. "It's also funny, some of his biggest supporters block the page when they realise what it is, but also people who hate him block the page, because they think it is him."
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
Meet Subramaniam Swamy. The only difference between this Swamy and the original is that his first name ends with an ‘m’ not an ‘n.’ Oh, and he’s also a parody, although far too often it’s hard to tell the difference.
Sample this recent post from the parody Facebook account:
And this post from the Swamy facebook account that has been endorsed by the man himself, although it’s actually run by the ShankhNaad team.
This perfect depiction of Poe’s law, with lots of people who stumble upon the parody account actually thinking that it is the real deal, and it’s easy to see why. Unfortunately for the person who runs the parody, Swamy happens to have found out, and he’s not happy.
On his Twitter account, which he runs himself, Swamy said that the parody was a reaction to the power of his Patriot Tweeple army, commonly referred to as PTs. The BJP rabble-rouser threatened to take legal action against those using his carefully built brand in the name of humour.
Desperate Congi&Aaptards seeing the huge knock out response of PTs have resorted to parody accounts.Facebook must act or face legal notice
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) December 14, 2014This has prompted some fun reactions from the parody itself, most memorably through an always useful reference to Andaz Apna Apna.
But the page might not be up for long. Facebook doesn’t take too kindly to parody accounts, insisting that everyone has to use their real, authentic names. Its policy, as explained on this page , makes it clear: “Pretending to be anything or anyone is not allowed.” Which means one of the better internet parody accounts could disappear at any given time, and it won't be around afterwards.
"Many people have suggested that we change the name so that we can at least run the page," said the creator of the page, a software developer from Bangalore who asked to remain unidentified. "I'm not worried if it is taken down by Facebook, but until it is there, it will remain Subramaniam Swamy."
The creator of the account said he started it in June, after noticing just how blindly people would follow the posts put up by Swamy and the ShankNaad team, which made it seem as if the whole world was out to attack Hindus. He, in fact, got a chance to prove this blind loyalty when some joke posts of his own ended up not only being shared by the original Swamy's fans but also being defended by them.
"It was quite disturbing to see people just blindly follow him. So I thought this would be a fun way to counter that. And what has happened is that many people who are his own supporters end up reposting and sharing this page, and even defending things we've written, like the Monalisa Shah post or the one about Australia [above]," he said. "It's also funny, some of his biggest supporters block the page when they realise what it is, but also people who hate him block the page, because they think it is him."
