Move Over, Jon Stewart: Experts Say the Funniest Fake News Online is from New Jersey
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — You’ve seen the news recaps of 2006, the most important stories that gripped the nation’s attention. But here’s one you may have missed: “TIME Magazine Names Air ‘Gas of the Year.'” This exclusive from the New Jersey-based humor website Confusion Road (www.confusionroad.com) was crowned the top satire news story of 2006 by an expert panel of journalists and humor writers in the second annual HumorFeed Satire News Awards (www.humorfeed.com).
“This year’s winner represents satire at its finest,” said National Public Radio correspondent Eric Weiner. “The ‘report’ pokes good-natured fun at the media itself, deflating Time magazine’s much ballyhooed Person of the Year. It’s timely, clever — and just plain hilarious.”
Confusion Road is the brainchild of Chris Patterson, a software developer from Edison, N.J. Patterson is a veteran HumorFeed member who has been publishing satire online in Confusion Road since 2002. He came in second in last year’s Satire News Awards for his story “Terry Schiavo Dies; Congress Orders Feeding Tube Reinserted.”
“I’m proud that my work was chosen by a lot of very funny people out of a field of great material,” said Patterson. “I hope this award encourages more people to look beyond The Onion and The Daily Show, and discover these little-known gems of funny, smart, even thought-provoking satire.”
“The ‘TIME’ piece had a good original theme and some insightful reactions,” commented panelist Robert Zelnick, Chair of the Journalism Department at Boston University and an Emmy-award winning journalist. “But there were several strong articles this year.”
Second place was awarded to G. Xavier Robillard of All Day Coffee for his story “Iraq Study Group Caught Cheating.” Third place went to Brian Briggs of BBspot, for “Teen Using MySpace to Lure Bands to Los Angeles.” The finalists included a variety of other strong entries, including stories from Cracked Magazine and last year’s competition winner, BSNews.org.
“HumorFeed is fortunate to have so many talented writers contributing their work and their expertise to the community,” said site administrator E.F. Watley. “As far as we’re concerned, they’re all winners.”
The judging panel also included bestselling humor writer Andrew Marlatt, BBC comedy writer and creator of the legendary SatireWire.com humor site, and nationally syndicated columnist Madeline Kane of MadKane.com.
“Satirical news has become one of the primary ways a large segment of the population learns about current events,” said Marlatt. “Nowhere is this more true than on the web, where satire news has become a cornerstone of the Internet experience. Stories like “Gas of the Year” are important because they shed light on the media’s obsession with the superfluous.”
“The ‘TIME’ article was an excellent idea, beautifully executed,” added Kane. “It’s a fine example of smart social commentary combined with laugh-out-loud humor.”
About HumorFeed
HumorFeed, the internet’s premier humor news aggregator, is a group of approximately sixty carefully selected websites from the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Sweden. It lists daily news satire headlines submitted by its members. Admission is based on talent and involves a rigorous peer review process. Each January, HumorFeed hosts the annual awards to select the best from over 3,500 headlines run during the previous year. Member sites voted the top ten stories for consideration by the external review panel.
The winner: “Time Names Air ‘Gas of the Year'”
http://humorfeed.com/out/go.php?lid=14821
[tags]HumorFeed Satire News Awards, humor news aggregator, Riverside California news[/tags]
