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Satire Reflecting Reality

Friday, 28th September 2007

Yes, we know that's what it's meant to do: by extrapolating, by extending some aspect of behaviour or a situation we both satirise it and reflect upon the underlying reality. However, I think we have here something rather new, where the satire becomes the reality.

There's a rather fun blog out there called The Spine, offering a slightly skewed take on the events of the day. All well and good, there are many of those (although the Spine benefits from the fact that it is actually funny) but things have gone a little further.

Some time ago, in commenting upon Gordon Ramsey's reputation as a bit of a hard man, someone you would want to be on your side if you met him in a dark alley, the writer invented the facts that:

MOD hopes to end the rumours that have been rife in the media and which have increasingly looked certain to compromise operational security. Their brief statement read: ‘We can confirm that Captain Gordon James Ramsay, of the 23rd SAS unit, has been in active service in Afghanistan for the last twelve months. He hopes to return to TV screens in the New Year with a new series about cakes but, until then, hopes he can be allowed to continue in his duties.’ Chef Ramsey is commonly regarded as the hardest man in Britain since he became the UK’s bare-knuckle champion last year, beating the current gypsy champion in a twenty two round marathon in a freight container yard in Hull.
So far so amusing. However, it appears that some of the colonial cousins took this to be true. Those, well allegations would be too strong a word, are now being used in a court case against Ramsey in the US.

This could, of course, be a triple leg pull but I do so hope not.

What was that line about a sense of humour not travelling well?