Perfect Strangers
The film’s premise is simple yet made suspenseful with a 21st Century twist.
All Your Beck Are Belong To Us
Update on "Teaching the Controversy: Why won't he deny raping and killing?:
Rather than try to fight a First Amendment case (which they would be destined to lose), Glenn Beck's lawyers have filed a complaint (.pdf here) with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a "specialized agency of the United Nations" based in the neutral country of Switzerland, claiming that the satirical domain name glenn beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990.com is: 1) a form of cybersquatting, 2) defamatory and 3) an infringement on his trademarked name. (The irony here is that the United Nations and socialist Switzerland are two things Beck does not believe in.)
Advertisement
(The site itself is called "Did Glenn Beck Rape and Murder a Young Girl in 1990: The Official Parody Website About the Controversy" -- after a 2008 Gilbert Gottfried comedy routine spreading heretofore nonexistent rumors about Bob Saget in a televised Comedy Central roast. Gottfried also claimed that Saget seduced the Olsen twins with chocolate milkshakes.)
In response (.pdf here, lawyers for the site contend that Beck's defamation complaints are outside the scope WIPO's own decision-making powers, and that the satire is "not unlike the fame Campari ad in Hustler v. Falwell." Beck's people simply don't understand what an Intertubes Internet meme is:
"The term Internet meme is a phrase used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an esoteric inside joke." See Internet For Beginners (Annex B)
From "Mr. Spock Ate My Balls," (defunct) to ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US to "Leeroy Jenkins" to a slew of sub-memes based on the movie "300", internet memes are as old as the internet itself, and almost as ubiquitous as actual cybersquatters. See Squidoo "Top 10 Internet Memes" (Annex C). Memes are often puzzling to those who have never encountered them before, and they are similarly puzzling to the subjects of the memes when they involve real people.
Attorney Marc Randazza then offers a formula to explain how these things work:
(Outrageous Accusation) + (Celebrity) + (Question Why the Celebrity Does Not Deny the Accusation) = (Confirmation of the Falsity of the Accusation + Laughter)
Next Article: VIFF: Memories of murder... (?) Previous Article: Polanski déjà vu in Vancouver
Popular Blog Posts
The Unloved, Part 61: The Predator
Scout Tafoya's video essay series on maligned masterpieces continues with a celebration of Shane Black's The Predator.
Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall on College, the Episode that Made The Sopranos
An excerpt from the new book The Sopranos Sessions, about HBO's legendary TV series.
Who do you read? Good Roger, or Bad Roger?
This message came to me from a reader named Peter Svensland. He and a fr...
Obsession and The Void: The Performances of Christian Bale
A look back through Christian Bale's filmography, highlighting five roles that define his career.
