Oh Izzy, it's even worse than that.
Back in May, Charlie Brooker, creator of Black Mirror said he wasn't working on season 6, basically conceding he couldn't compete with 2020-to-that-point. In some ways reminiscent of how reality knocked Middle East parody site, The Pan-Arabia Enquirer, off the internet in 2015*
From FT Alphaville:
I’m a celebrity, give me the vaccine live on TV!
Earlier this week we suggested the best way to counter vaccine fears and conspiracies was with creative-minded solutions, not authoritarian-sounding declarations about compulsory vaccination programmes.
There were three main alternative strategies we offered.
One: Bigging up messaging that highlighted the public duty of getting vaccinated, something we believe would work wonders with all those inclined to signal their virtuous acts loudly across social media.
Two: Getting high-profile celebrities, officials and leaders to take the vaccine first so as to drum up public confidence in its safety. This would be akin to a “skin in the game” strategy and would be especially effective with the conspiracy-inclined if it featured those who have become central figures in conspiracy narratives such as Bill Gates, The Queen, Joe Biden etc etc.
Three: Launching counter-conspiracies that would challenge the accepted conspiratorial view that it’s the vaccine that should not be trusted rather than the virus itself. Like the idea that the vaccine is actually here to save us from Alien colonisation.
It didn’t take long for the system to provide....
....MUCH MORE
Although FT Alphaville's editor uses a couple other pics to illustrate her post I kept thinking of Slobodan Praljak:
Editors at semi-popular Middle East satire news website The Pan-Arabia Enquirer yesterday revealed that they had “given up” in their long-running struggle to keep ahead of reality.
The announcement came following last week’s news that labourers working in Qatar had been coerced into taking part in a marathon, with many bussed in from their dormitories and forced to run in jeans and flip-flops as part of a failed bid to break the world record for number of participants.
“Honestly, simply cannot compete in these sorts of conditions,” said Enquirer acting editor Baltimore Stafford in a statement.
“Over the years, we’ve had to deal with a growing trend of real-life trying to outdo satire, especially in Saudi Arabia, but this is beyond our capabilities. To be honest, we could have probably worked around the whole ‘labourers forced to take part in marathon’ bit, but with the addition of flip-flops, jeans and the fact it was a shambolic attempt to break a record, we’ve had to concede defeat.”
The PAE attempted a comeback in 2018 but as the poet said "The dogs bark but the caravan moves on"
