Splinters

Glimmers in Latin Americas aside the world languishes under grim, grey times and tides at the moment. Let's focus on the important things therefore. That's right, which satire/parody websites are making us go hee hee the most!

The Onion "America's Finest News Source" has developed into a fine old US counter-institution, a more scatological and edgy but less in-depth counterpart to the UK's Private Eye (whose web presence incidentally is fairly minimal, containing only a fraction of the mag's material). As with most comedy this long-lasting there are inevitably peaks and troughs in quality, and I haven't read anything that quite reaches past triumphs lately.

The standard is still fairly high however, certainly today's "Rumsfeld now says Iraq capable of conducting war without US assistance" raised a grim chuckle. As for that matter did the rather more unsetlling "Paedophile less interested the more he reads 13 year old?s MySpace profile". The Onion can still be very funny, and any "past its best" criticisms are nowhere near as accurate as those directed at, say, the modern-day Simpsons, which I'm sad to say has been on autopilot for years now.

I've recently been making some return visits to The Landover Baptist Church where the "Unsaved are Unwelcome". Landover is nearly as long-running as The Onion now, and is frequently devastating in its of sarky critique of the Krazed Kreationist Kristianity currently running rampant over America. And who's good ole boy now resides in the White House too of course. In recent years its grown more caustic and detailed and a bit more about polemic than humour. But on the other hand skits like "Just because God likes to kill babies doesn't give you permission!" are still pretty sharp in all senses.

Far more recent, sprawling and surreal is Uncyclopedia, a parody of Wikipedia, which ,like its target, "anyone can edit". As a result the quality obviously varies wildly, many pages in particular seem to have been taken over by doltish misogynist US frat-boys. But a great clearly done by a core team, and its childish absurdism can be delightful. Some good, typically puerile entries to my mind include the IRA and The Ramones. I particularly enjoy the running "Oscar Wilde quotes on every subject" gag. I think the whole thing somehow works far better than it should do, though to say its an "aquired taste" is an understatement.

It should be noted that these are all predominantly American. The best Brit parody sites were TV Go Home (long since defunct now the great Charlie Brooker has gone on to other things) and The Framley Examiner (wonderfully pitched assault on "your local newspaper", now also discontinued.) Come on Blighty, can't someone do us proud once more??

Finally an honourable mention to Mailwatch. It's not really a parody-site, it just shows the front pages of the UK's two most vile papers (The Daily Mail and Daily Express) and let's you comment. They really are beyond parody, as top Mail columnist Dick Smallprick says "You couldn't MAKE it up."

I know these are a tiny example of the hundreds of satirical sites on the web, but they're the main ones of worth I can see. If someone wants to make the case for another, then come on down.