Is life imitating satire?

[mr friendly guy]

There was a political cartoon once posted here where they mock gun owners and then the next panel shows a report on Dick Cheney accidentally shooting his friend, and the lead character lamenting that satire is dead. Do you ever get the feeling that eventually, whether influenced by the earlier satire piece or not, life imitates satire? Which in a way makes it harder to satire, hence the character's claim that satire is dead.

I never gave it too much thought but then I received a Young Turks video in my recommendations. But before that, I will like to post the original satire piece from the Chaser.



This was a satire from 2007, mocking the recent spate of Jesus's face appearing in unlikely places. IIRC the story of the Jesus's face appearing in a grilled sandwich and sold on E-bay and purchased by a museum which collects oddities was posted here. Well the Chaser mocked this by having Jesus face appearing in excrement.

Now here is the Young Turks video a few days ago



Life is following satire.

[Gandalf]

Life doesn't imitate satire. Periodically things happen which have also happened within the world's countless satire publications.

Coincidence, nothing more.

[Executor32]

Yeah, I can't say I'm surprised that eventually, a satire piece came true. What surprises me, though, is that the guy thought that bird shit looked anything like Jesus. Hell, I didn't see much of anything at all until I turned it sideways, at which point it became a woman in a fur coat and a giant Kermit the Frog sitting on a sinking Viking longboat, with her facing away from him as if to say, "This is all your fault! I'm not speaking to you anymore! Hmph!" Pareidolia is an odd thing sometimes.

[bilateralrope]

Sometimes real life decides that the satire doesn't go far enough. For example we have this thread back from 2010 where some group decided it was important to send solar powered bibles to Haiti. The Onion only talked about sending printed bibles.