Discussion Forum

When the fck did this start?

Re my"California Bakery Refuses to Bake Wedding Cake Showing Anal Sex"some asshole added a final line "and they pulled up their pants and left the store"

Is this Spoof policy to tamper with our original material?

let us know because i'm sure any writer worth a damn will no longer post on Spoof!

Maybe the editor found it lacking.

Who knows?

If you'd sent that to me for publication on my website I'd have binned it without a second thought and it would never have seen the light of day. But that's just my opinion, and not that of Spoof.

Have a nice day.

Regards

Skoob.

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Quote: Skoob1999

Maybe the editor found it lacking.

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Lacking, Skoob? Lacking what?

I think dave nelson has a valid question, even if, as you seem to be inferring, his story wasn't up to much. It would be the first time I've heard of stories being 'edited' by anyone other than the original writer, but maybe I've just been walking around in a daze for 8 years.

But anyway, I have an idea! Let's have a competition! Not a Caption Competition, but a competition based around the 'added sentence':

and they pulled up their pants and left the store

Voting as usual, whatever that is. First prize 1 billion points, second prize 1 million points, third prize moot points. Other prizes could be available if any more than three people enter the comp.

Agreed?

Ring me later with your answer.

LOL -Skoob who is so far down the writer"s chart he's looking up my asshole would have 'binned it"

letting Skoobs even write on Spoof is a satire on Spoofing!

Bin this!

dear Mr.Nelson, before you appeared here, and that is not long, Skoob was and still is a living legend here, how dare you insult his work and standing!

The reason why he is lower in the charts is simply because he does not Spoof anymore, however his older spoofs still keep him in there!

You, sir, are one of the reasons why The Spoof has sunken to the depths where it now stands. Your insulting, outrageous and rather ignorant comments hopefully will be found by Mark and you will receive a lengthy ban here, TROLLS, we have had enough of, and you fit the bill perfectly.

I will report this to Mark BTW, disgraceful!

I think the last line is a punchline that made the article into an almost-funny joke.

But then bakery is always a touchy subject. Best to steer clear.

I thought your story was a real example to all. Your use of the apostrophe in particular is most instructive.

I'm not looking up his ...honest!

Why on earth would I want to do that?

Regards

Skoob.

Hiya. Yeah, I turned the article into a joke, so that it's funny.

I added a couple of parts, the setup, then the punchline.

The setup comes here, and is so brief it's easy to pass over:

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Reporter asked: "Would you show a heterosexual having anal sex on one of your cakes, like this?"

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Then the punchline at the end, to round off the implied joke that the reporter was with a colleague and they were giving a demonstration:

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We duly pulled up our pants and left the store.

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It's a subtle change to make the article a more obvious spoof.

The addition followed on nicely from your original line and gives a stronger reason to why he'd be telling the reporter to "get the fuck out":

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Angie Buttafusco said: "We have to think about that - now get the fuck out of our bakery!"

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Without these changes, the article was quite a dry commentary on largely a real news article with a slight sprinkling of homophobia. Without the joke, it just felt kinda pointless.

Analysing the joke kinda takes the fun out of it though, sorry.

From time to time it is necessary in editing to give weaker stories a bit of pizzazz to make them stand out more. The shock value was there, and this is obviously your style, but it just comes across as ignorant without an obvious joke.

Duncan Whitehead's a master of writing shock humour and irreverent comedy, check out his stories. His most recent article is also a take on the recent stories about gays being refused service, but he's turned the situation around to make it funny.

If you're unhappy with the changes, please feel free to remove the article.

'ignorant without an obvious joke'

Would make a great Nick Clegg story

Monkey Woods

I tried calling but you didn't answer.

Regards

Skoob.

Mark has seen something funny in the thing, ok, I PM'd him and he's practicing a wire walking show of diplomacy, ok, but sorry, clowns like these do not have the right to out their homophobic feelings through cheap-skate spoofs and then have the cheek to insult legends here!

I have no desire to go back to the dark ages, sorry, that's my opinion and this troll will not change it!

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Quote: Mark

Hiya. Yeah, I turned the article into a joke, so that it's funny.

I added a couple of parts, the setup, then the punchline.

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Holy Crap! The management is changing the stories!

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Quote: Mark

From time to time it is necessary in editing to give weaker stories a bit of pizzazz to make them stand out more.

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I always thought someone had been tampering with my commas.





Skoob, I was definitely in. I stayed in all night waiting. I even cancelled my ballet class.

Never mind. Just pop in whenever you're free.

Okay MW. Be round about tea time. What are we having?

Regards

Skoob.

Never mind, worse things happen at sea.

And on dry land.

EQ, I once swam upon a moby dick, thank the heavens I unscrewed my leg

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Quote: Skoob1999

Okay MW. Be round about tea time. What are we having?

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Nothing you'll like. Or I'll like, either. There is a rather annoying lack of fish 'n' chip shops around here.

Skoob, if it's not too much to ask, and you have the time, could you find me a nice job back in the UK, please? I like proofreading, but I suppose stacking shelves at either Tesco or Asda would do. I don't like Sainsbury's very much - the colour scheme doesn't appeal to me.

Thanks! Let me know when I start, and where to go etc.

Yours,

M

Talking of "tampering" with writers -my Uncle Cliff is due out of prison in three days. I have a restraining order in place. #notofiddlingwithduncanagainwhileonacampngtrip

As Mark indicates, " the article was ignorant, and without a joke. Thank you, Mark, for adding the joke. Please next time, if you would also remove the ignorance.

MW what's up? You are not for Songkran this year? Loads of drunken farangs in tuk-tuks?!

I just want to know when, in US papers, we started using colons to indicate dialogue? We don't do that here.

I'm also curious about the overuse of hyphens.

A crash course in APA punctuation

And, honestly, it's Mark's website. He can edit jokes where he see fits. If you were to submit to The Onion, The Chive, Funny or Die, or anywhere else, an editor would edit things. That's what they do!

What a bunch of self flagellating mental masturbating would be Comics!

Satire does not require a punch line!

It's inherent in the material BUT if Mark is representative of who you admire as a wry wit you should be writing obituaries:

The Onion is crying!

For mark -The Unfunniest man on Spoof!


"Let's start with the jokes because most people aren't too sure what a joke is, and I haven't been able to find a case which defines it. But dictionaries will help us here. A joke is something that is said or done to evoke laughter or amusement. It can be a one-liner or an amusing story with a long-awaited punch line. A parody or satire does not have to be funny. The difference between a parody or satire on the one hand and jokes on the other is crucial, since jokes are not generally copyrightable whereas parodies and satires are."

I have to say that there has been other stuff on here in the past that "wasn't funny", and which wasn't, to my knowledge, altered in any way.

Censored, yes, but altered?

The thing is, here, that, if dave nelson's stuff started to become popular on the web - no matter how unlikely some people think that might be - we would have to consider how much of that were down to his 'magnificent writing ability', and how much to Mark's editing skills.

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Censored, yes, but altered?

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Aye, there's the rub. I have had things rejected altogether, but not altered. I think I would be upset if any of my work was altered especially if I was not informed.

Actually, I think I have had stuff altered in a minor way before.

It's also frustrating when a story doesn't get published quickly, and you lose headline relevance.

But we have to remember that Mark is the Editor/Owner and has ultimate authority.

With this story, which seems to have been written deliberately to be offensive, sick humour, there is an element of 'the biter bitten' here, as Mark seems to have turned the joke back on the author a bit, in order to lessen the perceived offensiveness and homophobia.

Perhaps a dialogue between Editor and writer might have helped with this artistic issue - though I know there are resource issues with the Editorial staff!

I think the norm would be for an Editor to return the article with suggestions for improvement. Never seen that happen here. So I have often taken it on myself to write to me and say, "This Stinks!" and then I ask myself, "Could you be a little more specific and I say, "Yeah, this HERE stinks." Then I write a letter of complaint addressed to me and threaten to kick my ass. BUt of course I'm retired now, so I really don't go that far...the new tires are great too by way, in case you wondered Erskin.