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It’s funny, but it could be bad for someone, too. I’m speaking about satire. Before going ahead, let’s start with the definition of satire.
From Wikipedia:
In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with an intent to bring about improvement.[1] Although satire is usually meant to be funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humor in itself so much as an attack on something of which the author strongly disapproves, using the weapon of wit
From the dictionary:
satire |ˈsaˌtīr|nounthe use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
The best examples of satire is when a popular comedian imitates politicians or other popular people by highlighting their behaviors, gestures and sometimes their voice.
What about internet? These days I came across the first (for my knowledge) case of satire on the internet, against a popular and well known person in the industry: Shel Israel. Who is the comedian behind it? His name is Loren Feldman and he is the man behind the company 1938media.
(here is Shel Israel in a photo taken by myself during MaxRoam&QIK party for San Patrick’s day. BTW, Shel, I think this is a great photo!)
In a nutshell, here are the facts: in the last weeks, Loren started writing blog posts, videos of himself speaking about Shel and, last but not least, videos of puppets representing Shel in comic and surrealistic situations, everything publicily available on 1938media’s website as well as in a new blog, ShelIsrael.com, which pretends to be the personal blog of Shel, but it is just a fake published by Loren.
According to the last updates by Shel on Twitter, he’s really upset about this situation and he’s looking for information about Loren to make them publicly available or, in general, to try to replicate to Loren’s activity. Loren himself reports this in this post.
I know Shel and Loren and I think they are both very good persons. I met Shel during one of my trips to Silicon Valley and I admire him as a wise and respectable professional and the lunch we had together was definitely nice and fun (a great pizza too!). On the other hand I never met Loren (even if we had the opportunity to speak on the phone once) but the only thing I can say is that I always laugh when I watch his videos, a sign that he’s a very good comedian and that his videos work great.
All that said, it’s clear that we are in front of satire. Loren is doing satire and his victim is Shel, being a very well known person over the internet, both for his activity in Silicon Valley as well as his popular book written with another “internet star”, Robert Scoble. At the same time, it’s definitely a good way for Loren to spread the word about himself, because he gains attention from other bloggers and by media in general.
Is it fair? Is it good or bad? I would like to share my take with both Shel and Loren: I love satire and I think that if someone is a victim of satire, that means he’s an important person and satire is, good or bad, a great way to spread the word about a person. 1938media is get paid by people that want to be advertised on their portal and in their videos, while Shel is getting everything for free (I think he definitely doens’t need publicity, but we use to say that it’s much worse if you are famous but no one is speaking of you anymore). At the same time, Loren record really great videos and since I know Shel and praise him as well as consider him a great guy, those videos are just a way to have some minutes of fun, the way I see him remains unchanged and I don’t think that his reputation will ever be affected by a couple of funny videos.
At the same time, I wouldn’t have used ShelIsrael.com to post those videos. People can think that it is Shel’s personal blog and, unless Loren writes a well readable disclaimer, it’s not that fair. However, it can be considered part of the parody and another piece of Loren’s satiric activity on Shel Israel, but I would appreciate to read a disclaimer soon and I think Shel has all the rights to ask for it (or to ask to take that website down).
My recommendation? Guys, take it easy and try to relax, hoping that there is nothing personal between you! By the way, I’d love to see more people among your puppets, Loren: Scoble, Arrington, Pete Cashmore, Pat Phelan, You… and myself too! 
