# Parody or Real **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 21, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636 "2011-11-21T13:41:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/1 "2011-11-21T13:41:22Z")
I swear, there ought to be a book that just reprints stupid letters to the editor. [Over here](http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/20/4068783/letters-to-the-editor-uc-davis.html), about the third letter down is a note to the Sacramento Bee. It demands the media stop covering protestors. That will put a stop to all this! I swear I suspect it is a parody. Or perhaps Grandpa Simpson is back at the typewriter. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/2 "2011-11-21T14:09:20Z")
I have wondered in the past if, when an issue has an overwhelmingly one-sided response, editors make up fake letters in order to inject some ‘balance’ into the page. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/3 "2011-11-21T14:27:21Z")
Why is it so hard for some people to believe there are idiots in the world? Do you think everyone who has a dumb idea is deliberately putting you on? I tend to presume everyone is smart, too, but that is a definitely a rebuttable presumption on my part; I tend to conclude ‘ignorance’ or ‘stupidity’ before I conclude ‘trolling’. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/4 "2011-11-21T14:30:13Z")
“Society is a disgrace,” quoth the letterwriter. I agree. It must be stopped. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/5 "2011-11-21T14:33:24Z")
If I could work out the copyright issues, I swear a collection of letters to my (US) local paper would be a best-seller. Once a guy said four-engine airplanes were seeding clouds over his house at night. How can you tell they are four-enigne at night? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/6 "2011-11-21T19:13:48Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > If I could work out the copyright issues, I swear a collection of letters to my (US) local paper would be a best-seller. Once a guy said four-engine airplanes were seeding clouds over his house at night. How can you tell they are four-enigne at night? The pixels give it away. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/7 "2011-11-21T19:20:53Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > “Society is a disgrace,” quoth the letterwriter. I agree. It must be stopped. You know what I blame this on the breakdown of? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/8 "2011-11-22T00:21:57Z")
Dumbest letter to the editor I ever saw. Philadelphia Inquirer, some time in the 50s. After a stretch of nasty weather wrote (and the editor printed it!) that the weather was caused by trucks pulling it through the Penna Turnpike tunnels (of which there were 7 in those days although nearly all have now been bypassed). ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/9 "2011-11-22T00:30:57Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I have wondered in the past if, when an issue has an overwhelmingly one-sided response, editors make up fake letters in order to inject some ‘balance’ into the page. No but they might print just one letter from each side despite having received, say, 20-to-1 in favour of one side. For “balance”, as you say. I also notice that if they print only letters on one side, the next day there will _always_ be a letter accusing the paper of editorial bias in that direction, which I assume they print to defuse exactly that accusation. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/10 "2011-11-22T02:04:49Z")
Oh god. I’m thinking back to a couple letters I wrote to our local paper as a teen and now I’m cringing. Keep in mind not all letters to the editor are written by semi-coherent adults. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/11 "2011-11-22T02:19:39Z")
> [@](#): > > A lot of deer get hit by cars west of Crown Point on U.S. 231. There are too many cars to have the deer crossing here. The deer crossing sign needs to be moved to a road with less traffic. > > - Tim Abbott, Crown Point [From here](http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_c3a6319b-8e09-5a70-8814-e1c56d754a9b.html) I’m still trying to figure out if this one was parody or not. I suspect it was, I’ve heard this old chestnut in the past. But stupidity repeats itself too. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/12 "2011-11-22T02:46:50Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > [From here](http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_c3a6319b-8e09-5a70-8814-e1c56d754a9b.html) Oh god, the comments on that are hysterical. So many whooshes…or are they parody as well? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/13 "2011-11-22T02:57:17Z")
Several years ago we had a minor earthquake. No injuries or major damage, just a little shaking. One of my neighbors wrote a letter to the editor, complaining indignantly that nobody had announced that there would be an earthquake. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/14 "2011-11-22T08:59:49Z")
During the energy crisis in the seventies daylight saving time was extended to reduce demand for electricity. The San Francisco Chronicle printed a letter from someone complaining that this would be bad for the environment because the birds wouldn’t know when to wake up. I never did figure out whether the writer was trying to be funny. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parody-or-real/603636/15 "2011-11-23T00:30:04Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > During the energy crisis in the seventies daylight saving time was extended to reduce demand for electricity. The San Francisco Chronicle printed a letter from someone complaining that this would be bad for the environment because the birds wouldn’t know when to wake up. I never did figure out whether the writer was trying to be funny. These days they could be alerted by tweet.