An article that circulated the Internet claiming that a Ugandan ‘child rape festival’ was to be held has turned out to be fake.
The article made the rounds this past week about child rape. This article, which was proven to be a fake, came after another fake article, about President Museveni’s daughter being lesbian.
With its many issues regarding the recent signing of the controversial anti-homosexuality bill into law, many were marvelling at the irony of President Yoweri Museveni’s daughter coming out as gay.
The latest article featured a story about the “inaugural Child Rape Festival” held to “uphold Ugandan Christian principles”.
Last year’s Academy Awards featured another spoof article that had many up in arms.
Nine-year-old nominee Quvenzhane Wallis, one of the youngest best actress nominees for her role in Beasts of the Southern Wild, was the subject of an article by spoof site The Onion. The offending article called the actress the c-word which outraged many who felt that she was too young for that kind of insult, fake or not.
Spoofing real-life events, in both pop culture as well as news events, has been commonplace for TV shows South Park and Family Guy. Among the many notable moments from South Park, was the episode featuring the prophet Mohammed, titled Cartoon Wars II. This episode was a take on an episode of Family Guy, featuring a censored image of the prophet Mohammed which was featured on Family Guy.
With South Africa’s intricate political landscape, satirical sites such as ZA News have been remarkably popular. Puppet Chester Missing, voiced by Conrad Koch, has taken off in popularity, with 96,000 Twitter followers and a stint on Late Nite News (LNN), with Loyiso Gola.
The article about Museveni’s daughter proved more political than parody, but caused a frenzy online about the bill. The article about the Ugandan rape festival was posted by South African-based satirical site, Lifestyle Tabloids, and left many wondering if this spoof had gone too far.
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