Ever wondered how to end bigotry but didn't know how? Have no fear because Islamophobin is here. "Islamophobin is guaranteed to relieve bigotry and intolerance in five minutes."
The video is a part of a new public awareness ad campaign launched by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to combat growing intolerance in America. Side effects include fondness, brotherhood and acceptance.
Not that the campaign is wholly original. In an article on Jihad Watch, the writer cites receiving pills named Islamophobil, which cured Islamophobia with multiculturalism. On their website, the group wrote, "We believe that a little humour goes a long way. With islamophobia on the rise in the US, what better way to help dispel the bigotry and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims than through satire?"
Spoofs and satires lend themselves very well to issues and help people connect with the topic more. They also work individually in their own. Comedy group All India Bakchod has made two similar videos in the past. One was about the 2013 ruling of the Supreme Court on Section 377 featuring Imran Khan, which seeks to hear out the concerns of homophobic Indians, including: "Why can't gay people un-gay?" and "How do gay people have coffee?"
The other video, featuring Kalki Koechlin, women are told, "It's your fault," when it comes to rape. It begins with a smiling Koechlin asking, "Ladies, do you think rape is something men do as a desire for control empowered by years of patriarchy?" and then providing the answer herself, "You've clearly been misled by the notion that women are people too because let's face it ladies. Rape? It's your fault." The video steadily grows darker as scenes of violence against women are interspersed with the women sharing faux statistics, the likes of which have been actually used by politicians.
A few years ago, a group annoyed by advertisements about Africa, launched a charity single titled Africa for Norway imploring people to send heaters to Norway. "A lot of people don't know what's going on there right now. It's just as bad as poverty if you ask me. People don't ignore starving people so why should we ignore cold people," the video says.
The creator of the video said in an interview to The Guardian, "Honestly, I find Band Aid really offensive. 'Where nothing ever grows, no rain nor rivers flow' – I mean, come on! I understand their motivation for writing this in 1984 – there was widespread hunger in Ethiopia that needed instant attention. But the song and its video is so patronising, and so full of a top-down understanding of how people in the world relate to each other, that my motive behind making a Band Aid parody was to reach all the people who have sort of succumbed to this skewed image of the world."
Sometimes, though, satire and spoofs can be misconstrued, leading to unfortunate incidents. In 2015, prankster Jalal made a series of videos in which he dressed as an Arab and dropped an unidentified package in public places near unsuspecting people and ran away.
But the prank went horribly wrong when one of the victims thought it was real and shot at Jalal. It eventually led to court action, as a result of which the brothers behind the videos were forced to apologise. Magistrate Rozencwajg said he would "hate to think that in Australia we would ever reach such a state where there is no room for legitimate and appropriate comment through satire", although he added that there should be a limit to it.
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