Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of fundamentalism that someone won’t mistake for the real thing. —Poe’s Law

The bad news about a free and open Internet? Sometimes you get had by brilliant satirists. Christwire: 1; TRMS: 0 —Rachel Maddow, on Twitter

Should Sarah Palin support a U.S.-led invasion of Egypt? It was a question that could’ve come from any number of conservative websites, but TV host Rachel Maddow chose the wrong article to highlight on The Rachel Maddow Show earlier this year. Like several liberal commentators before her, she found herself duped by Christwire, a site devoted to satirizing right-wingers in outlandish ways that maybe, just maybe, could be legit articles. Writers Bryan Butvidas and Kirwin Watson rarely break character, and when they do, you can expect a riposte along the lines of “L.A. Weekly Tries to Challenge Christwire to a Gay Fight.”

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