When you run a site like ours, it’s easy to get lost in all the replies and comments we get on our content, which is shared across our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Myspace (for all two people who still use that) pages. Half of it is positive, the other half is negative, and we try to respond to as much of it as we can either way, but since Ian and I both work full time, it’s difficult enough to just find the time to keep the site updated. So, unfortunately, we missed a tweet from a very big muckmaker – Megan Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church, the granddaughter of founder Pastor Fred Phelps. She posted a music video parody of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” on the WBC website, rewriting the lyrics to explain why Gaga is a whore who will burn in hell, so we had a good laugh and re-uploaded it to YouTube. It blew up on there and we were bombarded with replies and comments – some idiots even thought we made the video. We responded to one particular moron who flagged the video, not realizing that we were criticizing the church, and that comment went out as a tweet. Megan, as it turns out, saw it and responded…
meganphelps: @muckmakers Tee hee! I LOVE that video! We just did a live performance at a high school in San Francisco for a bunch of cameras. Woot! =D
6:28 PM Jan 29th via Tweetie in reply to muckmakers
This was almost a month ago, but better late than never…
muckmakers: @meganphelps Sorry we missed your @reply a few weeks ago. We hope those students laughed just as hard as YouTube did at your Gaga video.
22 minutes ago via web
Thankfully, most of our comments were indeed laughing at the expense of the church. One of the main criticisms we received for posting the video was a valid one. Here’s an example that doesn’t simply curse at us…
While I agree with the sentiment of your article, you need to understand that this is what they want. They don’t care whether a mention in the media likes or hates them as long as they get media coverage. Let them scream and fling their poo in frustrated anonymity. If you believe in God at all, just relax and ignore them. These creatures will get all the condemnation they deserve in due time.
Mike R 01/29/2010 at 7:09 am
While I do agree that they crave publicity in any form (in fact, their reply to our negative comment proves it), I still stick by my original decision to post the video, and I’ll tell you why. Like it or not, these guys aren’t going to go away. If one publicity stunt fails, they’ll try another. Fundies with the balls to protest soldiers’ funerals will clearly stop at nothing to be heard, so ignoring them is only going to make them louder, or at least make them try different things…possibly more drastic and dangerous things, knowing these religious zealots.
I happen to think that laughter is the best medicine when dealing with any sort of pain, including a pain in the ass. Look at Sarah Palin, for example. The woman is obviously an idiot, but when she first arrived in the spotlight, even the Democrats were saying, “McCain got a young, decent looking mother of five to run? Obama’s finished!” She had the blind support of half her gender before they even knew anything about her! Then she opened her pretty little mouth and out came the SNL parodies and the Palin as President website and every other satirization you could imagine and pretty soon, her only supporters were toothless bumpkin housewives and staunch conservatives who would have voted for anyone (or anything) the Republicans ran anyway. A Vice Presidential candidate of her magnitude wasn’t going to just fade away overnight in the digital media age, and no amount of eloquent debate from Obama was going to diminish her stardom.
But the jokes at her expense were so effective that the McCain campaign struggled to keep her away from cameras for months and prepped her vigorously before every public appearance, crossing their fingers that she wouldn’t produce yet another soundbite that comedians could pounce on. Sure, more jokes meant more publicity, but when you expose someone for the laughing stock that they are, that’s not giving them the name or reputation that they’re looking for. You can hit a Palin supporter with all the logical rebuttals to her asinine views you want, but it’s not going to change their mind. No one likes to feel stupid, however – not even stupid people. Make someone feel dumb as shit and I guarantee that they’re going to think twice before opening their mouths again. They might even learn something when it starts to seep in.
As I wrote the above paragraph, Megan began tweeting us back. You’d think that someone who’s gained so much fame from years of publicity stunts wouldn’t have time for such small potatoes like Muckmakers (/sarcasm), but here we are…
meganphelps: @muckmakers Um, um, um…I can’t remember what I said to you! Students…? =\
about 2 hours ago via web in reply to muckmakersmuckmakers: @meganphelps regarding the performance of the Lady Gaga parody for high school students.
about 1 hours ago via webmeganphelps: @muckmakers Riiiiight. I remember now! Yep, it was good fun all around. At least 2 of the recordings of our live performance are on YouTube!
about 1 hours ago via web in reply to muckmakersmuckmakers: @meganphelps We’ll definitely be looking out for those. The WBC always gives us a good, hearty laugh.
about 1 hours ago via webmeganphelps: @muckmakers Here’s 1! http://bit.ly/9wxUgG Good to know ya get SOMETHING from the faithful preaching of these words…
about 1 hours ago via web in reply to muckmakersmuckmakers: @meganphelps I doubt it’ll “save” us, since your god’s criteria for heaven is pretty limiting, but we’ll take that risk and laugh anyway.
about 1 hours ago via web
See what happened there? Rather than just go off on the nutjob and stir her up into a flamewar, I just laughed. And then I laughed some more. After just a few replies, she realized that she wasn’t going to be taken seriously no matter what almighty god she started quoting, and just as quickly as she responded, she was gone. The simple truth of the matter is that nobody is going to be converted to the religion that hates fags because of a stupid music video, and if they are, then they were probably predisposed to those utterly insane ideas and would have gone off that deep end anyway. (Even fellow Christians hate these guys, and that says something.) Ignoring a problem isn’t going to make it go away, but exposing that problem for what it is (a joke) and letting it collapse and fail on its own will send it running right back to Kansas every time.
So watch the video again and chuckle at the WBC’s expense – the only thing that’s going to hurt is their (extremely limited) credibility. In fact, the only thing that god hates more than fags is not being taken seriously, because once that happens, “scripture” soon becomes “myth,” which then becomes history.
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Wow.. that girl is rather unintelligent.
I see she’s most recently sent you a Biblical verse that demonstrates how you’ll be eternally tormented in front of Jesus “The Lamb” Christ. (Side note: the passage is shown as a picture from a cell phone screen with said text.) So I’ve learned today that along with loving my enemy, I also have in common with Jesus the fact I like seeing people tortured in front of me.
(I’m not trying to be funny or ironic…I actually have to change my panties now)
I think it is important to publicize these people as a warning. The WBC people are openly expressing what most Christian religious extremists believe, but don’t say in public.
Exactly! Well said. Prejudice should make people feel stupid or guilty, not justified by this “Well, people can believe whatever they want as long as they call it a religion,” attitude.