Making Fake News Fun Again

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Marten Stuffer

By Eric Valentine

Marten StufferIf you’re not shocked here and there reading or listening to it, you may not have a pulse. If you don’t laugh out loud here and there reading or listening to it, your pulse is being wasted.

Kudos to the folks at The Marten Stuffer who are taking the concept of fake news to local eyes and ears. Produced by editor-in-chief Ron Challis, assistant editor/contributor Butch Fairfield, and assistant editor/contibutor/legal counsel Pat Simmeroy, The Marten Stuffer is a comedic slant on fake news stories a la The Onion. In other words, the concept is nothing new. But, focusing the “news” stories solely on local folks, events and culture makes the concept fresh and—if you’ve been affected by the events of 2020—therapeutic.

While the website (www.martenstuffer.com) has been around for a few years, The Marten Stuffer now has a podcast available on Spotify two episodes in.

“We’re doing a podcast because if there’s one thing the world needs is another podcast,” the group posted on its Facebook page.

As you can tell—hopefully—they don’t take themselves too seriously. But the webpage and the podcast are seriously worth a look and listen. SPOILER ALERT: There will be cursing. There will be irreverence.

Cases in point:

  • A photo of Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw proudly pointing to an image of a large, naked Black man sitting bedside. (The real photo involved Bradshaw pointing at a City of Ketchum information board.)
  • A webpage fully dedicated to a game called “Anal RVs” wherein participants place the word “anal” before any RV model name, such as the Bigfoot or the Commander. Just do it—put the word in front of those model names and try not to giggle like a 12-year-old.
  • A podcast conversation about how the hashtag originally was the pound sign: “My hot secretary keeps texting #MeToo … I told her that’s what I’ve been trying to do!” (It’s a thinker.)

There will be cursing and irreverence, but there’s also nuanced—and even sophisticated—perspective.

Cases in point:

  • A discussion on States Rights wherein they divulge it was Willie Nelson who coined the phrase “Don’t Mess With Texas”
  • An article titled “Ketchum Disproportionate Infection Rate Suggests Coronavirus Also Unwilling to Live in South Valley”
  • Another article titled “Jersey-Born Ski Waxer, Full-Blooded Shoshone Indian Argue Who’s More Local”

So if you find the news—and perhaps even the comedy shows based on the news—have grown too tense in 2020, consider laughing about fake news in 2021. It can be therapeutic, if you have a pulse.

Find the Marten Stuffer on the interwebs: the website is www.martenstuffer.com and the podcast is on Spotify. Search for Marten Stuffer.