Parody shows why efforts to police speech are no joke

The United States Supreme Court recently dominated headlines for unanimously invalidating a Colorado decision to remove Donald J. Trump from the ballot. The state far overstepped its bounds, and the high court’s unanimous, bipartisan scolding is proof. While the elections case was pretty straightforward, it elicited a host of responses, with some more bizarre than others. But one in particular provides a valuable lesson—not in elections law, but in combating dreaded disinformation.

This came from a well-known parody account on X, Georgia’s own @ThreeYearLetterman, who is a self-proclaimed pee-wee football coaching legend. Also affectionately called “coach,” he is known for his light-hearted narcissism, finding validation in pedestrian achievements and tweeting absurd legal, political and sports takes—all in good fun, of course.

Following the aforementioned court ruling, @ThreeYearLetterman entered the fray. He tweeted a picture of Jesus consoling Trump with the text, “The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that Donald Trump is restored as the winner of Colorado and its 18 electoral votes in 2024, because he has diplomatic immunity for any actions taken in office[.] However, Joel Biden can veto this decision and it can then only be restored with a 2/3 vote of the Senate.” All of this is obviously inaccurate and a joke, even including the typo “Joel Biden.”

A host of people found this horribly bad legal take funny, especially @ThreeYearLetterman’s many followers, which number almost half a million. Even Utah Gov. Spencer Cox retweeted it, and why not? In an email, Gov. Cox explained, “Look, governors are people, too. I reposted this from my personal account and I do all my own posting on social media. This was obviously parody from one of my favorite accounts.” Last I checked, governors are allowed to have senses of humor too, but that’s where the fun ended for some.

One particular internet user mistook the statement as serious, listed out some of the humorous tweet’s inaccuracies and lambasted Gov. Cox for supposedly spreading “misinformation.” Eventually, someone pointed out that @ThreeYearLetterman is a satire account, but that didn’t stop the disgruntled X user. “To post this without caveat is irresponsible given the state of misinformation in the U.S. right now,” he tweeted.

Millions of individuals have seen @ThreeYearLetterman’s statements, and it is evident to most that he dabbles almost exclusively in satire. However, there are some whom he has fooled, and that’s on them. They refused to verify whether or not his tweets were comedic in nature and believed them to be serious, which permits him to troll these people mercilessly for their naivete. 

When questioned by unsuspecting people, he often doubles-down and justifies his hilariously bad opinions in several nonsensical ways. “I’m a youth football coaching legend who literally struggles to turn door handles because I have so many championship rings,” is one of his refrains. Put simply, don’t question the little league champ. Another one of his responses is, “I am a licensed notary public, so I literally am the law.” Obviously that’s not how that works, but this is clearly done in jest. Likewise, coach’s critic certainly took some flack.

I completely understand concerns over legitimate disinformation. It is a real problem—from efforts to purposefully undermine our democratic institutions, to spreading health disinformation and to defaming people’s characters. Yet there was nothing malicious about @ThreeYearLetterman’s tweet, and it was so obvious to just about anyone that it was a joke—at least anyone willing to do some cursory research. Likewise, Gov. Cox’s retweet was a humorous gesture.

For those of us who are serious about combating disinformation, we need to distinguish between pernicious forms of it and humor, and @ThreeYearLetterman’s tweet was pure comedy. Had it been ill-intentioned disinformation, then as I’ve written before, we are the first lines of defense against it. When you read something questionable, first take a breath and then verify it. The very opposite seems to have happened in the @ThreeYearLetterman interaction when his detractor jumped to conclusions and rushed to hit the tweet button, ironically while trying to prove a point about disinformation.

Coach’s critic clearly worries about the dangers of disinformation—and understandably—but appears to have fallen prey to parody in the same manner that people fall for disinformation: Failing to verify information and sources. He has egg on his face now, which can happen to anyone, including yours truly.

In the case of disinformation, it’s important to be vigilant and police ourselves and allies, but with parody, take some personal responsibility and don’t be a prude. In the end, a “youth coaching legend” put on a clinic—not on pee-wee football, but the importance of conducting some due diligence. It’s the easiest way to defeat disinformation and—for those without a sense of humor—detect comedy.