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If you want your hope in humanity at large to take another hit, look no further than the latest example of a depressingly large number of people failing to understand the undeniably simple concept of satire. This time, people treating a satirical piece as a factual report has ensnared the woman who successfully inserted "hawk tuah" into the news cycle by way of a Nashville-filmed viral clip.
As highlighted by the fact-checking publication Snopes, a recent Facebook post from the Tippah County Tribune, self-described as the "No. 1 publication for satirical laughs," is the original source of claims that the woman in question was fired from a purported preschool teaching position due to her appearance in the video. In the satirical post, it’s jokingly stated that the video has inspired children to partake in "spitting on each other and everything else," thus leading to the dismissal.
To be clear, the Tippah County Tribune page is very clearly marked as satire. Several details in the post itself should have made its satirical status obvious for those who may have somehow missed the giant banner at the top of the page, but the mere existence of the article you're reading right now shows that plenty of people, as is (far too) often the case, blindly treat everything they read as fact.
"Oh, you gotta give him that hawk tuah and spit on that thang," the viral star, said in multiple reports to be named Hailey Welch, said in the viral Tim & Dee TV clip that launched her into the social media stratosphere. "You get me?"
At the time, Welch was responding to a question about the "one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time."
This is actually the second debunking-related Hawk Tuah saga I’ve been assigned to write about in as many days. Wednesday, TMZ came through with a swiftly aggregated piece quashing rumors of a UTA deal.
