Parody science, sometimes called spoof science, is the act of mocking

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

in a satirical way. Science can be parodied for a purpose, ranging from social commentary and making political points, to humor for its own sake.

Parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

science is different from science humor or from real science that happens to be humorous, in that parody science has little or no basis in real science. One of the forms of parody science are spoof scientific articles. Some can be seen as a subgenre of

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

List of parody science resources

* '' Annals of Improbable Research'' – Science humor journal that awards the Ig Nobel Prizes. * '' Journal of Irreproducible Results'' – Parody science journal since 1955. * '' Science Made Stupid'' – 1985 parody science book by Tom Weller. * ''

Speculative Grammarian ''Speculative Grammarian'' (often referred to as ''SpecGram'') is the self-described "premier scholarly journal featuring research in the neglected field of satirical linguistics". It is a parody science journal, similar in nature to the '' Ann ...

'' – "the premier scholarly journal featuring research in the neglected field of satirical linguistics". * Dihydrogen monoxide parody, which exploits common fears about science to make people think that

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

is dangerous. * '' Look Around You'', a BBC scientific

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

based on school science programmes from the '70s and '80s. * '' Ask Dr. Science'', a humorous radio and television program. * '' Worm Runner's Digest.'' The satirical flip-side of the ''Journal of Biological Psychology'', known for such articles as "A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown." * Sokal affair, physicist

Alan Sokal Alan David Sokal ( ; born January 24, 1955) is an American professor of mathematics at University College London and professor emeritus of physics at New York University. He works with statistical mechanics and combinatorics. Sokal is a critic o ...

's hoax paper entitled, "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" was published in the journal

Social Text ''Social Text'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Duke University Press. Since its inception by an independent editorial collective in 1979, ''Social Text'' has addressed a wide range of social and cultural phenomena, covering ques ...

. * ''Experimental demonstration of the tomatotopic organization in the Soprano (Cantatrix sopranica L.),'' a fake research paper by the writer

Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Ho ...

.Experimental demonstration of the tomatotopic organization in the Soprano (Cantatrix sopranica L.
/ref> *

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...

wrote several spoof scientific papers about the fictitious chemical compound Thiotimoline. * Proceedings of the Natural Institute of Science – Online-only journal that publishes both satirical and real articles in a scientific journal format. * ''Body Ritual Among the Nacirema'', a

social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

research by Horace Miner. * The unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block", an article with no content, but cited over 70 times

References

{{reflist

External links

Tom Weller
Official website of the author of Science Made Stupid
Dihydrogen Monoxide
Official site on the Dangers of

dihydrogen monoxide The dihydrogen monoxide parody is a parody that involves referring to water by its unfamiliar systematic name#In chemistry, chemical systematic name "dihydrogen monoxide" (DHMO, or the chemical formula H2O) and describing some properties of w ...

Parodies Humour in science Science fiction genres

List of parody science resources

See also

References

External links