Tiger Woods Fails Parody, Streisands 'Offending' Content As A Result

from the bogey dept

Wed, Nov 19th 2014 3:47pm — Timothy Geigner

The last time we wrote about Tiger Woods, it was way back in the day when he was best known for putting golf balls in small holes instead of [Ed.: Tim, did you really think we were going to allow this to stay in the post?]. Even back then, however, Woods demonstrated his lack of knowledge concerning the Streisand effect, trying to stifle a story and spotlighting it instead. It seems the lesson has yet to be learned. This go around, Woods has decided to respond to a barely note-worthy piece of obvious satire in Golf Digest by issuing a formal rebuttal to it in The Players' Tribune because... well, I don't know why really. The satire itself is both clearly marked and decidedly vanilla.

If you hadn't seen it—and nobody had, because it wasn't yet online—Woods is apoplectic about a fake Q&A by sportswriting legend Dan Jenkins. It is labeled as "fake" on the cover, and in the headline, and in the table of contents, so no one, not even America's dads, could possibly have believed that it was actually Tiger Woods declaring that he fired caddy swing coach Butch Harmon because "Butchie was making me tip too many people."

There's no exaggeration here when it comes to how clearly this piece is noting its own satire. The damned title of the piece is: My (Fake) Interview With Tiger*: *Or how it plays out in my mind. The fake Q&A includes such scathing satire as:

Q:TV still loves you.

Tiger: The print press still loves you. The average fans still love you. Of course the average fans still love the Kardashians, too, but I feel sure America will find a cure for this someday. I just do what Steiny says.

Yawn. Anyway, the guy that used to be good at golf decided to issue his own formal and very real rebuttal to the fake Tiger that Dan Jenkins created in his head, leading to the very first ever war of words between a real and fictional version of the same professional sports star.

Did you read Dan Jenkins' interview with me in the latest Golf Digest? I hope not. Because it wasn't me. It was some jerk he created to pretend he was talking to me. That's right, Jenkins faked an interview, which fails as parody, and is really more like a grudge-fueled piece of character assassination. Journalistically and ethically, can you sink any lower?

I like to think I have a good sense of humor, and that I'm more than willing to laugh at myself.

Mmm, no on both counts, I think. In the meantime, Woods' going to battle over this has, you guessed it, put a big old spotlight on the now published article. It's, frankly, all the free advertising the author could ever want. And for what? For satire that's barely funny and would have otherwise gone completely unnoticed? That's called landing in the rough, Tiger.

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Filed Under: dan jenkins, fake interview, golf digest, parody, streisand effect, tiger woods

17 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 4:14pm

Golf
... is apparently not a game that requires a particularly high intellect.
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- Mason Wheeler (profile), 19 Nov 2014 @ 5:09pm
  
  Re: Golf
  No, just an amazingly high tolerance for tedium. IMO it narrowly edges out bowling as the most boring "sport" in existence.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 6:01pm
    
    Re: Re: Golf
    "IMO it narrowly edges out bowling as the most boring "sport" in existence."
    
    I think you forgot about "sport" fishing.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 6:37pm
    
    Re: Re: Golf
    Are you crazy? Nothing is as exciting as listening to a golf match on the radio.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 4:16pm

But Tiger didn't try to do anything unfair in his post, just complained. Maybe even gets some sympathy. So I don't think it will attract the bloodhound of negative publicity in this case.
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Zonker, 19 Nov 2014 @ 4:32pm

Goddamn it Ed! Now my dirty imagination is going crazy with all the possible dirty things Tim could have finished that first sentence with.
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- Tim A, 19 Nov 2014 @ 8:52pm
  
  Re:
  Probably something about him hitting a tree and a bunch of women falling out, but it was removed because Tiger doesn't like true facts either.
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- Nom du Clavier (profile), 20 Nov 2014 @ 2:16am
  
  Re:
  Perhaps: "The last time we wrote about Tiger Woods, it was way back in the day when he was best known for putting golf balls in small holes instead of putting small holes in golf balls."
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Nov 2014 @ 7:37am
  
  Re:
  My best guess is that he was best known for _putting_ balls deep into small holes instead of _going_... er... never mind.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 5:03pm

That very first sentence and the editor's note almost made me laugh out loud and made it difficult to concentrate on the rest of the post. Well played, sirs, intentional or not.

Seriously though. A "grudge-fueled piece of character assassination"? I'm not playing down how annoying it could be to some people who get joked about/teased/satirized this way, but it sounds quite hyperbolic, and makes me think of how easy claims of "emotional distress" are thrown around in bogus defamation suits.
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Guardian, 19 Nov 2014 @ 6:05pm

this is why i wonder...
this is why i wonder if hollywood and govt aren't on crack intentionally
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- Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 6:40pm
  
  Re: this is why i wonder...
  You think it could be by accident?
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S. T. Stone (profile), 19 Nov 2014 @ 6:39pm

At this point, I’d rather hang out with fake!Tiger than real!Tiger. At least fake!Tiger seems to have self-awareness.
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sacredjunk (profile), 19 Nov 2014 @ 10:14pm

Is it possibly that he could be paid by the journalist to make that comment and give a whole lot of attention to the article?
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Semiratana, 20 Nov 2014 @ 7:19am

Tiger
I like to play golf and despite the fact that this guy got into trouble, however, admire him for his professionalism.
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Nicci Stevens (profile), 20 Nov 2014 @ 9:11am

It is never wise to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person. Shame on Mr. Jenkins for tilting at an unarmed man!
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JorgeIGolf, 11 Mar 2015 @ 9:40am

Tiger will come back
Tiger will come back but he must work harder!
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