Heeb’s humor editor defends the magazine’s fake Holocaust memoir contest:
As we approach the April 1 deadline for entries to Heeb Magazine’s Fake Holocaust Memoir Contest, I thought I’d chime in on the online cottage industry of Heeb haters it seems to have engendered. In my 5 years as Heeb Magazine’s humor editor, I’ve been on the receiving end of my fair share of hate mail. As a rule, it tends not make much of an impact on me one way or the other. Every now and then, however, something pushes me over the edge.
Now, I can understand why people would be upset if we were holding a competition that mocked Holocaust memoirs. But—and the competition rules make this pretty explicit to anyone with 3rd grade reading skills and a 10th grade sense of humor—we are making fun of fake Holocaust memoirs. So will somebody please explain to me why this would be so offensive? Did your grandfather survive the fake Holocaust? Did your fake family members perish in fake concentration camps? Were you inspired as a child by stories of fake bravery in the fake ghetto uprising? Perhaps the haters aren’t really haters—maybe they’re just faking it?
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