The official Twitter account of the AP Stylebook, @APStylebook, has nearly 50,000 followers. So it’s a little bit funny that a satirical Twitter account, @FakeAPStylebook, has more than 135,000 followers.
I ran across a June 16 tweet by Fake AP Stylebook at the LGBT blog Joe My God that I found particularly amusing:
Never use anti-gay epithets such as “faggot,” “fudge-packer,” or “conservative Christian activist.”
My first thought was: “That’s effin hilarious! If only the NLGJA stylebook supplement could get away with that.” My second and third thoughts were: “Wait, did I just fall for ‘fudge-packer’? And is ‘conservative Christian activist’ really that funny?”
I get that “fudge-packer” is an automatic giggle inducer, but it seems to me that the giggle-inducing power of that phrase comes mostly from the straight perspective.
I also get why “conservative Christian activist” is funny (the laundry list of conservative Christian activists that wind up being gay, the “they doth protest too much” thing), but I always cringe when anyone—even a conservative Christian activist—is stereotyped.
The joke is funny, but I just wish it wasn’t.
