9 the dry news-speak of the Associated Press or the le- galese of a court’s majority opinion—and thereby knee- cap the authority from within. Parodists can take apart an authoritarian’s cult of personality, point out the rhetorical tricks that politicians use to mislead their constituents, and even undercut a government institution’s real-world attempts at propaganda. Farah, 736 F.3d at 536 (noting that the point of parody is to “censure the vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings of an individual or society”) (cleaned up). Time and again, that’s what has occurred with The Onion’s news stories. In 2012, for example, The Onion proclaimed that Kim Jong-un was the sexiest man 7 alive. China’s state-run news agency republished The Onion’s story as true alongside a slideshow of the 8 dictator himself in all his glory. The Fars Iranian News Agency uncritically picked up and ran with The Onion’s headline “Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer 9 Ahmadinejad To Obama.” Domestically, the number of elected leaders who are still incapable of parsing The Onion’s coverage as satire is daunting, but one partic- ular example stands out: Republican Congressman John Fleming, who believed that he needed to warn his constituents of a dangerous escalation of the pro-choice 7 Kim Jong-Un Named The Onion’s Sexiest Man Alive For 2012, The Onion, Nov. 14, 2012, https://bit.ly/2MRuPDH. 8 John Bacon, China paper falls for spoof on ‘sexiest’ Korean leader, USA Today, Nov. 27, 2012, https://bit.ly/3dhatqA. 9 Emily Heil, Iranian news service cites faux Onion story on poll nding Ahmadinejad more popular than Obama, Washing- ton Post, Sept. 28, 2012, https://wapo.st/3S40T99.