Caller tries to convince Finebaum that SEC really is ‘America’ now
By Kevin Duffey
Published:
Satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Last week, we had some fun with the idea that the SEC was following in Budweiser’s footsteps and rebranding itself as “America.” You can read the entire article here. From the piece:
Taking note from Budweiser, which is rebranding its beer as “America” until the November election, the Southeastern Conference is doing the same, and permanently.
The decision will take affect starting with the 2016 college football season after being approved almost unanimously by 13 of the 14 school athletic directors. It’s not yet known who didn’t support it, although some outlets speculate it to be Ole Miss AD Ross Bjork, simply because of his Swedish last name.
“I’m from freaking Dodge City, Kansas,” Bjork said in a very brief statement.
The word “Conference” won’t be included. The group of 14 college football teams that previously made up the Southeastern Conference will now make up “America.” Not the “American Conference” or “America’s Conference.” Simply, “America.”
The article was read by over 100,000 people. It sat at the top of the college football Reddit board for about 24 hours. Most readers understood the satirical nature of the post.
But not everybody.
About ten minutes into the 4th hour of Paul Finebaum’s show on Monday, Karen from San Diego gave her best effort at convincing Paul that the SEC really is becoming “America.”
The exchange went as follows:
Karen started off, “I wanted to ask you about the rebranding of the SEC…Moving toward ‘America’ and that it was a unanimous decision by the SEC college ADs to change the name from Southeastern Conference or SEC to just America. Not America Conference. Just America.”
The confused Paul Finebaum interrupts her, “I’m a little bit confused. I know that the league hired a new marketing firm to help them rebrand the SEC, but I have not heard they are changing the name of the league.”
Finebaum later continues: “I have no idea what you’re talking about in that regard. The SEC has not changed its name.”
To cap off the segment, Karen admits, “I hope that they’re not changing it. I can’t see chanting, ‘America, America, America.'”
Finebaum concludes, “Karen, listen, I will check with the commissioner as soon as I can and we’ll get to the bottom of this caper.”
After the commercial break, another caller did clear it up for Finebaum letting him know that the article was satirical. Crisis averted.
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
