In mid-January, a number of Georgian (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and Russian (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Facebook accounts shared a video purportedly showing the United Kingdom’s first “pig spa.” According to the posts’ captions and the video, people are paying £1,200 to experience life as a pig.
The video shared by the Facebook post is a satire created by “The B@it,” a comic parody program affiliated with Channel 4, based in the United Kingdom. There is no such thing as a pig spa, nor are people in the UK paying thousands of pounds to live as pigs.
The satirical video, titled “Inside The UK’s FIRST EVER Pig Spa,” claims that pig spas are becoming an “increasingly popular antidote” to the stresses of modern life. The video features an interview with a businessman on his sixth retreat, who states that his work is very stressful and sees the retreat and the feeling of regressing into a pig as a way to relax. The video also states that there is a range of “pig therapy treatments” on offer, though no clear details are provided. Footage is shown of people dressed in pig costumes eating from a trough and rolling around in the mud. The video ends with the businessman being artificially inseminated at his workplace.
According to IMDB, “The B@IT” is Channel 4’s “hit satirical sketch show that looks like real internet news but pranks those too quick to hit the share button.” A total of 50 episodes across four series have been produced since 2019, with a fifth currently in production. Other episodes by the channel include “Is there a conspiracy against Gingers?” and “This Man Pays To Be Treated Like A Kebab,” have also been posted on Channel 4 Comedy on YouTube. Those shown in the video are all actors.
Satire is defined as the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose defects in human nature and behaviour, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. The aim is to entertain the viewer, as well as make them reflect more deeply on the topic under scrutiny. However, due to the fact that satire often resembles traditional news reports either in print or on TV, this can lead to the spread of false information. Featuring satirical stories as real news is one method of propaganda to establish opinions that extreme phenomena, like pig therapy sessions, are inherent features of the Western society, which should be avoided in other, more traditional societies.
MythDetector has covered a number of situations where satire has spread across social media with the claim it is reality. See:
- Did Orban Announce That Hungary Is Leaving The Eu?
- How Did A Satirical Post About Olaf Scholz Become Viral?
- Georgian Anti-Vaxxers Pass Off Thestonkmarket.Com’s Satire On Chips Inside The Vaccines As An Actual Story
- How “Someone’s” Satire Turns Into “News“ On Sputnik – Chronicles Of Repeated Disinformation
- How Did Russian “Satire” Become Saqinformi’s Disinformation?
Alexandra Kuenning
Erasmus CEERES Master’s student, Intern at Myth Detector
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