I'm not convinced it's a parody. That would suggest their writing style is done as a joke; referencing British tabloids while distancing themselves as a comedy version. More likely El Reg's informal writing style is a deliberate and serious decision driven by the requirement to gain more readers (read: eyeballs on their ads). ie the same reasons any tabloid is written they way they are.
I am not from the UK and in fact I am not even a native English speaker and yet I had always assumed that the tone of El Reg was a parody. I think it is quite obvious.
The tone of El Reg is very similar to many other tabloids though. Most don't take themselves seriously. I gave a few examples of The Sunday Sport in another post, but here's one from a Scottish tabloid, reporting about when someone caught a failed suicide bomber trying to attack an airport:
I don't tend to read many tabloids, but the Red Tops (predictably named because of their design) I've read on occasions do follow the same tongue-in-cheek writing style.
I think it's fair to say they can't all be parodies as you then have to question when a parody is so commonplace that it's no longer a parody; that it instead just becomes that normal thing.
I think some folks are confusing "parody" and "tabloid style".
The definition of parody is:
"a work created to imitate, make fun of, or comment on an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of satiric or ironic imitation." [0]
Websites that would fall into the "parody" category would be The Onion, The Daily Mash, Landover Baptist Church, The Poke etc. Another word to describe these types of sites would be satire.
The Register is not really a "parody" website because it's reporting on actual things that have happened (direct from source or through recycling), but the reporting and writing style is in the same vein or riffs off of the "tabloid journalism" style.
Tabloid journalism can be characterised as sensationalist, ridiculing and hyperbolic, with headlines designed to appeal to your more base instincts.
What The Register does, or attempts to do is inject humour into its reporting by using the tabloid style, it tries not to take itself too seriously. There is as you rightly point out a lot of "tongue in cheek" phrasing in many articles. For example, as I've mentioned elsewhere, I enjoy their headlines and bylines, e.g.:
"Criminal records checks 'unlawful' and 'arbitrary' rules High Court - Disclosing minor silliness no longer required, say judges" [1]
"Rust 1.6 released, complete with a stabilised libcore - A world without buffer overflows is what our children shall inherit" [2]
"Boeing just about gives up on the 747 - Even the cargo market's dried up for the Jumbo Jet. Next stop, elephant's graveyard?" [3]
Anyway, I wouldn't get too bogged down, in over analysing El Reg, you either get their sense of humour or you don't.
There are also an offshoot by ex-Register founder Mike Magee which reports in a similar style:
> Look at it. Big red banner at the top - just like the British tabloids. Constant twisting of headlines to add as much innuendo as possible.
The fact it follows the same design and editorial patterns as a tabloid doesn't mean it's a parody of a tabloid. A simpler conclusion would be that it looks and reads like a tabloid because it is a tabloid.
It's very common for products in any same category to be designed similarly. For example the packaging on washing detergents, breakfast cereals, and English ales often follow similar patterns because people expect their washing detergents to look like washing detergents, their cereals to look like breakfast cereals, and their beer to look like beer. Granted you do get some products that deliberately choose a non-conventional design in the hope to stand out. But generally items look similar because people expect that of them. And equally, The Register is designed like a "Red Top"[1] because people expect tabloids to look like that.
It's probably also worth noting that most "good" tabloids have a comical tone to them. In fact not taking themselves seriously is pretty much the prime directive for any Red Top. Though some take things to a more ridiculous level than others[2][3]
I think the crux of the argument should be "Are the stories real or made up for comical value?" Since El Reg is actually reporting real stories, I couldn't put it in the same camp as News Thump, The Onion, and the lesser known Suffolk Gazette (http://www.suffolkgazette.com/), which most definitely are parody sites.
> I guess if you are not from the UK it might not be so bleeding obvious, but for us it is. Would I be correct in guessing that you are not?
You'd be incorrect with that assumption. I wouldn't say I had a great degree of national pride, but I would say I'm very British. I drink tea, eat angus steak, drink real ales and single malt scotches, and constantly moan about queues. However I never carry an umbrella around with me. :)
El Reg since day one has always had a somewhat less than deferential style of writing. The original founder, Mike Magee[0], intended the reporting style to be tabloid-like right from the get-go.
You either love or hate The Register, personally I've enjoyed reading it since 1997 and get a good chuckle each morning from some of their amusing bylines.
