Ishita Srivastava, producer of the video, says she was surprised how successful the satire was at making people "almost believe" the Deport the Statue campaign. It's a fine example of Poe's Law, which holds that on the Internet, it can be impossible to tell the difference between sincere extremism and a parody of extremism.
Even so, most people on Twitter get the joke, with one user joking, "Ship her back to France before she has an anchor baby."
This reminds me of the glory days of Freedom Fries! http://t.co/ym4y5mWHjB @LegalsPAC #DeportTheStatue #TakeLibertyBack
— Juliet Shen (@Juliet_Shen) June 13, 2013
Srivastava produced the video for human rights organization Breakthrough, which aims to "break through" the immigration debate with humor.
"We call on US citizens, like you, to join us in insisting that our government remove the statue for the sake of our nation’s heritage and it’s future. We need to #TakeLibertyBack and #DeportTheStatue NOW!"
In the video, Lady Liberty sits down in an office with a dismissive immigration worker who asks questions like, "Can you prove you're not taking a job away from an educated American statue?"
She says she has "over 120 years of experience" in her field, and that she's "an icon of American freedom." The real Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbor, is set to reopen to the public on July 4.
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