I Hope He's Fooling...

travelswithkuma is having a little joke. I hope.

Not Trying to Fool Anyone

I contemplated posting something about how the Secret Masters of Fandom had declared the Real Hugo Award Shortlist (as they always do, don't you know; the voting is just for show) and that they were sending you've-been-nominated mail to the Sad Puppies Slate just to troll them. (As you may be aware, at least one of the SP slate claimed he didn't read the embargo notice and broke embargo on his own nomination. There may have been others, or at least a fair bit of nudge-nudge-I-can't-say-anything-until-April 4 stuff.) Unfortunately, I have a bad feeling that such things would be taken Dead Seriously by the crowd who are utterly convinced that the entire system is corrupt, crooked, on the take, and that if anything other than what They Personally Like makes the ballot, it means that someone cheated.

Basically, I can't think of making up any screwy WSFS/Worldcon/Hugo story that isn't outrageous enough that there won't be people who start claiming that it is The Truth. Just look at how some people still seem to think that Scalzi is an admitted rapist because of their willful inability to recognize satire.

Just to Show that No Award Isn't a Joke...

The 1977 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (there was only one category back then) was "No winner selected this year." The shortlist (none of whom won; they're listed in their order of finish from 2-onward) was:

• Carrie (1976) [Redbank/UA] Directed by Brian De Palma; Screenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen; based on the novel by Stephen King


• Logan's Run (1976) [MGM] Directed by Michael Anderson; Screenplay by David Zelag Goodman; based on the novel by William F. Nolan & George Clayton Johnson


• The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) [British Lion] Directed by Nicolas Roeg; Screenplay by Paul Mayersberg; based on the novel by Walter Tevis


• Futureworld (1976) [AIP] Directed by Richard T. Heffron; Written by George Schenk and Mayo Simon

WSFS rules in those days did not require publication of nominating or detailed voting statistics, and therefore I do not know why there were only four finalists (this happened in all three short fiction categories as well).