A former RCMP officer turned content creator is getting laughs online with a new parody social media presence that imagines 亚洲天堂 Lake as the centre of absurd and improbable happenings.
Brandon Marr, a 36-year-old who grew up and currently resides in 亚洲天堂 Lake, launched the 鈥淢ayor of 亚洲天堂 Lake鈥� satire page on X in early July and on Facebook later that month. He posts from the perspective of a fictional mayor responding to fictional events around town.
Marr, who retired from the RCMP in 2020 and now works in sales and marketing for The Local Connector, said in an interview that the parody page was born from a desire to inject some creative energy into small-town life.
鈥溠侵尢焯� Lake is a place where not a lot of stuff happens. And as you can see, the news is talking about a Facebook page, so clearly, nothing really happens here,鈥� he said with a laugh. 鈥淚 just kind of had this idea of, like, what if it was a place where everything happened鈥攇ood and bad?鈥�
The posts feature entirely fictional developments in the village, such as the construction of a nuclear power plant or downtown entertainment venues that don鈥檛 exist. Marr has also started building a cast of recurring fictional characters, including Harry, a site coordinator at the fictional nuclear plant.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to make one based on anyone real," Marr said. "I just want everyone to come together and have a chuckle.鈥�
Marr said he isn't trying to fool anyone with his posts, which is why he ensured the accounts were clearly titled as parody accounts.
鈥淚 want someone to feel like they鈥檙e in on the joke and they鈥檙e part of it,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not necessarily trying to poke fun at any specific person. It鈥檚 more of just almost like an art project of absurdist humour.鈥�
Despite the name, Marr said he isn't making any political commentary, noting that he is happy with the work that the actual mayor, council and Village staff do.
鈥淚 love the idea of a small-town mayor feeling as though he has so much entitlement and so much say over what goes on in the town,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd it really is such a mirrored reverse image of what actually happens in the town.鈥�
Marr said he has received mostly positive feedback and encouragement in response to the accounts, including some messages of support and encouragement.
Marr uses AI image generation tools to create the images for his posts.
鈥淚t鈥檚 fun for me to see what the AI is going to come up with,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ometimes it comes up and I burst out laughing because I can鈥檛 believe what it鈥檚 made.鈥�
Still, he鈥檚 cautious about relying too much on automation. He said creating intentionally absurd art to pair with his original satire ideas is a way of combating fully-AI-generated posts that are appearing on social media.
鈥淚 almost feel like I鈥檓 walking a fine line by using the AI,鈥� he said. 鈥淧art of why I鈥檓 doing this is almost a push back on AI and the AI-generated kind of slop content that we see.鈥�
Asked whether he plans to keep the page going long-term, Marr said he isn鈥檛 worried about running out of material.
鈥淢y mind never stops鈥攇ood or bad,鈥� he said. 鈥淢aybe the posts will go down in quality, but they won鈥檛 stop, probably.鈥�
The Lakes District 亚洲天堂 reached out to Henry Wiebe, the real mayor of 亚洲天堂 Lake, for comment but did not receive a response by press deadline.
