As Frank Vogel parody account draws Suns’ fans; the real coach, Kevin Durant have noticed

The 19th century playwright Oscar Wilde popularized the proverb, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay greatness.”

That adage applies today to the world of social media, where fans anonymously use the name or image of a celebrity, athlete or media personality in parody accounts that often look like the real thing.

Phoenix Suns coach Frank Vogel is among those who has a clone of himself on a popular parody account, @FrankVogelPHX, on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The account has grown in popularity, to about 4,600 followers as of late last week, during Vogel’s first season as Phoenix Suns coach.

And the coach has taken note.

Vogel initially had a nonplussed facial expression when The Republic showed him that parody account at a Suns practice earlier this season.

“Anything with my name on it on X is not me,” Vogel said. “I do not have any Twitter or X accounts. Never have, never will.”

But, asked about it more recently, and told it was gaining traction among fans, Vogel was more amiable.

“I’ve been told about this parody account. I still have not been on it,” Vogel said. “I heard it’s very funny. It is not me. Everybody understand it is not me, but I have friends tell me it is very funny.”

The Vogel parody account’s avatar uses a photo of his smiling face from Vogel’s introductory press conference as the new Phoenix coach last June. The image includes a superimposed headband that looks like the ones that Suns star players Devin Booker and Bradley Beal wear during games.

The account’s kitschy content consists of Adobe Photoshopped-images and short video clips of Vogel and Suns players in reaction to team and player performances, fake player personnel lineup plans, faux Vogel commentary about the team and media speculation, and other daily news around the NBA. It doesn’t feature the kind of mean-spirited tone often seen on social media.

“I created the Frank Vogel parody account on a whim,” the Vogel account founder said, when contacted by The Republic in an email, insisting he remain anonymous. “I’m a huge Suns fan and I enjoy Suns content. The account allowed me the creative freedom to engage in the public discourse, mostly Suns related, and keep my personal life separate from the persona on social media.”

Vogel, with a wry grin, still expressed some reservations about the account posting commentary about the team as if it’s actually from himself.

“Well, I don’t like that because that could be misconstrued the wrong way if people don’t understand it. Whatever it says, parody on there, so I don’t love that but that’s the social media that we’re in.”

Kevin Durant, the team’s most renowned social media observer who is active on X, chuckled and praised how the Vogel parody account is using humor to rally the online community of Suns fans.

“That’s the funniest account on Twitter or X,” Durant said recently. “Nowadays you can see which ones are real and fake, and it’s all funny. I’d seen Frank, he had a good reaction to it today. I wondered if he had actually seen the page before. …

“It’s all fun and games. His content is not as bad as some other parody accounts. In a weird way, it’s bringing more Suns fans together, honestly.”

Parody accounts, potential pitfalls

There are plenty of other verified parody accounts on X involving celebrities and sports figures, as well as media figures. One example is an account that parodies ESPN’s top NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, whose account handle is nearly imitated in full as the real one (Wojnarowski’s “@wojespn” handle compared to the fake one @wojdespn with a “d” in the middle of it).

Since Wojnarowski is one of the league’s top news sources, the parody account using his name and image has the potential to cause confusion if a fan or fellow reporter isn’t careful when reposting or reporting something from the fake account as news.

That could force a retraction if an outlet mistakenly uses wrong information or fake news derived from a parody account.

Arizona State journalism professor and digital media expert Dan Gillmor told The Republic that The Onion is the best example of a “consistently funny satire operation online” where most readers are aware of the line between fake and real news, which it doesn’t cross.

The Onion is an online media network that’s been publishing parodies of real news headlines and satirical content since it began as a print publication in 1988.

But Gillmor said the explosion of bogus content online, fueled by an increasingly hostile political landscape disseminated on social media that’s not well policed, has blurred that line among readers.

“The problem they have is it’s getting more difficult every day to tell the difference between the ridiculous and reality because real people are doing such bozo things, and it’s sometimes difficult to know if The Onion is actually satirizing something or not,” Gillmor said.

“My own views of these parodies online in general, I just tend to ignore them because I’m sure some of them are done with good intentions, but I can’t assume that any of them are. If the goal is just to get followers and drive traffic and cash in financially or reputation-wise on somebody who’s real, that’s, in my opinion, kind of sleazy.”

A good example of a parody account on X that clearly was meant to entertain was one called “Capt. Andrew Luck.” When the former Colts’ quarterback grew a beard, someone thought he looked like a Civil War-era officer, so they put his face in a Union officer’s uniform. The thread of posts were in the form of letters home to his mother, written in 1860s style and covered preparations for upcoming games and what happened on the field of battle.

The Vogel parody account’s content acknowledges on its pinned post that its purpose is simply for entertainment and fun, not for trolling the Suns fan community and media.

“I don’t necessarily take offense to trolling accusations. I think there can be a variety of valid perspectives to have about my parody account,” the account holder said. “If I’m being honest and depending on how one defines trolling, there probably is a minor element of trolling, but nothing malicious or intended to provoke negative reactions.

“How someone perceives my parody account is subjective and I don’t have any control over that, but what I do have control over is the intention and presentation. It’s human nature to have an opinion and I’m OK with that.”

The Vogel parody account is among those that acknowledges fellow fans’ efforts and tries to keep things positive. It even presented a fictitious Suns’ reporter tournament bracket pool in January, and promoted “Suns fan X Account of the Week” posts, to help engage the Suns’ fan community.

“I’m relatively introverted in my personal life, so I’ve enjoyed the social interaction with the community,” the Vogel parody account holder said. “Also, I have a very service-oriented personality and I enjoy lifting others up and contributing to the success of others. Maybe that’s the ‘coach’ in me (joke). I enjoy bringing recognition and engagement to other Suns related accounts and I enjoy helping build a community.”

Vogel recently showed he’s prepared to play along when he was asked about LeBron James’ 21-year career and how many more years he believes James, who he coached with the Lakers, can continue playing at his elite level.

“I prefer not to comment on players on other teams,” Vogel jokingly said. “Ten or 12 more years by the way he’s moving (grins) — for the parody account!”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Durant says Suns coach Vogel’s parody account humor bonds fans on X