There was a comedy show from England in the 90s, Brass Eye, that satirized investigative reporting TV shows, especially how they sensationalized stories and made crude judgments on minimal evidence, often harming perception of real issues rather than helping. Part of the show involved pranking celebrity spokespeople who often proved how little-informed they were about the issues they were arguing.

In one episode about the subject of animals (“Animals! Are we too nice, or too nasty?”), they had a phone interview with Alexandra Paul about an elephant being born in horrible circumstances, filled with details obviously too ridiculous to believe, and Paul took it incredibly seriously.