‘Bussin, forreal forreal.’ The @BasedMikeLee Twitter account is actually Sen. Mike Lee — for real.

Parody accounts have become ubiquitous, especially in politics, on Twitter. Utah political Twitter is rife with accounts lampooning elected officials, like, for example, Fake Governor Cox. Others, like State of Utah Updates, can be hard to distinguish from the real thing. Utah political veterans will remember the “Snowball” parody account that popped up during the 2011 Utah Legislature in response to proposed legislation to allow the shooting of feral cats.

When the “Based Mike Lee” Twitter account popped up late last month, it was easy to dismiss it as just another parody account, especially with such...