IMS 390B: 10/12/08

Megan Skelton
Click here to open Megan Skelton's PDF response.

Nick Engel
As a stranger to the Onion website and news stories I found the articles presented by Joe Garden very different from other news articles I have read. I saw these articles as a humorous satire of current media, news, and society. While I personally didn’t find the articles very funny, I found them to be interesting and could see the overall appeal. The two videos took a different approach then the articles and I found them to be less effective. The reason I felt that they were less effective is because I didn’t see them as creative when compared to the articles. For example, I felt the skull video was immature and didn’t find much humor or creativity in their style of dubbing over a Congressional meeting. Also, I found the Chinese video to be about the same with the dubbing over of Chinese citizens. The articles were more engaging in my opinion and had better subject matters. My favorites from the articles were Obama’s Hillbilly Half-Brother and We’re Going to Five Blades. The reason these articles resonated better with me than the others, in my opinion, is because they dealt with more current events and put a more funny spin on them. For example, Obama’s brother has been a small news story in this election and the way The Onion exaggerated the situation was creative. Also, the average consumer has noticed that razor blade companies keep coming up with more and more blades and we have all probably thought of how many more blades they could add to a razor. Overall, the whole Onion website was hit or miss for me finding some articles and videos funny while not being able to finish others. The website does a great job of using current events and mimics those events and exaggerates them. I could see myself viewing this site when I was bored or sick of the mainstream media and needed a break.

When looking at this phenomenon from a Benjamin perspective he might say something about the manipulation of the original news stories and changing the aura. The videos for example are a manipulation of something that occurred putting it into a different context and changing the original message completely. Benjamin may also say that this type of media is more distraction then concentration and seen more as entertaining then a form of art. Overall, The Onion is a good example of mechanical reproduction because The Onion exists off re-making current news stories and putting an entirely new twist or exaggeration on those stories.

When looking at this phenomenon from an Adorno and Hulkheimer perspective they would probably reiterate the entertainment over art aspect addressed by Benjamin. Also, they may state something about the formula of The Onion. For example, there is a common formula in the two videos we viewed on The Onion. Take an original broadcast, dub over it with a different message and create a new message completely. This same formula can be seen on other sites and throughout The Onion website. Finally, Adorno and Hulkheimer may have a problem with the historical articles presented because they were concerned with the disappearance of history overall. These articles create a false history and could be seen as further proof of the disappearance of real history.

When looking at this phenomenon from a McLuhan perspective he would probably examine how the message of The Onion is different because of its medium of the internet. The medium of the internet gives The Onion freedom to create without boundaries of print and the ability to stay up to date on current events with more updates. McLuhan would probably be interested in the political aspects of The Onion in correlation with how he viewed the living room becoming a voting booth with the invention of the television broadcast. McLuhan would see The Onion as another aspect of new media that has created a mass society.

The Onion has had a successful run ever since 1988 in selective cities and found new life on the internet. The Onion capitalizes on media reproduction and the satire of current media outlets. While I found The Onion to be interesting I personally did not find it humorous or a site that I would visit often. The phenomenon of The Onion is an interesting one because of their unique fake news stories and their unique reproductions and a good current example of mechanical reproduction and aspects of new media that we have been discussing in class. [30]

Cassie Gladden
Fake News- The Concept
The Onion is a satirical online and print publication that looks at real and fake current events. It spoofs the traditional formats of news media. For example their online channel, “Today Now,” mimics the format of morning news programs such as the Today Show or Good Morning America. The Onion newspaper uses traditional print layout. The professional format adds to the humor The Onion exudes in reporting international, national and local news issues and it has become a widely popular publication.

The Onion’s Popularity
The Onion began in 1988 in Madison, Wisconsin. Since then it has expanded onto the internet and is distributed in major cities. The three main reasons for the success of The Onion is it is entertaining, it offers a new way to digest news and it makes fun of different view points. It is entertaining because it is funny. For example the video, “ High School Toney Awards Honor Nation’s Biggest Drama Club Nerds,” reporting Katherine Dippold as winning, “Most Awkward Kiss.” According to Onion reporter Joe Garden another reason that The Onion is popular is that it is, “a processing method, a way for people to process the news because it’s really kind of overwhelming.” With the internet, cable news networks and mobile devices it is easy to get overwhelmed by the news. The Onion offers a simple way to processes current events (as long as readers can separate the phony from actual stories). Lastly Garden explains that people like The Onion because people are enjoy people making fun of views they disagree with. He says , “… as the country becomes more fractious and divided, that everybody is looking for something that makes fun of the viewpoint that disagrees with them.” The stories on the election ’08 are great examples of this. For example the story, “McCain’s Economic Plan For Nation: “Everyone Marry A Beer Heiress,” would be entertaining for Democrats that argue that McCain is out of touch with the middle class or the story, “Obama Promises To Stop America's Shitty Jobs From Going Overseas,” which would resonate with pro-outsourcing Republicans. The popularity of “fake news” is echoed in the success of shows like The Daily Show and SNL’s skits mocking Sarah Palin’s CBS News interview.

The Format
The Onion’s ability to mimic real news adds credibility and professionalism that results in increase readership. The professional quality of The Onion differs from the guy who makes humorous videos on his web cam and posts it on YouTube. A person reads The Onion because they can expect to read something clever and competent. Although the stories are spoofs on real issues, the format and quality of The Onion adds credibility to their stories. This is because in order for satire to be effective the writer must have a good understanding of the real story in order to draw out particular features that they want to mock. For example, the story, “Cheney Caught Moonlighting,” that excuses Cheney’s poor performance as Vice President as a result of him acquiring a night job as a server at Denny’s. The writer of this story had to have a good understanding of current happenings at the White House, specifically Cheney’s pitiful performance.

An Interview With an Onion Insider
Erin Wehmer spent the summer working in the Chicago office of The Onion. She talks about her first hand experience in an interview with Cassie Gladden.

What type of environment was the office like?
It was a very relax. There was not a dress code people would even come into the office wearing mesh shorts. People did work in cubicals but there was also a room where they kept all their promotional items or things people had sent in, such as free music—there was a lot of free music.
The people were very sarcastic and fun. They were always thinking of new ideas and were creative. It was young group of people, the CEO was about 32.
people that use gmail to communicate.

What did you learn working there?
I learned how competitive of an environment The Onion functioned in.
How did your colleagues consume media?
They were constantly online or reading publications, such as The Chicago Red Eye, The Reader and other street box publications. They always seemed to be doing research. They utilized gmail to communicate. [30]

Meaghan Luby
The Onion is one of the most well known parody papers among college students, the humor particuarily appealing to those within our age group who can’t help but find hilarious, if sometimes shallow, spin offs of serious news the epitome of humorous. Theonion.com is right up there with Collegehumor.com, the it websites to hit along with Facebook in order to avoid doing your homework. Why is it still funny? I quite honestly have no idea. In all seriousness, it probably should not be as funny to myself or others in my age group, let alone to the rest of the age groups, and yet, across the board people are entertained by the easy humor The Onion provides. Occassionally, The Onion does news reflecting back a bigger issue, more like the spins of a show such as The Colbert Report or The Daily Show, but most of the time it’s slapstick humor is straight forward and simplistic, appealing to the audience with absurdities and even occasionally falling into what one of my mother officially terms as “elementary school fart and butt crack humor”. Looking at it from a distance, it’s probably not that funny. Playing off a hick and hillbilly stereotype as a half brother for our democratic nominee? Indicating that our Vice President moonlights at a well known diner chain? Not the most sophisticated of works but, hilarious none the less. The video of the Chinese finally sending a willing man into outer space…hilarious. Perhaps I shouldn’t have found it to be so, but I was cracking up. So why is this stuff still funny? Well…just because it is. It appeals on all the stupid levels of comedy that count. That’s entertainment.

As already touched on, The Onion deals in the humor of essentially mocking the news in the way it has been shaped today as well as the stories it sets out there. It pokes fun at anything that reached the media that is somehow taken seriously and puts a ridiculous spin on it. Including the media itself. The mock news rooms, headlines, articles, photographs that have been photo shopped so seamlessly- all components of the serious spoof that The Onion takes on modern news. Sometimes, the absurd, simple, humor of The Onion reports are quite a bit less then sophisticated. More often then not though, the stories or videos are simple humor masquerading almost (and that’s a big almost) as actual news. So, news humor is the basic agenda of The Onion as a whole.
They mimic the mainstream and alternative media in several ways, the key to all these tricks being that they APPEAR to take themselves seriously. The journalists deliver their stories as if they are actual breaking news rather then pieces of news that are now works of fiction. The videos are edited in a professional manner, the actors and actresses performing as news anchors deliver their lines with the usual brisk stoicism that one would typically find on a mainstream media station. The Onion has pulled all the stops in order to give of this professional demeanor. From having a professionally set up site, to the small touches such as a logo, good “evidence” (again, the people who do their photoshopping to accent the stories are seriously artists), and then on top of it all, the absurd stories take the form of WELL written skits, articles, and extras.

McLuhan advocating the media being the message, that “all media are extensions of some human faculty- psychic or physical”, so I imagine that he would simply take this as yet another way for man to express themselves, at some attempt to express ourselves when we are really conforming further by not being “original” enough to come up with a new form of humor. Our media spills into our lives far enough to affect our humor. Or perhaps he would be proud that modes of humor such as The Onion mock the media as it is. Either way… I think even he would agree that it’s hilarious. [30]

Scott Turner
The Onion is a parody magazine that was founded in 1988. One of the original and current staffers is Joe Garden and it is he who we will be interviewing in class this week. It is difficult to tell if the articles we read for class are actually by Joe Garden (are they?) because the bylines either don’t state the author or denote that they are fictionally written in the voice of another person. Also related to the bylines is the fact that the articles of actual ‘journalism’ are all written in AP style, I’m assuming to enhance it’s ‘credibility’ or is it that it’s the ‘believability?’ This paper will look at nearly all of the provided articles from the Onion to address the trends across the articles in the way they parody journalism and write satire while relating it back to the our class learning. In the end I’m left with some questions I’m not sure how to answer yet.

The first story I want to mention is the one on Obama’s brother. Cooter’s story is hilarious for a number of ways, one of which is the coverage Obama’s real brother George (I saw it on CNN). As a side, I find it interesting that they didn’t choose to satire his brother (Who lives in Kenya and shares the same Dad as Barack), who’s name is arguably equally as funny as Cooter (ok maybe not). But regardless, I’m not sure what they’re trying to say about Obama’s ‘brotha’ problem; since Cooter isn’t your stereotypical ‘problem black man,’ instead he’s more of a black hillbilly (of which the white version is something he does have to worry about). The best part of The Onion is that you’re never sure whether that’s even part of the consideration there or if they just want to photoshop a black hillbilly next to Barack Obama.

I like the attention to details (or is that just lack of attention to the details? haha). The place where I noticed this was in the column on Gilette and the misspellings in the 1783 . Was it supposed to parody the CEO’s blog? The timestamp in the byline is from 2004, so is that supposed to say that this was going through his head then? The Fusion Razor wasn’t released until 2006. Regardless,
It’s equally funny for me because I just decided to buy a new razor and decided that I didn’t want to risk (or pay for) the five blades on the Fusion after seeing a recent ad for the Fusion Power on the TV. I think Adorno could have something to say here on the effect of advertising and branding on our choices to buy (or not buy) a product such as a razor, when as far as you can really tell they’re the same product except it’s marketed as a step up. This is apparent when he says; “Sure, we could go to four blades next, like the competition. That seems like the logical thing to do…Why innovate when we can follow? Oh, I know why: Because we're a business, that's why!”

Personally, I thought the picture of Dick Cheny in the ‘Moonlighting’ article looked more like he was Dave Thomas of Wendy’s than a server at Dennys, but he died in January of that year—about 4 months before this article was written—so I guess that was impossible. But the article itself was pretty funny in the way they were able to work the rest of the administration into the story: I love that he was discovered only when, “President Bush stopped by for a midnight snack with Attorney General John Ashcroft that the man was confirmed to be Cheney.” But I still find it surprising that of all the funny antics of the Bush Administration, they choose to knock on Cheny’s behind-the-sidelines role.

The videos were good, but they were good in a different way than the news articles. It’s hard to pinpoint why, besides the use of skillfully photoshopped pictures (as opposed to the Cooter picture) and blatant mocking of CNN and C-Span. Perhaps it’s because of the associations we make with pictures are easy to parody, such as the picture of the House of Representatives Speech. The skull fucking story was amazing, and reminds me of our discussion of predictable news narratives, like “the kids these days.” Replace the words “skull fucking” (and of course the details of the act) and you could insert anything from hate crimes to video games. Also hilarious was that he was from Ohio, although I couldn’t find and mention of a Benjamin Sinclair as a real representative, let alone from Ohio.

Chinas first WILLING manned mission into space was great too. It works all to perfectly in the way it uses voiceovers. The genius for me is that it put to the forefront the question of the accuracy of the translations and the potential ability of any news media to misconstrue the situation, especially when it comes to that of foreign countries. I’m not sure what Benjamin or McLuahan would have to say about that, if anything. Maybe they would mention the public’s tendency to buy into their news media? Regardless, I laughed out loud when they said the second flight contained two journalists and two college professors, and that the program “was reimagined as a scientific endeavor once they realized beating people to death was much more cost effective.”

In the end I’m left with the question of how much The Onion tries to parody Journalists’ tendency to control the narrative and write predictable stories. Is that just a question spurred from my desire to analyze it in that way? My tendency to question the bias & motivations of news writers? Or is it already that prevalent in the mainstream media that it’s inherent in the parody? And what does that tell us about journalists and ourselves as consumers of news media?

Questions for Joe Garden:
How close of attention do Onion writers pay attention to detail, whether it’s the spelling of words in the Historical Archives articles or the bylines in stories?

Is it hard to find topics to write about for the Onion? What percentage of onion stories are parodies of actual events as opposed to fictional ones? (Ex. Gilette Fusion Razor vs. Cooter Obama)

Do you have a preference in the type of articles you write? Do you have a favorite article of these, or throughout your career? [30]

Chelsea Clements
The Onion is funny because of its obscurity and tongue in cheek humor, sometimes based on a real news event and sometimes completely made up. The stories I encountered on The Onion, such as "12-Year-Old Boy Scouts Volunteer To Give Women Breast Exam," and "Breast Cancer Launches WNBA Awareness Month" don't seem too different than real news stories that I read in Yahoo New's Odd News section.

Some recent headlines from Yahoo that I could have easily seen on The Onion included, "Cops: Man Tried To Pay For Fast Food Meal With Pot," and "Cambodian Couple Saw House in Half in Divorce." The only difference between these stories and the stories I read on The Onion is that the ones on The Onion were completely fabricated.

I LOVED the articles that looked like they were written by the CEO of Gillete and Wernicke Toners. I would love to see a piece written "by John McCain" on why he picked Sarah Palin as his VP running mate.

I very much disliked the "Ocular Penetration" video as I feel like it lacked that humor necessary to make it funny. Instead it came off as dark and disturbing.

I think The Onion has a place in this world because people can only read serious and depressing news stories for so long. After being hit in the face with front page news about the number of infant deaths in China over the tainted milk formula and the news of the failing stock market, I would enjoy the comic relief of story about Obama's half-hillbilly-brother punching a swan during a press conference. This comic relief-mock news format is similar in nature to The Colbert Report and E!'s The Soup. [30]

Jason Andrews
I was introduced to The Onion my junior year of high school by one of my more eccentric friends. I remember him bringing a collection of works from the publication in a book format. Since I have occasionally perused the website following large news stories or bouts of boredom to find a comedic outlook on our modern society. The Onion is, perhaps, the idyllic transformation of any and every satirical student newspaper one might find. Created by two students—Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1988, the Onion started in print before manifesting itself online.

At first only a success in a limited number of cities and towns, notably those with major universities, the Onion has grown into fame. Even a movie was recently created based off of the publications. The creation of its website in 1996 allowed it to receive national attention, and in April 2007, The Onion launched 'The Onion News Network,' a web video send up of 24 hour TV news. This expansion of media outlets has helped the onions growth and expanded the possibilities the satirical paper can tell its stories.

Their brand of humor while sometimes arbitrary seems to usually be a reflection of current events. The stories relate to current politics and emergent national issues, while creating completely new story lines that entice the reader and encourage laughter. Even the new web videos the Onion produces elicit mixed response. Footage from news organizations makes the Onion's reports even more believable; they use material from CNN and ABC. The tight rope between reality and fiction becomes thin as videos can comment on an increasingly fast food dependent or obese America or even cookies and politics. As for Joe Garden, his witty humor again makes for an easy read and his style is completely in stride with that of the Onion.

Questions:
Do you believe that the Onion’s success is in part a reflection of a gullible audience, or more so of individuals seaking out humorous news?

Were your ambitions at as a young adult to pursue an avenue of comedy or did this style of comedic writing happen to fall in your lap? If so how and when did you discover the rewards of such a writing style?

The Onion has largely become a recognized entity, what do you believe is its effect on larger news organizations such as CNN or Fox News, and what do you believe is the even greater effect on the online media news readers? [30]

Mary DelGrande
Compared to any other media source that is satirical and making fun of serious news sources, The Onion is by far the one that makes me laugh the most. I watch C-SPAN very frequently, and when I watched the video called “The Skull Fucking Bill of 2007,” it made me realize even more how much we, as a country, focus on ridiculous news stories rather than more important issues.

The article, “Obama’s Hillbilly Half-Brother threatening To Derail Campaign,” is hysterical because I distinctly remember news stories at the end of August where the front page would have a picture of each Presidential Candidate with the same person creeping behind them. Another part of this news story, especially about Obama, is that so many reporters are digging up his past and bringing Reverend Wright into discussion, and this is the Onion’s equivalent. On the second page of the article, the continuation of the last paragraph from page one states, “dozens of would-be attendees at a Cedar Rapids, IA town-hall meeting Sunday were turned away at the door by the elder Obama, who was sitting at the entrance in a rocking chair and brandishing a double-barreled shotgun.” This reminds me of George Bush Sr., and our current President Bush, because the media always projects them as southern men who like to go hunting. It is not how I picture Obama at all, but it definitely brings an interesting mental image to mind.

James Kilts article, “Fuck everything, we’re doing five blades,” is well written, but it’s different than other articles because it’s as if you’re talking to someone who won’t shut up and won’t let anyone else get a word in because he’s too afraid that he won’t have enough time to prove his point. In the fist paragraph he says, “Shut up, I’m telling you what happened,” as if you’re sitting there having a conversation with him. He comes across as a CEO who is self-absorbed and demanding the best because he won’t lose, he won’t let any other razor company take over even if it means disregarding the safety rules. He doesn’t care, and that’s the best part of this article because we, as consumers, are reading what CEO’s are actually thinking and doing at work even if they don’t say that directly. While this article is poking fun at CEO’s, it’s also dragging out the truth because most educated people know that CEO’s are like this at companies: stepping on anyone and everyone they can to be at the top and stay at the top.

Benjamin would very much enjoy the aura of these different types of mediums because they are not taken from anywhere else or passed down; they are unique and make fun of current media sources in a concentrated way. Although Benjamin makes the argument of concentration versus distraction, and distraction is a result of entertainment, I think he would find this to be a concentrated work of art because of the jokes and hilarity included in every aspect of the newspaper and the mock of C-SPANN and CNN.

Adorno and Horkheimer would praise The Onion for its creativeness and ability to step outside the box. This is actually spontaneity because talent scouts or professionals do not control this type of medium; rather it is from journalists who poke fun at current forms of media to prove a point. The Onion is reacting against current media rather than acting with it, showing that it is different and not similar by any means. The story lines in The Onion are never the same and it is never a replication. The articles that are from colonial days are the same format to replicate newspapers from the 1700’s, but they are funny and different every time. The article, “Alexander Hamilton Challenges Nation to a Duel,” makes fun of the Articles of Confederation and pits the nation against each other from the Hudson river, where Alexander Hamilton will watch and then proceed to drink large amounts of ale, “With his victory in tow, he shall retire to a Publick House in New York to boisterously ridickule the Losers over several Pints of Ale for which he will paye.” Changing the spelling of words to put ones mindset back to colonial times is a completely different form of “informing” citizens of the news, yet even though the words are changed every time the story line is different every single time. While both Adorno and Horkheimer say there is a disappearance of history, with The Onion they are bringing history back. It is a funny way to look at the past and consider where we were as a country in the late 1700’s, yet we also study history so that we do not make those same mistakes again. The Onion’s articles point out that while we recognize and study the past, we still make the same mistakes and flat out don’t care. People in congress are still ignorant of others and pit them against each other for their own amusement, yet they could be doing a whole lot more to help the country.

These articles made me think about a lot with regards to this country and how stupid people in positions of power are. The CEO of Gillette was exactly like every other pompous CEO who will do whatever it takes to stay in a position of power because he enjoys the money. Obama’s half-brother shows that this country cares more about the politicians’ secrets than they do about the real issues our country is dealing with. I realize now that the media has it’s place to distract the majority of Americans from politics and from the government so that we will just nod our heads and agree with everything they are saying. The media is taking away our ability to think for ourselves, and because of that we cannot form opinions or our own thoughts and we must rely on others to make decisions for us. Adorno, Horkheimer and Benjamin have said this and they are right: professionals, CEO’s of huge businesses, politics, they are all there to make decisions for us disregarding what and how we think about any topic. [30]

Lyndsay Ehrmann
In looking at the videos and articles from “The Onion” in preparation for tomorrow’s class with Joe Garden, I got very interested in this form of media I had never been introduced to in the past. This assignment was the one that gripped my attention the most, and even got me looking up many more videos and articles I read out of pleasure for this afternoon. I found this form of media absolutely hilarious, and very thought provoking as well. “The Onion” uses its media medium to successfully tell the news in satire while effectively keeping the audience’s attention through humor.

Although “The Onion” could be looked at as widely a source for comedy, it also successfully uses its popularity to voice opinions to the public through sarcastic humor. It takes an idea, stretches it to absurdity, and-through comedy-is able to make the viewer aware of just how ridiculous some aspects of our popular culture are. For example, in looking further at different “Onion” videos, I found excellent examples of this. There is one video that shows a mock news report of a horrific car accident involving many average American citizens on a US Highway. The video then goes on to express how it reminds them of Princess Diana’s car accident and that we should all take a moment to reflect on her death and how the similarities of the car crashes are “striking.” These similarities are, of course, completely twisted and make no sense. However, this video does an excellent job of portraying their distaste at how small accidents involving public figures can sometimes get so much more attention in the media than a huge accident involving dozens more-which is overlooked only because the victims are not famous.

The stories that are shown in “The Onion,” like the example before, continue to be funny because they stretch things to such a ridiculous extreme. Taking a small aspect of pop culture and showing it at its worst, in a sarcastic manner, ends up a hilarious video. Instead of simply stating what they disagree with, in a way that may not catch the audience’s attention, they portray their thoughts in a way that will keep and attain the attention of many. It is also very funny because they put something in a reliable media form that is clearly sarcastic and unrealistic. Anytime you take something absurd and try to frame it in a form that society sees as reliable, its sarcastic nature is brought out even more and its ridiculous fashion is highlighted. An example of this is a skit I watched with a mock news report showing Obama giving McCain “constructive criticism” ads. This news report was meant to poke fun at the recent events in each candidate’s campaigns-in which McCain seems to be railing into Obama while Obama won’t fight back as forcefully.

“The Onion” uses the setting of a “reliable” news source and the well-known lay out of campaign ads we see on television each day to add to the sarcastic nature of the piece. It illustrates that putting ridiculous ideas into well-known “dry” lay outs seen daily just add to its sarcastic nature.Overall, I really enjoyed being introduced to “The Onion” as a media form. I found the nature of their pieces-through both the sarcastic use of their medium and the ability to portray serious critiques on American popular culture through humor-extremely funny, while also staying thought-provoking. It is a very unique way to portray recent events in our culture that is hard to perfect, but “The Onion” has been able to successfully pull it off! I will definitely continue to keep up with this form of media, and recommend it to my friends as well. [30]

Andrea Pelose
The Onion is an alternative, comedic news source. Its source of comedy derives from its presentation and authenticity to typical news tradition. The formatting to print newspaper, old gothic font scrolls for the archives, and production of audio and visual clips in its news reels allow for the unique, biting sarcasm familiar with other satires such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

News is often outrageous. Whether it is the tabloid behavior of Spears or the political downfall of Spitzer, the news comes about with a sense of shock, disgust, and absurdity. Today, we are faced with so much exposure to scandal that it almost becomes expected. This ludicrousness nature of current events allows for satires such as The Onion to be so successful. It takes the concept of today’s obscurities and turns it up a notch. We can laugh because as far as it is from the truth, it still hits home.

The Onion’s humor comes in three forms; the impossible that does not hold back, the ordinary mixing with the extraordinary, and the possible that shows behind the scenes. This is best shown by exploring a few of our readings.

In the video that introduces a lack of tolerance bill toward scull-fucking we see the impossible. To listen to a conservatively dressed, fake congressman rattle on about the merits of opposition toward men ripping out on old lady’s eye in order to have sex and you can not help but laugh at the preposterousness. Certainly, it’s not the first time I have heard such an expression, but the level of seriousness in the tone of the congressman as he presents all his argument coupled with the incredibility of the context, and I cannot help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.

Then there is the article looking at the Vice President’s side job moonlighting for Denny’s, a prime example to the ordinary and extraordinary coming together. Certainly Denny’s is a place everyone is familiar with, as is Dick Cheney. While the idea that he would pick up an extra job to be able to buy his wife a nice fur coat for their anniversary is a bit peculiar, the real humor from the article was its presentation. From a journalistic view, the idea that someone could have time to interview almost every member of the cabinet along with other high-ranking advisors gets the humor going. The New York Times presentation and sourcing style adds to this dramatic effect. Then the nature in which the article was written, the mysterious unfolding of a scandal, and it’s…a job at Denny’s? The article then keeps you laughing after the exposed “scandal” because it’s such a refreshing way in which for a candidate to get in trouble.

Finally, the CEO allowing his inexperienced, slacker son to take over the multi-million dollar business is a telling of the possible that shows the behind the scenes look. Without a doubt, this type of event happens. The head honcho of a huge corporation, this one hilariously being the proclaimed top-selling toner company, chooses family, mainly his son, over qualified candidates for his succession. The idea alone is not funny. A guy getting screwed over after years of hard work by a kid who does not have the drive, work ethic, or familiarity with the company, and only wins the position due to a family-tie happens on a daily basis. Yet, the article is written in the dry perspective of the father CEO, who in a serious declaration lets it apparent that the son is getting the job due to the fact that he is his son and not in anyway qualified, makes the article comical. Using things such as the son’s experience “bumming around Europe” as a justification of world knowledge and the father dragging him through an ivy league college that he only went to because the father got him in, adds to the true audacity of corporate workings. As sad of a thought as it is for the other guy, and all the workers who now must follow under and unqualified leader, the internal justifications of a parent wanting to get their kid off the couch and into a job, gives the article its appeal. We can laugh because of its inherent honesty, since the situation is very probable.

The Onion reaps its humor by fictionalizing news. Today this is funny, because the news we are presented with is often driven by scandal. The Onion’s sharp, dry tone and professional presentation allows for it to successfully mock the absurdity of contemporary society. Whether their latest news story is something possible or not, the reader is sure to laugh hardily at news today, but also proves a social critique on the news we ingest on a daily basis. [30]

IMS 390B

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Class responses to Joe Garden of The Onion

October 15 videoconference with The Onion's Joe Garden

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