What The Onion Smells Like "Black Guy Asks Nation for Change." Upon reading this article title out of context any non-racist person would be offended that President Obama had been referred to in a way that ignored any other identities he has besides his race. However, a significant portion of those people would be put at ease upon learning that this is the title of a piece from The Onion. This is because The Onion, an internet publication, is a sub-genre of satire.
To give the best possible explanation of what kind of publication The Onion is, their own description should be consulted:
“The Onion is the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local …show more content…
The Onion covers stories that have some form of ridiculous twist or sarcastic joke built into them, which are then presented with a straight-faced, mock-professionalism. These topics can range from current events to observations about everyday life (Glass). The goal of satire as a genre is to mock and make a critique of humanity. Therefore, the most powerful representations of satire are ones that make observations about the world and have a position on this observation.
This essay will act as an analysis of The Onion’s work as a prominent sub-genre of satire, working to identify what makes an article from The Onion unique, and what makes an Onion article successful. The focus areas for this analysis will be: context, formatting, content, and purpose. In order to fully understand The Onion as a publication, it is important to first look to its roots as a small college publication that began in 1988. Created by Wisconsin students Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson, The Onion began as a parody of the Oshkosh Northwestern, the local newspaper from Tim Keck’s hometown (“Layers”). The Onion has since expanded, and slowly made the shift to the internet beginning in 1996 (Manjoo …show more content…
Ira Glass from This American Life explains that the articles with silly jokes are called “laffers” as opposed to “bigger meaning” articles.
To provide some examples of the two different kinds of articles, a “laffer” might be “Don’t Tell Me You’ve Never Wondered What Yoda’s Penis Looks Like,” while a “bigger meaning” article might be “House Lawmakers Brainstorming Some Good Things to Say About Poor People Before Meeting Pope Francis.”
By looking to the example of the “laffer” articles, it becomes clear that the primary objective of the The Onion is not always to critique society – sometimes it is just to make the reader laugh. However, the articles with deeper meaning, and the larger metaphor the publication takes up as a parody of news sources at large, make it clear that there also exists the goal of creating an awareness of larger political and social issues brought up in the articles as well as the overarching lesson of the importance in looking to multiple sources for
To give the best possible explanation of what kind of publication The Onion is, their own description should be consulted:
“The Onion is the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local …show more content…
The Onion covers stories that have some form of ridiculous twist or sarcastic joke built into them, which are then presented with a straight-faced, mock-professionalism. These topics can range from current events to observations about everyday life (Glass). The goal of satire as a genre is to mock and make a critique of humanity. Therefore, the most powerful representations of satire are ones that make observations about the world and have a position on this observation.
This essay will act as an analysis of The Onion’s work as a prominent sub-genre of satire, working to identify what makes an article from The Onion unique, and what makes an Onion article successful. The focus areas for this analysis will be: context, formatting, content, and purpose. In order to fully understand The Onion as a publication, it is important to first look to its roots as a small college publication that began in 1988. Created by Wisconsin students Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson, The Onion began as a parody of the Oshkosh Northwestern, the local newspaper from Tim Keck’s hometown (“Layers”). The Onion has since expanded, and slowly made the shift to the internet beginning in 1996 (Manjoo …show more content…
Ira Glass from This American Life explains that the articles with silly jokes are called “laffers” as opposed to “bigger meaning” articles.
To provide some examples of the two different kinds of articles, a “laffer” might be “Don’t Tell Me You’ve Never Wondered What Yoda’s Penis Looks Like,” while a “bigger meaning” article might be “House Lawmakers Brainstorming Some Good Things to Say About Poor People Before Meeting Pope Francis.”
By looking to the example of the “laffer” articles, it becomes clear that the primary objective of the The Onion is not always to critique society – sometimes it is just to make the reader laugh. However, the articles with deeper meaning, and the larger metaphor the publication takes up as a parody of news sources at large, make it clear that there also exists the goal of creating an awareness of larger political and social issues brought up in the articles as well as the overarching lesson of the importance in looking to multiple sources for