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21 ago 2007

Remember when The Onion used to be funny?

Neither do I. One more of those "local man finds hole in sock" story...

I really don't get that "women in the battered women shelter can't cook dinner" story. I won't dignify that with a link even. It's not just that it's offensive, and not funny, but that I can't even understand why it's supposed to be funny in the first place. What's the joke? Who thought THAT was a good idea?

7 comentarios:

  1. The Onion used to be funny every other issue. For poetry that's an unsustainably great batting average - for comedy, though, that's the middle of the standings, not much of a shot at the wild card.

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  2. Anónimo11:46 a. m.

    There's usually something to laugh at in any issue-- but it has to come in small doses. I do enjoy their potshots at poetry/poets (and getting Shrub in is a bonus):

    Bush Regales Dinner Guests With Impromptu Oratory On Virgil's Minor Works

    or others...

    Maya Angelou Honored For Courage, Blackness

    Nation Afraid To Admit 9-Year-Old Disabled Poet Really Bad

    National Poetry Month Raises Awareness Of Poetry Prevention

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  3. i believe that is supposed to refer to a "classic" "reason" for a wifebeating--dinner isn't ready on the table when the asshole gets home from work. but you'd have to watch a few hours of *lifetime* to confirm.

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  4. I have rarely found the Onion funny, but then I was too straight for the National Lampoon, too. (Showing my age.) It is relatively easy to be a smart-ass.

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  5. You can't really argue whether something's funny or not, but it's pretty clear "why it's supposed to be funny in the first place": the shelter coordinator guy is supposed to be supplying these women with a safe haven, but he's just the same as all the men who abused them in the first place. Standard irony.

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  6. "Standard irony." But still not funny.

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  7. um, yeah, i did not find it funny either. though not because i was offended by it. (i think maybe i wasn't offended *enough* to find it funny. it landed somewhere in that not-outrageous-enough-to-be-ridiculous-and-therefore-hilarious area.)

    i was just offering the cliche on which the (unsuccessful) joke relies as an answer to "why its supposed to be funny." a lot of comedy begins with cliches or stereotypes and that *can* be funny when done well.

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