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I don't think I'm the target audience. I don't really get it. I spent years homeless. I try to write about meaningful ways to help the homeless while preservin
by DoreenMichele 2y ago
I don't think I'm the target audience. I don't really get it.
I spent years homeless. I try to write about meaningful ways to help the homeless while preserving their agency. I try to write about systemic issues I feel contribute to the problem.
I don't find that second link funny or relatable or anything that makes sense to me.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y agoI don’t think any of the articles that grandparent linked are really the most exemplary Onion articles. The onion is really at its best when it manages to nail it exactly right. Sometimes they are just so perfectly in touch with cultural zeitgeist it’s uncanny. Here are two of the most memorable ones in recent memory: https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1848971668 https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-na... https://www.theonion.com/the-onion-stands-with-israel-because-it-seems-like-yo-1850922505 https://www.theonion.com/the-onion-stands-with-israel-becaus...
- DoreenMichele 2y agoOkay, I chuckled at the Ted Kaczynski signature, aka The Unabomber. I assumed all the other "board member signatures" were similarly infamous bad guys but I can't figure out what they all are and when I search on Steve Hannah, he apparently actually was the CEO of The Onion at one time. I agree with some of their points about it being a conflict going back hundreds of years. I personally think it's inevitable that war broke out given how psycho controlling Isreal is about Gaza's water supply. I still probably am not the target audience for The Onion and won't really understand a lot of it. I was full-time homemaker a lot of years for an American woman my age. I did well in school. I value HN and have participated here a lot, but have zero friends, professional contacts etc via HN. I don't generally "go along to get along." I try to avoid social friction by other means and the result appears to be I don't ever really fit in anywhere because I'm not willing to mouth empty agreement with the group consensus. And, I mean, there's likely other reasons I fail to fit in anywhere but I strongly suspect that's a really large factor.
- webnrrd2k 2y agoI really like the T. Herman Zweibel signature at the bottom. He was by far my favorite recurring character. Not the Onion, but a list of H. T. Zweibel articles: https://muckrack.com/t-herman-zweibel/articles https://muckrack.com/t-herman-zweibel/articles
- DoreenMichele 2y agoFYI if anyone else here is as clueless as I am: Publisher Emeritus, T. Herman Zweibel, writes frequent editorials, growing more and more erratic until he's removed from power by the board of directors in the 1950s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Dumb_Century https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Dumb_Century
- gomox 2y agoMight be relevant to point out that "zwiebel" is German for onion.
- jimbokun 2y agoDo you realize The Onion is a satirical comedy newspaper?
- DoreenMichele 2y agoAbsolutely.
- mrguyorama 2y agoDo you also struggle to enjoy other classic satire? Ever read anything by Kurt Vonnegut?
- b112 2y agoSorry what? As a Canuck, US politics is typically indecipherable, eh! Most news makes no sense, until I found The Onion. Now you are telling me, you bunch of hosers made it all up! Signed "Bob Jenkins, Canadian Minister of National Affairs" "You made it all up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!”, Charlton Heston, a Great Canadian
- modeless 2y agoFunny, to me these are the worst type of Onion articles, pandering to people on one side of a political issue. I think it's lazy and predictable.
- internetter 2y agoThe onion has always been political commentary. In my opinion, it is some of the most impactful, even to this day. Every time there is a mass shooting, the onion reposts the same article — linked above. All they do is edit the time and place. They also bump every other article they published to the front page. It's incredible commentary on the fact these things keep happening in completely predictable ways.
- Kye 2y agoThis was especially prescient: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjonGtrCyVE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjonGtrCyVE
- panarky 2y agoThere's no rule of humor that says it must be politically neutral. If you want balance, feel free to post equally funny satire with a right-wing slant. Though it might be harder to find anything equivalent, since biting political humor and satire can be politically asymmetric.
- philipwhiuk 2y agoBabylon Bee is the one on the other side of the aisle. (That's a deliberate Christian meta-joke).
- justin66 2y ago> ‘The Onion’ Stands With Israel Because It Seems Like You Get In Less Trouble For That This is a recent Onion classic. The thing about the Onion is, once you’ve got a great headline - and maybe a photo, which will usually be a head shot - the text of the article sometimes seems largely superfluous. They actually ought to be doing better in the age of Twitter and so on, but it didn’t work out that way.
- extraduder_ire 2y agoThen there's no reason to visit the site. The link card will give you everything you're looking for. I think the de facto purpose of the article text when shared online is to make it more plausible to someone who doesn't know the site is parody.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y agoI happen to enjoy the content itself, even if it's all just riffing on the joke on the headline. But I'm a big fan of snark in general. Also, I'm not 100% sure, but perhaps there are some SEO boosts from having long form article content that wouldn't be gained from just having a title and a blurb (though they do also do those very short form articles as well, where it's a few sentences with the headline)
- Kye 2y agohttps://www.theonion.com/report-we-don-t-make-any-money-if-you-don-t-click-the-1823460398 https://www.theonion.com/report-we-don-t-make-any-money-if-y... >> "Report: We Don’t Make Any Money If You Don’t Click The Fucking Link"
- whims31 2y agoHere is another article that's on point. The Onion does have a way with (omitting) words. https://www.theonion.com/israel-assures-it-doing-everything-possible-to-minimize-1851085308 https://www.theonion.com/israel-assures-it-doing-everything-... "Israel Assures It Doing Everything Possible To Minimize Civilians"
- tootie 2y agoAs with any comedy, they are hits a misses. And probably more misses than hits. But they just keep shooting and people mostly remember the gems.
- chrisweekly 2y agoTangent: congrats on no longer being homeless! Your comment piqued my curiosity so I checked out your profile, and wow! is it great, full of interesting links etc. Glad you're here on HN. P.S. Yeah, the onion is pretty hit-or-miss, tho the ratio is pretty good IMHO. YMMV but one of my all-time favorites was about Harry Potter being a sinister secret recruiting vehicle for satan worship -- and I learned about it from a friend whose parents were among the huge number of christianists who thought it was legit journalism and forwarded it in one of the biggest ~early-internet-days chainmail events ever. https://www.theonion.com/harry-potter-books-spark-rise-in-satanism-among-childre-1819565664 https://www.theonion.com/harry-potter-books-spark-rise-in-sa...
- saagarjha 2y agoWell, The Onion is not there to write about meaningful ways to help the homeless. Their job is to satirize the dumb views that people push.