Job Discussion Forums

[Billy Chaka]

I'm a fan of The Onion (usually it's pretty funny), but today they are running a story with the headline, "Japan: So Sorry for Getting Nuked."

http://www.theonion.com/content/index

If you're offended by this, I urge you to contact them. I believe their main office is in Madison, WI, so the e-mail address would be:

[email protected]

Additional contact info is here:

http://www.theonion.com/content/contact_us

[Mahik]

The Onion has done far worse than that in the past and if I wrote them everytime they said something to offend me I'd probably still be writing. And the fact is, that's the Onion's gimmick. Making fun of the sacred, or jokes about the inappropriate. If you don't like it, there's a very simple solution: Don't read the Onion.

Just because it doesn't always cater to your individual taste doesn't mean you have the right to deny others the ability to read it. It's not even that mainstream, it's on its own website and runs a private circular so you would have to look for it in order to see it. You can find much more offensive stuff on the internet that is much more readily available than the Onion.

Take up a cause that's more worth fighting for instead of wasting your time on something that isn't.

[Billy Chaka]

[Mahik]

The Onion has made fun of both the Holocaust and 9/11. They've also made fun of Christianity, the Pope, Judaism, Islam, Democrats, Republicans, Big Business, Small Business, Homosexuality, Sex, Astrology, Americans, Canadians, Europeans, etc. etc.

The fact is, any member of one of those groups would probably be offended by those jokes, but they don't have to listen to them. Personally, I was very offended when they made fun of the mudslide catastrophe in the Philipines, but I know they didn't mean harm by the joke. Bad stuff may happen, but comedians are going to keep being comedians and make jokes about it, that's what they do. With The Onion, you know everything they say is a joke, so if you take yourself or any particular subject very seriously you should probably ignore it. Which is very easy to do since it is NOT very mainstream.

You have an interesting definition of "mainstream" by the way. Walk into a Barnes & Nobles? When I walk into a barnes and nobles I see a rack of new and discounted books. If I go downstairs, past the classics, and into the very small comedy section then I'll find perhaps 5-7 books by The Onion. Wow you're right, it's really being stuffed down my throat how mainstream it is. I can't walk into a Barnes & Nobles comedy book section without glancing up at the small collection of The Onion they have. Plus it's all over television, oh wait.... It's not... Well the radio has... whoops, those are special podcasts you have to download... Well when I go to the news stand... They usually don't have the Onion... But their net advertisements are ridicu... Well, I don't think I've ever seen a net ad for The Onion. But Billy Chaka says it's very mainstream so it must be so! Is the definition of mainstream "sold at Barnes & Noble"?

Ya know, Bill, you can do whatever you want. You can waste your time however you please, hell I'm wasting my time replying to you. But The Onion is satire, a joke. There are people and websites with very serious hatred of various people including the Japanese which are probably much more deserving of your ire. The Onions exercise of freedom of speech is what allows it to be funny most of the time. You're trying to de-fang them because something they've written happens to offend you and if you de-fang The Onion then they may as well stop writing altogether.

And I have read Hiroshima, I've also read the Rape of Nanking and have written papers on the atomic bombings and fire bombings of Japan. I'm sure that's all stuff you probably know about since it's fairly mainstream knowledge. But it tends to come up more often when you're a history major.

[Billy Chaka]

I have no interest in going back and forth on this with you anymore. However, I do feel the need to point out where your misunderstanding is. Yes, The Onion has made fun of both the Holocaust and 9/11. However, they have not made fun of the victims of the Holocaust and 9/11. That's the distinction. There's a very fine line in satire like this, and it's sometimes difficult to see, but The Onion crossed it on this occasion.

[seanmcginty]

You gotta relax. Just out of curiousity I did a word search for "holocaust" on the Onion website and found a page full of articles making fun of the holocaust, including one that poked fun at the victims (well, Jewish people entitled "Jewish Texans Commemorate Holocaust - Texas Style") in pretty much exactly the same light as the one about the Japanese and the A-bombs.

Some people just have no sense of humor.

[AndyH]

I've been to Hiroshima and know people who've lost family members in the bombing there. Obviously, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the rest of Japan in WWII, were real tragedies.

However, I think there are more important things in the world to worry about than the Onion making a tasteless joke.

[markle]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[drifter13]

I'll agree that getting angry at The Onion is pretty useless. They don't care, and won't respond to any real outside pressure. I can't remember a time that they ever apologized for anything. It's their job to "go there". South Park did that episode about Pearl Harbor where the main focus was Japanese people using a Pokemon like cartoon to make kids redo Pearl Harbor and the entire episode had Japanese people pointing out how small their penises are. I'm sure that riled some people up, but that's life. My advice? Write those angry e-mails/letters and then let it go, because being angry over this for any length of time will only drive you mad.

[AndyH]