As anyone who knows me could tell, I love satire. I enjoy reading it, writing it, viewing it, etc. From The Daily Show to Saturday Night Live to The Colbert Report to written works by Al Franken and beyond, I love satire. Likewise, there have been several articles on the site The Onion that have made me laugh quite hysterically. I've had to laugh even harder when a story gets reported of a politician believing an Onion article as being real.
However, having said all that, I can't for the life of me find anything amusing about the now very well-known and controversial tweet made by The Onion last night during the Oscars. Quvenzhane Wallis, the 9-year old actress who was on hand at the Oscars last night, as she was nominated for Best Actress in the film Beasts of the Southern Wild, was the subject of this very tweet.
The tweet read, "Everyone seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhane Wallis is kind of a c**t, right?"
How is that funny exactly? How is that supposed to be funny? As far as this country is concerned, the word used to describe the young actress in this tweet is arguably the second most offensive word, next to the "n" word, as it's known. While it's debatable whether or not host Seth MacFarlane got to the point of being inappropriate beyond funny in some of his jokes, he was also poking fun at adults whom have been in the business for quite some time. He also didn't refer to anyone by one of the two most offensive words in our culture, let alone a 9-year old. While I typically support artists pushing the envelope, including satirists, I can't support a "satirist" calling a 9-year old actress a "c**t." That is far beyond the inappropriate-beyond-funny zone and into a another realm altogether. At the very least, The Onion should an apology to Wallis, and hopefully realize that while it's healthy for them to continually try to push the envelope, there are still limits to that.
(update)
It has been just reported that Onion CEO Steve Hannah posted the following comment on Facebook:
"I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhane Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive - not to mention inconsistent with The Onion's commitment to parody and satire, however biting. No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire. The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication. We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again. In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible. Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/onions-controversial-tweet-quvenzhane-wallis_n_2757532.html
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2013/02/25/1633981/why-seth-macfarlane-and-the-onions-jokes-about-quvenzhane-wallis-are-so-gross/
However, having said all that, I can't for the life of me find anything amusing about the now very well-known and controversial tweet made by The Onion last night during the Oscars. Quvenzhane Wallis, the 9-year old actress who was on hand at the Oscars last night, as she was nominated for Best Actress in the film Beasts of the Southern Wild, was the subject of this very tweet.
The tweet read, "Everyone seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhane Wallis is kind of a c**t, right?"
How is that funny exactly? How is that supposed to be funny? As far as this country is concerned, the word used to describe the young actress in this tweet is arguably the second most offensive word, next to the "n" word, as it's known. While it's debatable whether or not host Seth MacFarlane got to the point of being inappropriate beyond funny in some of his jokes, he was also poking fun at adults whom have been in the business for quite some time. He also didn't refer to anyone by one of the two most offensive words in our culture, let alone a 9-year old. While I typically support artists pushing the envelope, including satirists, I can't support a "satirist" calling a 9-year old actress a "c**t." That is far beyond the inappropriate-beyond-funny zone and into a another realm altogether. At the very least, The Onion should an apology to Wallis, and hopefully realize that while it's healthy for them to continually try to push the envelope, there are still limits to that.
(update)
It has been just reported that Onion CEO Steve Hannah posted the following comment on Facebook:
"I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhane Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive - not to mention inconsistent with The Onion's commitment to parody and satire, however biting. No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire. The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication. We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again. In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible. Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/onions-controversial-tweet-quvenzhane-wallis_n_2757532.html
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2013/02/25/1633981/why-seth-macfarlane-and-the-onions-jokes-about-quvenzhane-wallis-are-so-gross/
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