Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« Obama Now Openly Selling Access to the White House | Main | Seth McFarlane, Barack Obama, and Rush Limbaugh's Observation About David Letterman's Sudden Fans »
February 25, 2013

Was "The Onion's" Joke Really That Bad?

Before I mention the joke, I have to mention the template for it.

Jokes have templates. A lot of times you may think someone sounds like he "just made something up," and he's a quick wit. In fact, what he is is someone who knows a lot of joke templates, and just swaps appropriate words in the A Blank and the B Blank, and makes it sound fresh.

But the template itself is old, old, old, and has been used a million times.

And I'm not knocking this, as I do it all the time; anyone who writes jokes does this. I mean, this is what jokes are, you know.

The template the Onion used was this:

"We're all thinking it: [Insert something truly horrible that absolutely no one at all is thinking]"

You see this joke on sitcoms all the time.

CHARACTER A: [Something fantastically horrible]

CHARACTERS B & C: [Upset reaction that anyone would say such a thing]

CHARACTER A (flatly): Well we were all thinking it.

The point of the joke is not the truth of the statement offered, but some kind of unintentional revelation about the speaker of it.

Of course, while the joke relies on the idea of an "unintentional revelation" about the speaker that he he intended to keep silent, in fact it's completely intentional, because the joke is designed for just that effect.

ME: Lindsey Lohan hasn't been bangable since "The Parent Trap." Well, we were all thinking it.

I mean, honestly, if I believed this I wouldn't write it into the Evidentiary Record.

The simple variation of the joke is to change "We were all thinking it" to "Everyone's afraid to say it, but..." They have the same meaning.

So the Onion deployed this joke with regard to a 9-year-old actress...

Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a c**t, right? #Oscars2013

The Onion (@TheOnion) February 25, 2013

The joke is that precisely no one is thinking that, and this is supposed to be the Onion writer "accidentally" exposing the dark twists of his brain. The target of the joke is the Speaker, not the Subject the Speaker is speaking about.

But he didn't mean it, and anyone who's seen this joke any of the sixty five million times it's been deployed knows he didn't mean it.

The only problem here is that this is a kid, and she might read the joke, and might be upset, even though no offense was actually intended.

And that's a concern, but... I mean, do we literally have to worry about every single person who may read our jokes and patrol them to make sure literally no one is ever hurt by them?

And as far as that little girl: I mean, once you explain the joke to her, does she remain upset?

And what's this girl's parents doing letting her read the Internet unsupervised, or be on the sewage pit Twitter, or read the adult-oriented Onion?

They should be burned with fire until they are dead, dead, dead.

Come on, you know you were all thinking it.

Risk Vs. Reward: Given this joke is in fact a cliche (and currently being way overused, to the point where it could have its own TVTropes category), another objection would be "Does the merit of the joke justify its capacity to offend?"

Well, clearly not, given that The Onion felt the need to apologize.

But that said, that's a purely prudential consideration, a cost-benefit determination, not a matter of morality.

And so no, given that people have a short-trigger when it comes to Jokes About Kids, no, it wasn't worth it. It's really a joke that's now in its last gasp, and the writer thought he could give it some freshness by adding even more Shock Value than usual.

But, in none of the worlds that exist did the guy really mean a cute little girl he never met is really a c-word.


digg this
posted by Ace at 03:24 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
[/i][/b]andycanuck (2yu8s)[/s][/u]: "750-pound alligator seized from home near Buffalo, ..."

Ben Had: "Only 30 more years of these moronic statements ft ..."

2008 is calling: "Mahalia Jackson>>>>>>>>>>>Affimative Action Jackso ..."

BillyD: "[i]158 Mind you, a Moron claimed the car would sti ..."

Diogenes: "DEI in action, and that's a good thing! Posted by ..."

Piper: "Have we discussed KBJ and her gripe the 1sr amendm ..."

Commissar Hrothgar (hOUT3) ~ This year in Corsicana - [b]again[/b]! ~ [/i][/b][/u][/s]: "[i]257 Watching another Boeing United Airlines iss ..."

Loose Emergency Door Plug: "Return to Newark? I'd rather ditch. Posted by: D ..."

J. Random UA Flight: "[i]Return to Newark? I'd rather ditch. Posted by ..."

Diogenes: "Watching another Boeing United Airlines issue in r ..."

Truthbomb : "Watching another Boeing United Airlines issue in r ..."

Ciampino - on time: "About 43 minutes [b]SpaceX - Falcon 9 - Starlin ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64