Of all the alleged humor sites on the Internet, TheOnion.com is the best. Why? The folks who put that Madison, Wisconsin publication together pretty much ignore political correctness and write some deadpan articles that take some shots at American culture and insanely ridiculous situations throughout the world.
Over about the past decade, there’s been a disturbing trend going on that I like to call ’’Little Old Ladyism’’ or ’’Busy-Bodyism.’’ In short, you’ve got a lot of folks who are absolutely offended by anything they don’t agree with, and there is a school of thought that advocates eliminating as many pleasant things from the planet as possible. For example, let’s say you’re driving down the street in Little Rock, Arkansas and you see someone standing at a bus stop and smoking a cigar.
In days of old, the proper response would be to think nothing of it. These days, there are some people who will be very disturbed by such a thing and demand that a law be passed to ban such offensive behavior. The same goes for opinions that are considered to be unpopular and, in short, ideas and speech that might hurt someone’s feelings. Political correctness leads to two things -- the destruction of free thought and innovative ideas and the collective loss of a sense of humor.
So, into this increasingly odd climate comes TheOnion.com, a print and electronic publication that pokes fun at everyone and everything. Is it offensive? Well, indeed it is. Heck, I’m a Republican, and my political party is raked over the coals constantly. But, then again, so are the Democrats, white supremists and virtually every other group out there.
TheOnion.com, after all, posted an article shortly after the terrorist bombings in New York and Washington, D.C. stating that the Islamic extremists who hijacked the airplanes were surprised to find themselves in hell. That publication also compared the conflict between Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush as a scrap between ’’privileged children of millionaires.’’ We’ve also been treated to an article about the terrorist attacks seriously impacting Americans because they are no longer able to worry about ’’mindless cr@p’’ such as Britney Spears and the cast of Friends anymore. And, who could forget a caption of a picture informing us that, ’’Gay comptroller tired of being referred to as ’that gay comptroller?’’’
Folks, that’s all funny stuff, and just the type of insightful humor that we need over here. We’re quickly losing the ability to laugh at ourselves and the world around us, and that’s too bad. It’s often a good idea to take things a bit lightly and have a bit of fun, and that’s exactly what the onion provides.
What makes TheOnion.com so effective is the writing style. This is standard, Associated Press style that’s delivered in a very dead-pan, matter-of-fact way that passes ridiculous situations off as perfectly normal. What’s revealing about that is that a lot of folks will read those articles and say, ’’Geez. You know, I’ve met people like that.’’
In short, I love the school of thought that’s responsible for TheOnion.com. I’d much rather bring my two children up in a world in which challenging the political, social and economic climates in the nation is encouraged rather than one in which people duck there heads, keep to themselves and live drab, humorless lives.