Satire site The Onion apologizes for offensive Oscar tweet - the 'C' word

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/25/net-us-oscars-onion-idUSBRE91O0VE20130225

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(Reuters) - The Onion, a source for online and printed satire that routinely skewers celebrities, apologized on Monday for a what it called a crude and offensive tweet directed at nine-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis.

The Internet was abuzz with commentary after The Onion on Sunday night referred to the young Best Actress nominee using a four-letter term seen as perhaps the most offensive word in American English.

Steve Hannah, The Onion's chief executive, found the tweet devoid of humor.

"On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars," Hannah said in a statement. "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," he said.

The Onion removed the tweet within an hour of its publication, instituted stricter new procedures for Twitter and took steps to discipline the people responsible, Hannah added.

"Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry," Hannah wrote to the star of "Beasts of the Southern Wild," who became the youngest ever Best Actress nominee and gleefully reveled in the honors bestowed upon her in the film awards season.
 
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a little humility never hurt anybody. When you're being presented with an award the expectation is that you sit there and smile. 9 years old or not.
 
LOLZ...no half-assed "sorry if you were offended" apologies here.

But damn, calling a kid a cunt, even in humor, is in pretty poor taste.

[quote name='cfootball1']
a little humility never hurt anybody. When you're being presented with an award the expectation is that you sit there and smile. 9 years old or not.[/QUOTE]
Holy hell...seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?

edit: The kid's just being cute; not mic-dropping and kicking down a door.
 
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Another good site loses credibility by apologizing. Never apologize if you mean it. The apology tells me they didn't mean it, so why should I trust that they stand behind any of their content if they are willing to backpeddle when someone gives them shit?
 
Another site bows to the masses. RIP The Onion. I used to think you were cool, but you're just as much of a politically correct pussy as the rest of the world.
 
The funny thing is - even the staff at the friggin' Onion understands what a derogatory word that is.

Meanwhile, we have regulars here who use the word often - and not as satire, but with the pure negative connotation that it is meant to convey.
 
[quote name='renique46']wtf is a Quvenzhané[/QUOTE]
It's a combination of her parents' first names and the Swahili word for "fairy," zhane(with the accent of course, I'm just too dumb to know how to put it in:D).

Qulyndrea is her mother and Venjie is her father. Personally, I think her name is bad ass and pretty damn creative.
 
[quote name='cfootball1']
original.gif


a little humility never hurt anybody. When you're being presented with an award the expectation is that you sit there and smile. 9 years old or not.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that totally means she deserved to be called a cunt. What exactly was your point?
 
[quote name='Spokker']Another good site loses credibility by apologizing. Never apologize if you mean it. The apology tells me they didn't mean it, so why should I trust that they stand behind any of their content if they are willing to backpeddle when someone gives them shit?[/QUOTE]

Uhhh.. loses credibility? Are you kidding? It's the Onion.


( I love the onion)

Also, I didn't realize retracting calling a 9 year old a cunt was "bowing to the masses."
 
[quote name='confoosious']
Also, I didn't realize retracting calling a 9 year old a cunt was "bowing to the masses."[/QUOTE]
A mass of people complained, and then it was retracted with an apology, and thus the masses were bowed to. Looking at the reviews the rest of the telecast has received, I can see why I enjoyed the opening monologue so much. It was finally a show that guys could enjoy as TV has long been a vagina with a remote.
 
I'm pretty hard to offend, but calling a 9 year old girl a cunt? That shouldn't have happened.

I think if they had basically said it without saying it, and there was at least an attempt at humor, it would have been fine (at least to me).
 
[quote name='Msut77'](Paul Hogan Voice)

That's not a cunt:

http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/02/23/foxs-huckabee-compares-insurance-for-pre-existi/192784

That's a cunt.[/QUOTE]

The Huckster makes a good point. The gov't should not be able to make a private insurance business accept anyone at anytime. I like how the comments claim the ol "death panel" argument. That only applies when you have only one gov't run healthcare option that you are forced into paying into. With no other choices, the gov't then is the sole judge of what care is "appropriate" for you. The for profit insurance companies should be able to make whatever discretionary choices they wish, as long as the payee agrees to the terms. The gov't should only regulate if those terms are broken or misrepresented illegally. Freedom means that the gov't doesn't control every aspect of your life because they think they know better. IE. Bloooooooooomberggggg!!!!


As far as the "c" word, it was in poor taste to call a child this word for a cheap laugh, but it was still just a word. Show your displeasure by not visiting their site again. Case closed.
 
[quote name='Spokker']Another good site loses credibility by apologizing. Never apologize if you mean it. The apology tells me they didn't mean it, so why should I trust that they stand behind any of their content if they are willing to backpeddle when someone gives them shit?[/QUOTE]

They didn't ever mean it. That's the joke. The Onion doesn't actually think she is a Cunt. They're just trying to 'edgy' by saying the things no one else would say. Or mocking Hollywood snobbery. Or Hipster Irony. Or something.

If you actually think any of the content at the Onion represents someone's real view or opinions, you're missing the point.

The whole site is Irony built on another layer of Irony with a frosty whip of Irony on top.
 
The point is that if a comedian made a bad joke 10 or 20 years ago, he got a few moans and boos, but he moved on. No big deal. Nowadays, if a comedian makes a joke in bad taste, he has to apologize to the whole world. We've moved from being people with opinions to being people who are so afraid of bad publicity that we'd rather look like a pussy than have a few people dislike us. As George Carlin would say, it's the pussification of the human race.

And no, I don't care if pussy is a political correct term. Although, after reading that quote from (possibly) Betty White, I'm thinking of starting to use a different term just based on logic. :lol:
 
[quote name='Access_Denied']The point is that if a comedian made a bad joke 10 or 20 years ago, he got a few moans and boos, but he moved on. No big deal. Nowadays, if a comedian makes a joke in bad taste, he has to apologize to the whole world. We've moved from being people with opinions to being people who are so afraid of bad publicity that we'd rather look like a pussy than have a few people dislike us. As George Carlin would say, it's the pussification of the human race.

And no, I don't care if pussy is a political correct term. Although, after reading that quote from (possibly) Betty White, I'm thinking of starting to use a different term just based on logic. :lol:[/QUOTE]

It's the onion. They probably are more embarrassed that the joke was not funny more than it being offensive.

The onion loves being offensive. Hell, if they apologized for every offensive statement they made, they wouldn't have time to write more articles.

Now, you might want to say america is a bunch of pussies that apologizes for everything but I give The onion a lot of leeway when it comes to that.
 
She's a 9 yr old child who shouldn't even know what that word is at her age...I feel bad for the parents who had to explain this whole "controversy" to her :( It probably tainted their night
 
[quote name='Access_Denied']The point is that if a comedian made a bad joke 10 or 20 years ago, he got a few moans and boos, but he moved on. No big deal. Nowadays, if a comedian makes a joke in bad taste, he has to apologize to the whole world. We've moved from being people with opinions to being people who are so afraid of bad publicity that we'd rather look like a pussy than have a few people dislike us. As George Carlin would say, it's the pussification of the human race.[/QUOTE]

To be fair, though, 10 or 20 years ago, if a comedian made a bad joke, it would only be in front of maybe dozens to a few thousand (depending on the popularity of the comedian), and those audiences would also be less likely to be offended because they'd know what they were getting into ahead of time. Most comedians really never had the access to such a large audience that innovations like Twitter provide, and I think there are a lot that are still adjusting to that (like Gilbert Gottfried and the Japanese earthquake jokes).
 
[quote name='egofed']The Huckster makes a good point. The gov't should not be able to make a private insurance business accept anyone at anytime. I like how the comments claim the ol "death panel" argument. That only applies when you have only one gov't run healthcare option that you are forced into paying into. With no other choices, the gov't then is the sole judge of what care is "appropriate" for you. The for profit insurance companies should be able to make whatever discretionary choices they wish, as long as the payee agrees to the terms. The gov't should only regulate if those terms are broken or misrepresented illegally. Freedom means that the gov't doesn't control every aspect of your life because they think they know better. [/QUOTE]

Birds of a feather...

It figures the only "freedom" you care about is the freedom of insurance companies to kill people for profit.
 
[quote name='eldergamer']They didn't ever mean it. That's the joke. The Onion doesn't actually think she is a Cunt. They're just trying to 'edgy' by saying the things no one else would say. Or mocking Hollywood snobbery. Or Hipster Irony. Or something.[/quote]

Correct. They stand for that hipster irony crap but can't even stand behind it when they get some pressure put on them.

If you actually think any of the content at the Onion represents someone's real view or opinions, you're missing the point.
Click to expand...
Aside from the A.V. Club, no, I did not think that. What I meant is that they do not stand behind their humor. So if you're their customer, how can you be sure they truly believe in what they do?[quote name='ShockandAww']
I think if they had basically said it without saying it, and there was at least an attempt at humor, it would have been fine (at least to me).[/QUOTE]
The only thing that should matter is that their audience got the joke, or enjoyed it, or whatever, but the point is that the content was for them, not anyone else. If someone outside of their audience got offended, The Onion should have said tough shit and stood up for their readers. It's subscriber only, even their Twitter feed. You don't just come across it by happenstance on the radio or TV dial. To say that The Onion must change and their readers cannot enjoy that kind of humor in a subscriber-only setting is arrogance.

If you filter The Onion, or anything like it, to appease those not in the know, then you destroy what makes The Onion, or anything like it, what it is. Even if it were not funny, I respect attempts at humor. The fact of the matter is that there is a market for blue material and it will fail like any other creative endeavor. To me, failing at edgy humor and failing at, say, a dramatic movie, are one and the same.
 
Do any one of you guys that support this type of comedy understand the concept called "punching up" and "punching down?"
 
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[quote name='confoosious']Wait... you don't like the onion?[/QUOTE]
What does liking The Onion have to do with this? I like The Onion just fine and their satire is usually of very high quality.

There's a difference between McFarlane using Willis' youth to make fun of Clooney's predilection for younger women and some writer for their twitter feed calling her a cunt. That example is what I'm calling attention to.
 
You said "support this type of comedy" and I thought you were referring to the onion in general.

People who don't like the onion have no sense of humor.
 
I was discussing this with a buddy of mine who was outraged that people were outraged, and his take was, in comedy you should be able to say whatever your want, fuck people for getting bent out of shape with it. I felt a bit different. I think calling a 9 year old a cunt is pretty raw, not that funny, and rather tasteless. I reserve that term for Diane Feinstein, Hilary Clinton, Michele Bachmann, Michelle Malkin, and Pamela Gellar. Calling a 9 year old a cunt waters down the term that is appropriately applied to those ladies.

I've done a similar thing, where I tried to make a joke that more people found offensive than funny, so it's one of those things where you say/write it, see that the response isn't what you envisioned, and own up to it, remove it, and/or move on. The one I can think of was when I Facebook posted during the summer Olympics, "The Track and Field events- Fat, white women across the country are finally starting to give a shit about the Olympics." Apparently my fat, white jersey-chaser friends didn't think it was funny. My black female friends didn't think it was funny, and the only group that got a laugh out of it was my black male friends.

Obviously my Facebook stats aren't quite up to Onion Twitter Follower numbers, but it was a small reminder that in my world sometimes a joke that was funny to me, is pretty offensive to the majority.

To me, calling a kid a cunt, a crude name for female genitalia, mixes the ickiness of talking sexually about a child, with a word that lots of people would take great offense to when issued to an adult. Just not the best choice by the Onion.
 
[quote name='berzirk']I was discussing this with a buddy of mine who was outraged that people were outraged, and his take was, in comedy you should be able to say whatever your want, fuck people for getting bent out of shape with it.[/QUOTE]

I agree with this. The problem with the cunt tweet wasn't that it was offensive. The problem was that it wasn't funny.

Gilbert Gottfried got so much crap for his "I had a stop at the empire state building" joke. But that shit was funny.
 
[quote name='berzirk']I was discussing this with a buddy of mine who was outraged that people were outraged, and his take was, in comedy you should be able to say whatever your want, fuck people for getting bent out of shape with it. I felt a bit different. I think calling a 9 year old a cunt is pretty raw, not that funny, and rather tasteless. I reserve that term for Diane Feinstein, Hilary Clinton, Michele Bachmann, Michelle Malkin, and Pamela Gellar. Calling a 9 year old a cunt waters down the term that is appropriately applied to those ladies.

I've done a similar thing, where I tried to make a joke that more people found offensive than funny, so it's one of those things where you say/write it, see that the response isn't what you envisioned, and own up to it, remove it, and/or move on. The one I can think of was when I Facebook posted during the summer Olympics, "The Track and Field events- Fat, white women across the country are finally starting to give a shit about the Olympics." Apparently my fat, white jersey-chaser friends didn't think it was funny. My black female friends didn't think it was funny, and the only group that got a laugh out of it was my black male friends.

Obviously my Facebook stats aren't quite up to Onion Twitter Follower numbers, but it was a small reminder that in my world sometimes a joke that was funny to me, is pretty offensive to the majority.

To me, calling a kid a cunt, a crude name for female genitalia, mixes the ickiness of talking sexually about a child, with a word that lots of people would take great offense to when issued to an adult. Just not the best choice by the Onion.[/QUOTE]
While I don't completely agree with how you reach your conclusion, I agree with the conclusion itself, for the most part.

I've always thought of comedy as being a very fine art form and type of social commentary with the goal of provoking thought and challenging one's preconceived notions. Even some of the crudest jokes play on that and content aside, I think Andrew Dice Clay's nursery rhymes is a good example of the mechanics of it eventhough his delivery plays a large part.

You can't control how your audience is going to interpret your work, but I think it's important to treat the material with care as an artist. Not to say that the audience doesn't have a responsibility too because they should be thinking critically about the material that disarms them, hence the demise of Chappelle's Show. If someone is going to treat comedy as no-holds-barred, they'd better know what holds they're going to use, how they're used, and what they can do. Fat jokes about getting people motivated to watch sports is one thing; fat jokes at the expense of people with serious thyroid conditions not being able to walk up a flight of stairs as being lazy fat slobs is another. It's the difference between an artist and a hack.
 
I think "say whatever you want because it's comedy" just encourages weak ass writing and things that aren't jokes. See: Lisa Lampinelli.

For me that falls under the "I can call anything art because I'M AN ARTIST AND YOU ARE WRONG" mentality, which is why you get people chaining a dog to a pole and letting it starve to death and claiming it's a treatise on mortality.

Yeah, ok. I'm not so much offended with your "method" as I am just annoyed with your brazen, overwhelming need to justify your own stupid idea.
 
[quote name='Strell']I think "say whatever you want because it's comedy" just encourages weak ass writing and things that aren't jokes. See: Lisa Lampinelli.

For me that falls under the "I can call anything art because I'M AN ARTIST AND YOU ARE WRONG" mentality, which is why you get people chaining a dog to a pole and letting it starve to death and claiming it's a treatise on mortality.

Yeah, ok. I'm not so much offended with your "method" as I am just annoyed with your brazen, overwhelming need to justify your own stupid idea.[/QUOTE]

well strell, obviously the number one criteria is whether it's funny.

But yes, as long as its funny, you can say whatever you want.

Lisa Lampinelli is not funny at all. So she never even reaches the second step of judging whether it's ok to be offensive.
 
[quote name='confoosious']well strell, obviously the number one criteria is whether it's funny.[/QUOTE]

And in a Madagascar/Seth McFarlane/Lisa Lampinelli/Seth Rogan/Wil Ferrel/Wanderlust/Dane Cook/2 And a Half Men/Whitney Cummings world, no one seems to remember this. Just say cock a lot and talk about [insert stereotype] over and over, because COMEDY.

So again, it encourages shitty attempts at humor rather than humor. It's less an open ticket to Funnyville and more a gigantic excuse to be as pathetically raunchy as possible.

I'm not saying to drop that mentality. I'm saying it's bullshit, it's always been bullshit, and it will always be bullshit. It's lowest common denominator trash, and it's annoying to see that pandering across the goddamn board. If "offensive" was meant to be defined as "funny," then you'd spell it f-u-n-n-y. Instead, now we have a bunch of hacks crowded around the latest meme or overused gag, while dropping in a few rape or shit jokes.
 
[quote name='Strell']And in a Madagascar/Seth McFarlane/Lisa Lampinelli/Seth Rogan/Wil Ferrel/Wanderlust/Dane Cook/2 And a Half Men/Whitney Cummings world, no one seems to remember this. Just say cock a lot and talk about [insert stereotype] over and over, because COMEDY.

So again, it encourages shitty attempts at humor rather than humor. It's less an open ticket to Funnyville and more a gigantic excuse to be as pathetically raunchy as possible.

I'm not saying to drop that mentality. I'm saying it's bullshit, it's always been bullshit, and it will always be bullshit. It's lowest common denominator trash, and it's annoying to see that pandering across the goddamn board. If "offensive" was meant to be defined as "funny," then you'd spell it f-u-n-n-y. Instead, now we have a bunch of hacks crowded around the latest meme or overused gag, while dropping in a few rape or shit jokes.[/QUOTE]

Agree with just about every point there. I can't tell you how many open mics I've been to where the comedians just babbled about how much they love big titties or weed. Then the things they do when they're drunk, usually followed by stories about the drugs the town they're performing in are like. It's painfully pathetic. I haven't been to one in awhile, but I would guess the "Man, George Bush is stupid" bits have been replaced with "Obama is black so he'll do ____" jokes.

I've probably seen a couple hundred comedians perform live, and I'd estimate that 5 did acts with zero profanity. I'm not saying you should feel like cursing ruins a set, but if fuck is the punchline to everything, your first couple times using that word really take away the impact.
 
[quote name='Strell']And in a Madagascar/Seth McFarlane/Lisa Lampinelli/Seth Rogan/Wil Ferrel/Wanderlust/Dane Cook/2 And a Half Men/Whitney Cummings world, no one seems to remember this. Just say cock a lot and talk about [insert stereotype] over and over, because COMEDY.

So again, it encourages shitty attempts at humor rather than humor. It's less an open ticket to Funnyville and more a gigantic excuse to be as pathetically raunchy as possible.

I'm not saying to drop that mentality. I'm saying it's bullshit, it's always been bullshit, and it will always be bullshit. It's lowest common denominator trash, and it's annoying to see that pandering across the goddamn board. If "offensive" was meant to be defined as "funny," then you'd spell it f-u-n-n-y. Instead, now we have a bunch of hacks crowded around the latest meme or overused gag, while dropping in a few rape or shit jokes.[/QUOTE]


Such truth. It's so hard for me to find new comedy that I enjoy now. So much witless content these days... I mostly just cycle through older stuff when I want something funny.
 
[quote name='ID2006']Such truth. It's so hard for me to find new comedy that I enjoy now. So much witless content these days... I mostly just cycle through older stuff when I want something funny.[/QUOTE]

A few that I really like that are considered relatively new: Ryan Stout, Hannibal Burress, John Mulaney, Mike Birbiglia, Jasper Redd.
 
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Hannibal Burress seems legit. I need to get his full set. There's a comedy station here in Austin, and I've gotten to recognize his delivery and style.
 
[quote name='Strell']I'm not saying to drop that mentality. I'm saying it's bullshit, it's always been bullshit, and it will always be bullshit. It's lowest common denominator trash, and it's annoying to see that pandering across the goddamn board. If "offensive" was meant to be defined as "funny," then you'd spell it f-u-n-n-y. Instead, now we have a bunch of hacks crowded around the latest meme or overused gag, while dropping in a few rape or shit jokes.[/QUOTE]

I think that's the thing I found the most surprising about The Onion tweet. The sense of humor they've had has always struck me as being a little more intelligent. It's satire, and thus, designed to get you to laugh while making you think.

I don't know what they were supposed to be satirizing in that tweet, if it was just something lost in translation to a 140 character limit, but there was really nothing funny about it. It was just, "Hey, we used an offensive word to describe a kid, something you wouldn't expect. Isn't that hilarious?" There really wasn't any context, and thus no joke.

I'm undecided as to whether or not they needed to apologize, but I am glad the apology included them admitting that the joke just was not funny and had nothing to do with the satire they're known for.
 
[quote name='Cantatus']I don't know what they were supposed to be satirizing in that tweet, if it was just something lost in translation to a 140 character limit, but there was really nothing funny about it. It was just, "Hey, we used an offensive word to describe a kid, something you wouldn't expect. Isn't that hilarious?" There really wasn't any context, and thus no joke.[/QUOTE]
A charitable interpretation would be that they were satirizing our love of tearing down celebrities in general and female celebrities in particular by going after such an unexpected target with such seeming malice.

Or maybe it was just shock value. Dunno.
 
[quote name='Cantatus']
I don't know what they were supposed to be satirizing in that tweet, if it was just something lost in translation to a 140 character limit, but there was really nothing funny about it. It was just, "Hey, we used an offensive word to describe a kid, something you wouldn't expect. Isn't that hilarious?" There really wasn't any context, and thus no joke.

[/QUOTE]


Louis C.K milked that for a long time
 
[quote name='usickenme']Louis C.K milked that for a long time[/QUOTE]

He actually came to mind when I was writing my post, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was the type of sense of humor they were trying to emulate.. The thing is, though, there's more to his act than just saying, "My daughter is a fucking asshole!" and then looking at the audience and waiting for laughter. He usually provides some context, like, "Hey, if this was an adult doing this, we'd call them out on their crap, but since it's a kid, we don't."

And, to be completely honest, I do think The Onion could've made the joke funny if they turned it into an actual article. They just went offensive for a cheap laugh and pretty much got the reaction they deserved.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']A charitable interpretation would be that they were satirizing our love of tearing down celebrities in general and female celebrities in particular by going after such an unexpected target with such seeming malice.
[/QUOTE]
Because if she were an adult she would actually be a cunt. But she's a kid so she's just doing what kids do and it's cute.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']A charitable interpretation would be that they were satirizing our love of tearing down celebrities in general and female celebrities in particular by going after such an unexpected target with such seeming malice.

Or maybe it was just shock value. Dunno.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='Spokker']Because if she were an adult she would actually be a cunt. But she's a kid so she's just doing what kids do and it's cute.[/QUOTE]

No, Crotch is right and you're missing the point.

The Onion does not actually believe she's a Cunt. (Hell, they probably don't believe anything) Nor are you supposed to scrutnizing her behavior for possible "cuntiness."
The tweet really has nothing to do with Q (can't spell her name) specifically

It's just low-brow satire or just a cheap attempt and being shocking.
 
Really, the fact that you're taking the question seriously and debating the possibility
"Hmmm...is she a cunt?" Is the most stupid reaction ever.
 
[quote name='eldergamer']Really, the fact that you're taking the question seriously and debating the possibility
"Hmmm...is she a cunt?" Is the most stupid reaction ever.[/QUOTE]

I think you're being too generous here. What he's really saying is that this...
original.gif


...is actually cunt-ish behavior and if she was an adult, it'd be ok to call her out on it, but since she's just a kid, we can't.

In other words, he unironically agrees with the tweet. Honestly, I wish I were joking or being hyperbolic when I say this.
 
[quote name='Spokker']Because if she were an adult she would actually be a cunt. But she's a kid so she's just doing what kids do and it's cute.[/QUOTE]
Um. I guess this is another stupid and terrible attitude that they could also be parodying?
 
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