# Explain Wonkette to me

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-wonkette-to-me/444792>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 10, 2008, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-wonkette-to-me/444792 "2008-04-10T19:30:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-wonkette-to-me/444792/1 "2008-04-10T19:30:31Z")

</div>

I thought about where to put this, but since the blog is ostensibly political and the example I’ve chosen is political, I put it here. Please move if another place would be more appropriate.

So, I’ve been reading wonkette for a few days, just to see if I would like it, and I think there is a joke, or something, that I am not getting.

It seems like every third post or so is this odd, heavy-handed sarcasm but at the root I feel like the author believes the point which the words are making. Does that make sense?

[Here’s an example about Oprah](http://wonkette.com/378359/how-barack-obama-ruined-oprahs-career):

> [@](#):
>
> Thanks to her support for Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey is now one of the most reviled women in America. In her presidential endorsement the once-beloved talk show host chose race over gender, thus earning the scorn of millions of old white women who had never before suspected their favorite billionaire media baroness was of the Negro persuasion. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, Oprah’s popularity has eroded considerably.
> 
> Once, a whopping 74 percent of Americans liked her. By December of 2007, a month she spent shilling for Obama, her favorability ratings sunk to around 55 percent — about on par with Adolf Hitler shortly after he was found raping a crippled baby in a Minneapolis airport men’s room.
> 
> Even worse, Oprah’s core of support is now fleeing to a LESBIAN for comfort. Nearly half of the people who participated in an AOL Television popularity poll said that Ellen DeGeneres was the daytime talk show host who “made their day.” A measly 19 percent chose Oprah. Most people also said that they would prefer to dine with Ellen over lecturey old Oprah.
> 
> This is what she gets for having political opinions.

What’s the deal with this? And why does it seem to turn up in stories focused on Obama?

Or (as I would readily admit) am I misreading the irony as multilayered when it is really just heavy-handed sarcasm?

Any help from someone with more reading experience (on this blog and in general) would be welcome. My guess is that it’s some kind of long-running in-joke that I’m not familiar with.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-wonkette-to-me/444792/2 "2008-04-10T19:37:09Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=stolichnaya]  
Or (as I would readily admit) am I misreading the irony as multilayered when it is really just heavy-handed sarcasm?  
[/QUOTE]

Yup.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-wonkette-to-me/444792/3 "2008-04-10T20:13:52Z")

</div>

Thanks!

Worst. Thread. Ever.