# Look what showed up in my mail today. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 13, 2000, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-what-showed-up-in-my-mail-today/29169 "2000-08-13T05:15:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-what-showed-up-in-my-mail-today/29169/1 "2000-08-13T05:15:15Z")
I got this in Email today: > [@](#): > > -------------------- In the Spotlight ------------------- > > HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAIN OF FOOLS > You’ve no doubt already heard that the Harry Potter books are under attack by wannabe censors who object to the “occult” content of the stories, but get a load of this chain email that quotes children saying that the books taught them that ‘Jesus died because He was weak and stupid’ and ‘the Bible is nothing but boring lies!’ [http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa080900a.htm](http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa080900a.htm) Oh. My. God. If someone actually believes that, they deserve to be struck dead. As soon as I saw > [@](#): > > ‘Jesus died because He was weak and stupid’ and ‘the Bible is nothing but boring lies!’ My brain goes _ping!_ The Onion! Go read the article. Fuckin’ idiots. –Tim ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-what-showed-up-in-my-mail-today/29169/2 "2000-08-13T08:05:26Z")
Holy flurking motherfucking mungshot boner with a layer of crusty cunt mildew… Some dipshit actually used the Onion as proof for their cause?!?!? It is official. People are stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Feynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@Feynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feynn)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-what-showed-up-in-my-mail-today/29169/3 "2000-08-13T13:55:12Z")
I used to play Dungeons and Dragons and didn’t hide what I was doing with my Friday nights with anyone much to the “delight” of my Christian friends. They would usually start by saying: “People who play that have gone and killed their families you know.” I couldn’t tell them to fuck off but how stupid can people be, really? We had a rule that if you played with us and then went and murdered your family you would be out of the game. We didn’t have any problems at all. Now I am worried, everyone around here is reading about the little spawn of Satan (Harry Potter). I better keep the anilmals and virgins locked up so that they don’t end up being used in some sacrificial ritual… ---
**Author:** ![Gomez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d78d45/32.png) [@Gomez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gomez)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-what-showed-up-in-my-mail-today/29169/4 "2000-08-13T14:12:27Z")
He fell for something in the ONION?!?!? What the FUCK?!?!? - That guy can VOTE, scary thought. ---
**Author:** ![Monster104](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Monster104](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monster104)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-what-showed-up-in-my-mail-today/29169/5 "2000-08-13T15:55:37Z")
It scares me that someone relied on The Onion as a legitimate news source…has anyone e-mailed them yet? They might get a kick out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-what-showed-up-in-my-mail-today/29169/6 "2000-08-13T16:26:16Z")
Could that email be a spoof, too? I certainly hope so. I guess the scary part is that even if the email is a joke, that some people will take it seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-what-showed-up-in-my-mail-today/29169/7 "2000-08-13T18:03:52Z")
Here’s the original Onion link for those who don’t want to wade through the 3 pages of [About.com](http://About.com) [http://www.theonion.com/onion3625/harry\_potter.html](http://www.theonion.com/onion3625/harry_potter.html) Their masthead does say “America’s Finest News Source”, and there are people out there who really don’t “get” satire, who might stumble onto the website and just sincerely not realize that it was meant as a joke. Some people would think nothing of headlines like “Republicans’ ‘Diversity Through Imported Africans’ Plan Criticized” (they’re going to import 10 million “strong-backed West Africans”), or “Visiting Gore calls Pennsylvania a ‘hellhole’”, not to mention the article reporting the appearance before Congress of a coalition of video game characters, protesting the presence of spinning blades in nearly all video games. FWIW, I thought the e-mail looked sincere. Scary thought, I know, but there are people like that out there. ---
**Author:** ![sirdiesel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@sirdiesel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sirdiesel)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-what-showed-up-in-my-mail-today/29169/8 "2000-08-13T23:07:26Z")
::Puts down anti-randomly-placed swinging blades petition:: I knew it was a joke all along… ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-what-showed-up-in-my-mail-today/29169/9 "2000-08-14T02:06:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Feynn \* > \*\*We had a rule that if you played with us and then went and murdered your family you would be out of the game. \*\* Does anyone know a good method of cleaning Mountain Dew out from between the keys on my keyboard? If not, then Feynn, you owe me. I rarely spew, and your one-liner did it. It’s your fault. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-what-showed-up-in-my-mail-today/29169/10 "2000-08-14T03:39:13Z")
No cites here, but this is not the first time that somebody has been dense enough to cite the Onion seriously; I know that a British paper did it at sometime, although I do not know what about.