# Piss Christ vs Onion article re Chris Brown beating Rihanna to death - Are these equivalent?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-christ-vs-onion-article-re-chris-brown-beating-rihanna-to-death-are-these-equivalent/658792>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 20, 2013, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-christ-vs-onion-article-re-chris-brown-beating-rihanna-to-death-are-these-equivalent/658792 "2013-05-20T05:13:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-christ-vs-onion-article-re-chris-brown-beating-rihanna-to-death-are-these-equivalent/658792/1 "2013-05-20T05:13:34Z")

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[Per this article](http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/05/chris_brown_onion_i_m_a_feminist_and_i_liked_the_onion_s_story_about_chris.html) the author makes the following assertion.

> [@](#):
>
> Would the reaction have been the same if the joke were about a conservative Republican congressman assaulting a young boy? Definitely not. Jokes are only “offensive” if they offend our particular political sensibilities. As my colleague Will Saletan points out: “It’s liberal prudery. You can soak a crucifix in urine because there’s a larger point to be made, but you can’t mix humor with domestic violence even when the point is blindingly obvious.” The anti-Onion reactions basically amount to: hide it, don’t mention it, keep it away from our delicate sensibilities. That’s the opposite of what comedy is designed to do. In fact, this item brings more attention to domestic violence that 100 earnest blog posts on the same subject ever could.

Are these equivalent pruderies?

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/piss-christ-vs-onion-article-re-chris-brown-beating-rihanna-to-death-are-these-equivalent/658792/2 "2013-05-20T09:10:44Z")

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No, they aren’t equivalent. Piss Christ was never an attempt to be humor. It was entirely social commentary. The Onion’s story involves humor and thus causes people to laugh at descriptions of the negative action.

A better comparison would have been something like South Park’s or Family Guy’s way of looking at religion. In fact, I think this exact joke could be used on either one of those.

And, note, I like South Park and only dislike Family Guy for the humor, not the offensiveness.