While I haven’t read all of it yet, I think the writers did a good job.
The best story I’ve read was God Angrily Clarifies “Don’t Kill” Rule; it was exceptional.
Two of the headlines on the left side had a lot of truth to them. One was: Jerry Falwell: Is That Guy A Dick Or What? The other was: Massive Attack On Pentagon Page 14 News.
I think the one about the Pentagon is especially true. I know that more people in the WTC died, but it doesn’t make the deaths at the Pentagon any less sad. I think the news has been guilty of kind of forgetting about the Pentagon attack.
Anyway, back to the new issue, what’s everyone think?
I thought it was decent, although that whole “talking to your kids about the tragedy” article either went right over my head or didn’t have a single ounce of humor in it. Explanation, please?
It’s funny and poignant all the way through. American Life Turns Into Bad Jerry Bruckheimer Movie is pretty much exactly what I’ve been feeling for two weeks. I kind of got a little lumpy in the throat at the end of the “God” and “Cake” articles, too.
Jesus Christ, I’m not sitting here crying at the freakin’ Onion am I? I mean, sure it’s appropriate, but…Jesus Christ, man. This is all good stuff, but it just reminds me how much better things haven’t gotten.
I think the idea is that the explanation is complex and detailed, unlike most “What should you tell your children about a tragedy” stories, which are usually “Somebody did a bad thing, but mommy and daddy won’t let anyone hurt you”
Erm. My take on that one (gosh it seems to take all the fun out of it, trying to explain jokes) was that there really isn’t any way to reduce the language needed to explain this to the level of a child.
It illustrated this by instructing us to explain it to the child as one would to an adult, and then showed itself up by closing with Hopefully, though, the above will serve as a start, helping your child better understand why the bad men did this terrible thing.
Holy [F Word]ing [S Word]! How did they know exactly what I was thinking? :D:D:D:D
Save this page and everything on it, folks…the good folks at The Onion have come up with an effort for the ages. It’s incredible that they pulled it off at all, but to so effectively skewer all the ridiculous hoopla that’s surrounded these attacks (incluiding the marginalizing of the Pentagon attack), and to do it, yes, tastefully, was just masterful.
If this site ever gets into financial trouble, I would gladly pay a monthly subscription to keep it going. I tell ya, this is too good to give up.
Oh yeah, and thanks for the measured responses. Please, keep 'em coming!
Oh, thanks for the clarification, guys. I’m dense sometimes. Usually, even. Funny thing is, the explanations they offered are pretty close to what I actually did tell my kids about it. Which means I give my kids too much credit or I’m just bad at simplifying things.
I especially liked the more “reasoned” response, which includes:
No, of course I don’t agree that we want an “armageddon”, (and I’m sure the Onion doesn’t either, not really!) But the way the “reasonable” counterpoint was written just cracked me up.
I like this article. Its exactly what I felt about the dickheads at the controls of the aircraft.
I didn’t really know what the Onion was going to come up with after such an immense tragedy. Tasteful, poignant while still amusing.
Wonderful. The Onion has outdone themselves. While remaining true to their mission (poking merciless fun at everything there is), they’ve managed to do it without dishonor to the dead, and with some words that are apt and, for pete’s sake, almost poetic.
I was in a few tears while reading “American Life Turns Into Bad Jerry Bruckheimer Movie.” I mean, who cries reading The Onion? And “God Angrily Clarifies ‘Don’t Kill’ Rule” was pretty nearly beautiful.
I must admit there have been past Onion’s I’ve found more funny (the election one from November last year comes to mind), but I think that this Onion is everything it needs to be. It’s both ironic and very earnest, and I don’t think anyone could say they’re being insensitive to the tragedy.
I can’t seem to get the Onion to load any of the stories here at work - I wish I could. But I thought it a rather odd coincidence that today’s calendar page from the Onion’s “Our Dumb Century” calendar is the moon landing headline “HOLY SHIT”.
What I thought was beautiful about ‘what to tell your kids’ was that a lot of adults don’t really understand all the factors either; I’m sure a lot of people learned something reading it.
I especially enjoyed the man-on-the-street interviews… so much so that I’ve added one of them to my sig. It’s a nice summation of trying to balance sanity with the awful pain of what happened.
I love it. I LOVE IT. I want to keep it right next to my Commemorative Sun Times
“Hugging Up 76,000 Percent”
and to me personally, I laughed out loud at
“Nation Feels Temporary Affection for New York”
I’ve NEVER liked New York. In fact, I’ll be honest, I hate it…but for the past two weeks I’ve been screaming I HEART NEW YORK at every f-ing sporting event. Wild.
I think that was on Public Access cable. And, while that’s what I assumed they meant to write, they actually typoed it so it says “Extremely Uniformed Debate,” which I guess could legitimately refer to the military role in all this.
I’m still having trouble with some of the pages (I think only about half of the God story loaded for me and then it stalled) but I absolutely love the “On TV Tonight” section.
My favorites there are 8:00, NBC, “A Nation Looks Around for Someone to Hit,” and the CBS Dan Rather saga, and MTV’s “Carson Daly in Way Over His Head.” I also dig the 10:00pm NBC listing, which is nicely sprinkled with profanity, same with Animal Planet’s zebra footage.