Opinions on The Onion

 Hi class, how are you. 

Me and Manaka explored the Onion last week. I have to say that my first impression on it that it was unclear. Paragraphs don't make sense, and every article seems to be "advanced". Later on, I figured out why:

You have to have a background knowledge of the news, and understand the context. 

In fact, the Onion publishes satirical/parody articles on actual news. They caricaturize political figures, or even mundane news and render it bizarre. 

After a while, I started enjoying reading some of the articles. Honestly speaking, some jokes aren't funny. They should work on their humor skills. But some made me laugh.

Interestingly, they also sold about 13 books in total. They keep their same ethos in the books as well.  

For instance, Our Dumb World: The Onion’s Atlas Of The Planet Earth (2007) is a book that caricaturizes every country in the world.

You can read a rough summary on wiki.  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Dumb_World

Here, the Onion caricaturizes all the existing countries, coining them an original stereotypical comment, some of which can be perceived as racist, or gone too far. But I understand that it is part of satire, and as long as everyone is made fun of, instead of discriminating a certain group, I think that it's fine. I also believe that comedy is also part of a healthy free/democratic discourse. 

So, don't be offended when reading the Onion's articles, or books published by them. It is a satire: something to laugh about. 

Peace,

Ken.