Trump Voter Feels Betrayed By President After Reading 800 Pages Of Queer Theory. Important commentary and funny at the same time.
Second place goes to Memorial Honors Victims Of Imminent Dam Disaster.
What’s the actual joke here? It sounds like it’s almost mocking trans literature by how complex it is to understand for the average american. Is that it?
I think that mainly mocks the idea that if only people talked to each other more, communicated with each other more, tried to see things from the others’ perspective, then everything would be great and everyone would arrive at a common conclusion.
It’s unrealistic to expect people to judge your message on the merits of your argument if you’re not taking the time to translate it into a language they speak.
Not really interested in making an argument to whether it’s fair to apply this caricature here, but that’s definitely the message here.
Thank you, it just clicked for me now
The Onion does something really clever: they simply show what the world would be like if feminists actually succeeded in convincing people with their arguments. The end result is comically bizarre and obviously extremely unlikely. The joke/criticism is how disconnected feminists are from the real world with their overly complicated, academic and abstract language, despite the fact that they ostensibly have a goal of influencing ordinary people into being better.
I’ve had this beef for a long time with feminists: they lack empathy and insight into the actual lived experience of the people they want to convince. They’re caught up in an authoritarian, entitled worldview where they imagine they can just coerce others into becoming better through force and shaming, using language that is so far above most people’s heads that it all just seems imaginary. Whenever I try to raise these concerns I am met with hate and am called a misogynist even though my intentions are to help. They have virtually no ability to listen. There are exceptions, but they are drowned out among all the (in my opinion) misguided people.
The end result is comically bizarre and obviously extremely unlikely. The joke/criticism is how disconnected feminists are from the real world with their overly complicated, academic and abstract language, despite the fact that they ostensibly have a goal of influencing ordinary people into being better.
The goal of feminism is gender equality. That is to reduce the authority men have over women (and in some cases vice versa). Part of that may be to influence people toward being kinder and more understanding towards others. But another part of that might be a deeper and more complex understanding of how gender functions in society.
Think about it this way… Just because Einstein’s theory of special relativity is complicated and not well understood by most people doesn’t make the theory of special relativity incorrect. But for some reason in the social sciences you can make the argument that a theory is too complicated and therefore wrong and some people will think that argument makes sense. The theory being complicated is obviously not an argument against the theory of special relativity or Judith Butlers theories on gender.
I do find this skit funny but I think the joke is one layer deeper. I think the joke is something along the lines of this Upton Sinclair quote:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it. ―Upton Sinclair
That is men benefit from the status quo of gender relations therefore men have a certain subjectivity that we expect from them that resists thinking critically about their own position in gendered hierarchy. Seeing (especially working class) men break from that subjectivity breaks expectations and the result is humor.
Thanks for clarifying. It does feel like they’re punching down a little, but its a good commentary nonetheless.
“Punching down” is in the eye of the beholder, and kind of supports my point about having empathy in the way you speak. I guarantee that steel workers feel like they got the short end of the stick in life, and that feminist academia is the elite.
I wouldn’t generalise it so black and white, but I do hear what you are saying.
I’m just gonna leave this here with no further content…
“Sony Releases Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn’t Fucking Work”
to this day I still occasionally mutter “it never ends, this shit…”
Surprised no one has posted:
“This is America. Nobody deserves to be treated as a black man” holy fuckin shit.
Sony Releases Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn’t Fucking Work. Replace by Sony by Apple and it still fits perfectly.
The MacBook wheel comes closest
Everything is just a few hundred clicks away.
We will be watching to see if it catches on in the business world where people have to accomplish things rather than just dicking around.
“I’ll buy anything that’s shiny and comes from Apple” 👌
The wheel. Reinvented.
God, I fucking love you, Onion…
I know about it only because someone dubbed it in Polish many years ago
I love the entire “Autistic Reporter” Series for some reason lol
How do I go to prison??
The one about the memorial built in advance for a damn disaster that they all saw coming but did nothing about, except for the memorial of the future victims.
This disaster will have been preventable. All of the warning signs are here now. Yet, no one will have fucking done anything about it.
Prague’s Kafka International Named Most Alienating Airport
And a ‘from-16-years-back’ broadside at the US approaching November:
honorable mention to New Marijuana Study Confirms Everyone Knows You’re High And You Will Be Stoned Forever
because when this was originally uploaded on their website it would play a slightly different version every time you opened the page. So you’d laugh and show your friends, so then even if your (allegedly) stoner ass hadn’t gotten tripped out the first time, while they’re watching it and laughing you’d start sweating.
Second honorable mention to “Is The Government Spying on Schizophrenics Enough?” But I’m honestly still not sure that one’s totally okay, even if I still laugh every single time I watch it. I’m not that type of mentally ill but have had people close to me who struggle enough with it and the very nature of the disorder is such that even though I laugh I’ve always at the same time felt it treads very much on the line.
Oldie but a goldie; Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere
It’s just so amazingly on point
The “post office box” sketch:
I love this one. I sometimes fit “post office box” into sentences just to say it the way Duncan does.
Side note, I saw Duncan’s actor in an episode of Always Sunny a few years ago and it was lovely seeing him. He’s probably my favorite from ONN. The segment about Nigeria where he accidentally reads about Niger is a phenomenal use of visual comedy
I like the Taliban guy telling the 911 conspiracy guy that 911 was real.
