this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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The Onion
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Almost bought it. If they had called it a new bill, "introduced" or some such, instead of "law" it would be perfectly feasible.
The comment section saves me once again.
That's antithetical to satire.
What y'all experienced, in this headline, is The Onion fucking up. They picked a lie that's believable. Satire has to reach further than that, no matter how broken reality gets.
"Eating the onion" came from dipshits with zero media literacy believing the dumbest shit imaginable. Like "teenage girl to be tried as adult black man." If a bunch of reasonably savvy people have to check whether a satirical headline is real - that headline sucks. It has failed, as satire.
Comedy is selecting a lie your audience knows is not true. If half of them are going 'wait, really?' - revise.
Trouble is, no matter how ridiculous the scenario they dream up, current reality still makes it entirely believable.
People, I gave examples like three comments down.