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In Which #TheOnion Twitter Account Calls 9 Year Old Quvenzhané Wallis the C-Word

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JamesWI2/25/2013 11:23:57 am PST

re: #20 Vicious Babushka

There is no humor NONE WHATSOEVER in using the c-word, I can’t even…I can’t imagine anyone trying to defend this.

Is it OK to call somebody the N-word as long as it’s a white man.

This was a CHILD.

NO. EXCUSE.

re: #26 CuriousLurker

I can’t. Would you feel the same if they’d said that about your daughter or your little sister or your niece? Somehow I doubt it.

Can either of you point to the part of my comment where I actually defended the joke? Where I said it was acceptable?

No?

What I SAID was that I’m not joining in on the need for heads to roll over a satirical publication making a bad joke that crossed the line. An apology is certainly called for (and apparently they’ve done that now.)

The Onion traffics in transgressive humor: pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable. When transgressive humor works, it really works. That’s the reason why, when people come up with lists of the best comedians of all time, most of them are people that many would consider extremely offensive (Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Louis C.K (who had his own c-word controversy about Sarah Palin, I believe)). When you think of some of the best pieces the Onion has run, you think of jokes that make you cringe a little, before you laugh your ass off. But when they fail, it’s not like a normal comedian telling a bad joke- it crosses the line into truly offensive.

If we start calling for jobs every time a transgressive comedian (or comedy organization) crosses the line, it’s true that we probably would get less terrible “jokes” like this one, which would be a good thing. However, we’d also get less of the good stuff, because if crossing the line means you get fired, writers will be afraid to push the boundaries at all. Then we’ll have the Jay Leno version of the Onion…..never offending anyone….and never making anyone under the age of 70 laugh.