The Onion, a satire site that used to be popular before the creation of The Babylon Bee, raised eyebrows on Twitter after tweeting a joke about Disney’s Goofy murdering Florida governor, Ron DeSantis.
We’re not going to go over-the-top here and claim that this tweet is somehow dangerous or a serious threat.
Mostly, it’s just sort of dumb. There isn’t even a writeup to try to make it funnier – just the shock value photo and a caption.
This editor is a sucker for dark humor, so we’re not even going to deny that some will find it funny, but it’s pretty weak stuff.
We’ll give them props on the character choice though. If any Disney character is naïve enough to become a DeSantis-hating liberal loon, it’s Goofy. He’s just not all that bright.
What we will do is point out the enormous double standard that exists with this style of joke.
Imagine the response if The Babylon Bee ran a piece where Larry the Cucumber of VeggieTales emerged from retirement to bludgeon the President of the United States to death over his religious convictions about abortion. Do you think the left wing political class would take kindly to an image of Larry soaked in the blood of Joe Biden?
Let’s really drive this point home: What if a right wing publication made this type of joke about Zooey Zephyr? Oooh, you can hear them already spinning up the That’s Different Machine™, can’t you?
They banned The Babylon Bee from Twitter for 8 months for calling a man a man, so we’re pretty sure there would be outrage and congressional floor speeches calling for them to be shut down.
Would it still be funny if it said "Mr. Met beats AOC to death with crowbar"?
Or would that be called a thinly veiled threat? Maybe a transparently violent, misogynist fantasy made to agitate a radical element of the right to commit violence against their political enemies?
Hmm.. https://t.co/il4hWtZNnJ pic.twitter.com/Gyl5wTzBIJ— 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕤 (@ThomasMacIsaac3) April 29, 2023
We’re guessing you’re going to be waiting a while for an answer.
We all know the answer.
The same people who were outraged at @TheBabylonBee for telling the truth about “Rachel Levine” will have no problem with this Tweet from The Onion. https://t.co/dkR476mciE
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) April 28, 2023
The Onion has become jarringly unfunny.
At the heart of humor is a revealed truth, but woke is a lie, so it is humorless.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2023
The funny truth at the heart of The Babylon Bee’s Rachel Levine joke is that he is a man. Everyone knows he’s a man. You’re just not supposed to say it. A lot of people can play along with that humor.
The funny ‘truth’ at the heart The Onion’s piece is that Ron DeSantis is worthy of death. You’re just not supposed to say it. A lot fewer people are debased enough in their politics to be willing to play along with that ‘humor’.
That’s the real travesty here. The Onion is now where funny goes to die.
They used to be so much funnier. When you truly hate the target of your punchlines, it just doesn’t come off very well, and you end up with junk like this that has limited reach … to weirdos.
*waves cane*
I'm old enough to remember when @TheOnion was funny! https://t.co/6CIeLFbpiq— Sensurround (@BBC_dip) April 29, 2023
Same, girl.
Imagine how many people had to sign off on this. https://t.co/5B3X82srBE
— Brandon Hannibal Donkey (@bhdonkey1) April 29, 2023
Enough people that somebody should have said, ‘yeah, it’s edgy, but it’s just sort of dumb’.
It’s hard trying to explain to a teenager that The Onion, like Saturday Night Live, was once cutting-edge comedy.
I feel ancient. 👵🏼 https://t.co/lt4bCZX7Iq pic.twitter.com/QIbd8j3m8R— Amygator 🐊 *not an actual alligator (@AmyA1A) April 29, 2023
Kids these days don’t know what they’re missing. (Yeah, we’re ancient too.)
Oh look, the left is joking about murdering Republicans again. Gross. https://t.co/fPFWGTpxAK
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) April 28, 2023
‘We take a break from our regularly scheduled accusations that Republicans want to kill women, trans people, and children to fantasize about Disney characters killing Republicans.’
Modern SNL energy
— Angela McArdle (@angela4LNCChair) April 28, 2023
Perfect summary.
You can watch SNL and it might get you to ‘heh’, but it ain’t gonna get you to ‘lol’. That’s what The Onion has become.
— Peekaso (@peekaso) April 28, 2023
It was a lazy attempt though. The Onion is basically just phoning it in these days.
I used to laugh at your stuff a long time ago.
Now you are boring.
— NorthernChuck (@FroidEtCold) April 29, 2023
arent yall supposed to be funny? I can forgive cruel, but i cant forgive unfunny 🤦🏽♂️
— God over politics (@godoverpolitics) April 28, 2023
This seemed to be the sentiment of many: ‘It just ain’t funny, dude.’
The Onion: "Please laugh."
— Cuddles of Cthulu (@tweetofcthulu) April 29, 2023
The Jeb Bush of satire. Ouch. LOL.
Well, we know who @KathieLGifford writes for now.
— Ben Jamin (@BenjaminHawth17) April 28, 2023
LOLOLOL! This is unintentionally funnier than The Onion.
I blocked 73 blue checks on this one tweet alone. Amazing.
— Chinese Spy Balloon Boy MD, CVA, FACFO, DAVCD (@Antilinguistic) April 28, 2023
Okay, we did find this sort of funny too. So many left wing accounts were bragging about how much time they spent blocking people.
Tell us you need a better hobby without telling us you need a better hobby.
Going for that Kathy Griffin level ACCOMPLISHMENT trophy
Huh
— Marc Escens (@Marc_Escens) April 28, 2023
Congratulations, Onion, you’ve become the Kathy Griffin of internet satire websites.
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