Hi everyone,
News is weird. When it’s weird enough, it reads like articles from The Onion, and that’s what we’re all about. But as the community grows, there’s more and more content being posted here that just isn’t very Onion-y.
Jimmy Carter Becomes Second President Convicted Of Felony For Sticking Up Waffle House
Take a look at that headline from The Onion today. Or this one:
World Series Of Poker Entrants Play One Hand Face-Up So Everyone Can Learn Rules
Or this one:
New Hormone-Free IUD Wards Off Sperm With Steady Emission Of Police-Grade Pepper Spray
That’s the flavor we’re going for. We want real, credible news articles with headlines that read like they’re from The Onion.
This is not the community for:
- Non-Onion-y political news (it’s gotta be absurd enough to look Onion-y)
- Non-Onion-y regular news (it’s gotta be absurd enough to look Onion-y)
- Satire (it’s gotta be actual news)
- Fake news from fly-by-night “news” sites (again, it’s gotta be actual news)
That means not every ridiculous thing a politician does qualifies as appropriate content here.
I need your help, though… I need people to report content that just isn’t Onion-y, and I need people to try not to post non-Onion-y content in the first place.
Finally, I need help moderating, so this is also a formal call for new mods! Post below if you think you’re ready to take on moderation for one of the larger Lemmy communities! Tell me why you’d like to mod, and link to a news story from any time (it doesn’t have to be current) that has a properly Onion-y headline, to show that you really get this community.
I’ll pick two people to become new moderators for the community from participants. Good luck!
This is not the community for … Non-Onion-y political news (it’s gotta be absurd enough to look Onion-y)
You know full well that so much political news is Onion-y now.
Maybe the Onionton Window has shifted.
I mean, I’m not gonna dispute that reality has been resembling The Onion more and more, but it’s important that the headlines convey that Onion-y goodness, and too many lately haven’t or are really borderline. People come here to say to themselves, “Holy shit, I can’t believe that’s a real headline!” Not “Holy shit… now I’m depressed. Oh, and that headline… is depressing.”
To be fair, I mainly commented above to use the phrase “Onionton Window.”
The idea behind this community should be that you think “wait, really? Is that serious or satire?” when you see the story. With all due respect, I disagree with some of the recent removals. Here are 4 examples:
- Removed Post Trump brands US a ‘fascist state’ in 40-minute rant amid wild scenes outside his Manhattan home
Did Trump accuse other people of fascism? That’s absurd because he’s a fascist.
- Removed Post Kansas Constitution does not include a right to vote, state Supreme Court majority says
This is lunacy, why would a constitution not guarantee basic rights? Reads like a joke about conservatives.
This one is close but it’s still hilarious because it’s a “pot calls kettle black” situation. It does utilize antisemetic tropes though.
Really? The school should be doing the opposite. It reads like a joke mocking out of touch boomers.
Granted, that’s maybe 4 of the 25 most recent removed posts but I think they all have Onion-y elements. I’d just advise caution, especially when you’re adding new mods who might not have much experience. I’m not saying you’re doing a bad job moderating but I’d be careful of caving to light pressure from users. I get bad reports all the time (the majority of reports I get as a mod are not accurate).
Edit: the thing about satire and humor is that it is subjective. Not everyone will think a joke is funny and not everyone will think satire is funny because they’ll claim it’s too close to reality.
Edit again: just for transparency, 2 of the 4 I’ve shared are my posts. I’ve had other posts deleted that were appropriate deletions. I don’t want this to come off as me bitching about my posts getting deleted.
A lot of these should be onion-y, but are not because the bar is so low. Trump being hypocritical? That’s to be expected. It can’t be onion-y because it doesn’t subvert expectations in any way.
Do these onion articles subvert any expectations?
https://www.theonion.com/advisors-assure-biden-this-will-blow-over-once-all-gaza-1851452315
https://www.theonion.com/new-florida-law-requires-all-women-to-produce-3-healthy-1851482288
https://www.theonion.com/trump-boys-attempt-to-bribe-juror-with-briefcase-full-o-1851509590
The 3 topics are: Trump’s team engages in bribery, Flrodia attacks women, and Biden allows the Gaza genocide. How do those things subvert expectations? Quite the opposite, they play off the obvious
Edit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or shaming the perceived flaws of individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement
Satire does not require subversion of expectations