By Anindita Basu
The Onion provides a humorous version of "news" online.
The site is set up like most news sites, from cnn.com to nytimes.com.
There is a banner ad at the top, a few featured stories and then links
to other major news. The side bars contain links to other categories
of news, from movie reviews to international news. The Onion is available
in print, as well, through some national chain stores like Barnes
& Noble.
Much of The Onion's humor comes from the apparent seriousness of the
reporting. Trivial matters make the front page news in articles such
as "Pre-Teen Moves From Giggling-At-Everything Phase To Never-Smiling
Phase." Other "major" news stories read like articles
that can be found in news journals, except some essential fact has
been changed. Today's Onion features an article about how Nigeria
just elected a black president. The details of the article could have
been excerpted from an article about the new Bush administration with
the similar language regarding race and diversity in the newly elected
president's cabinet. The humor comes from switching contexts and hearing
the same language in a new, bizarre way.
While The Onion has some completely strange and off-the-wall articles,
it is mainly entertaining for making fun of News the Institution.
The generally sensationalistic stories are taken a few steps further,
or extremely trivial matters are sensationalized. Popular phrases
are repeated out of context or in changed contexts. All of this is
done "with a straight face," which mocks News even more.
Major news networks report with a certain language and sensationalism
that is taken seriously. The Onion's mock seriousness and ridiculous
content strips much of the projected value of the "real"
news, revealing through parody how empty the news can be.